Nurses’ work demands and work-family conflict: A questionnaire survey

Abstract Background: Work-family conflict is a type of interrole conflict that occurs as a result of incompatible role pressures from the work and family domains. Work role characteristics that are associated with work demands refer to pressures arising from excessive workload and time pressures. Literature suggests that work demands such as number of hours worked, workload, shift work are positively associated with work-family conflict, which, in turn is related to poor mental health and negative organizational attitudes. The role of social support has been an issue of debate in the literature. This study examined social support both as a moderator and a main effect in the relationship among work demands, work-to-family conflict, and satisfaction with job and life. Objectives: This study examined the extent to which work demands (i.e., work overload, irregular work schedules, long hours of work and overtime work) were related to work-to-family conflict as well as life and job satisfaction of nurses in Turkey. The role of supervisory support in the relationship among work demands, work-to-family conflict, and satisfaction with job and life was also investigated. Design and methods: The sample was comprised of 243 participants: 106 academic nurses (43.6%) and 137 clinical nurses (56.4%). All of the respondents were female. The research instrument was a questionnaire comprising nine parts. The variables were measured under four categories: work demands, work support (i.e., supervisory support), work-to-family conflict and its outcomes (i.e., life and job satisfaction). Results: The structural equation modeling results showed that work overload and irregular work schedules were the significant predictors of work-to-family conflict and that work-to-family conflict was associated with lower job and life satisfaction. Moderated multiple regression analyses showed that social support from the supervisor did not moderate the relationships among work demands, work-to-family conflict, and satisfaction with job and life. Exploratory analyses suggested that social support could be best conceptualized as the main effect directly influencing work-to-family conflict and job satisfaction. Conclusion: Nurses' psychological well-being and organizational attitudes could be enhanced by rearranging work conditions to reduce excessive workload and irregular work schedule. Also, leadership development programs should be implemented to increase the instrumental and emotional support of the supervisors.

Leadership, Governance and Strategy An Overlooked Connection: Work Design Quality and Leadership Intention

The present study investigated whether there is a connection between employees’ perceived work design quality and their intention for a possible leadership position at their current organization. The mediating role of worries about leadership and the moderating role of motivation to lead were also examined. The results showed that there is a positive relationship between work design and leadership intention: as employees’ work design quality increases, their intention to be a leader at the current organization increases correspondingly. However, the mediation effect of worries about leadership and the moderation effect of motivation to lead were not significant. Results showed the importance of employee work design for maintaining effective leader candidate pools

Staffing effectiveness across countries:An institutional perspective

This study draws on institutional theory to investigate why and how staffing effectiveness varies across countries. Utilising data from multiple sources (Cranfield Network on Comparative Human Resource Management [CRANET], Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness [GLOBE], World Economic Forum [WEF], Transparency International, Tightness-Looseness Index), it covers 2,918 organisations in 11 countries. Extending earlier research on comparative staffing that focuses on cultural or regulatory differences separately, our findings show that companies in different countries implement staffing practices in line with their normative (i.e., cultural), regulatory, and cognitive institutions. A second key finding shows that institutionally embedded staffing practices are associated with organisational turnover, thus challenging dominant universalist perspectives on staffing effectiveness. Finally, we shed light on a central yet understudied boundary condition of contextual perspectives on staffing by identifying the strength of institutional pressures (i.e., societal tightness-looseness) as a moderator of the relationships between national institutions, staffing, and turnover

The effectiveness of the ketogenic diet in drug-resistant childhood epilepsy

2nd International Behcet Uz Children's Congress -- MAR 04-07, 2020 -- Izmir, TURKEYBackground. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of ketogenic diet (KD) in children with various types of refractory epilepsy. Methods. A total of 91 children (49 females) aged 3 to 193 months (median, 52 months) with drug resistant epilepsy who received KD treatment for at least 12 months were enrolled in the study. Seizure frequency, adherence to diet, reason for discontinuation of KD, and adverse effects were recorded. Response was defined as >= 50% improvement in seizure frequency compared to baseline. We also searched for influences of different variables on the outcome. Results. Intent-to-treat analysis revealed an improvement in seizure frequency for >= 50% in 73.6%, 80.2%, 75.8%, 73.6%, and 70.3% of patients at month-1,-3,-6,-9, and month-12, respectively. Overall, 32 (35.2%) patients remained seizure-free at month-12. There was no significant differences between responders and non responders in terms of age at onset of epilepsy, age at onset of KD, gender, or etiology. Mild hyperlipidemia was associated with a higher response rate. At the last follow-up (median: 20 months), 38 (41.8%) patients were still maintained on KD. While 15.4% of patients completed the diet with a success in seizure control, remainder discontinued KD due to lack of efficacy (23.1%), non-adharence to diet (11%), intercurrent infection (4.4%), adverse effects (3.3%), and death (1.1%). Conclusion. Ketogenic diet treatment appears to be effective in about two-thirds of children with various types of drug-resistant epilepsy, including one-third remaining seizure free. Mild hyperlipidemia seems to be associated with a higher response rate. Discontinuation of KD is mostly due to lack of efficacy or nonadherence, and rarely side effects

Celiac disease and autoimmune thyroid disease in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus: clinical and HLA-genotyping results

Objective: Increased prevalence of celiac disease (CD) and autoimmune thyroid disorders (ATD) in patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) has been widely reported. Such an association may lead to adverse effects on the growth, bone metabolism and fertility, and response to therapy may become difficult. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical findings and HLA typing results in patients with T1D associated with CD or ATD. Methods: The association of CD and ATD was evaluated in 38 children with T1D aged 1.5-16.8 years who had been followed for 48.3±28 months. Diagnosis of CD was based on positivity for serum endomysial IgA antibody and histopathological findings of intestinal biopsy specimens. Thyroid autoimmunity was assessed by antithyroglobulin and antithyroid peroxidase antibodies and with diagnostic ultrasonographic findings. Results: ATD was detected in 31.5%, and CD-in 7.8% of T1D patients. Subjects with CD showed either no symptoms or suggestive problems such as short stature, hepatosteatosis, pubertal delay and difficulties in the control of diabetes. Patients with ATD had no clinical symptoms. DQ8 was the most prominent finding in CD. Conclusions: It is essential that patients with T1D, regardless of presence or absence of symptoms, should be investigated for CD and ATD

Evaluation of new Beckman Coulter 25(OH) Vitamin D assay and potential improvement of clinical interpretation

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to assess the analytical performances of the newly developed Access2 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) total immunoassay on two analysers, DxI800 and Access2 (Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA), and compare these two and a recalibrated Modular E 170 25(OH)D assay (Roche Diagnostics, Penzberg, Germany) with reference liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with special emphasis on clinical diagnosis. Materials and methodsBeckman immunoassays were assessed for imprecision, accuracy, limit of blank (LoB), limit of detection (LoD), limit of quantitation (LoQ), linearity, interference, and carryover. One hundred and nineteen samples were run on DxI 800, Access2, and E 170, and agreement with the LC-MS/MS method was evaluated. ResultsDxI 800 and Access2 assays showed good performances in terms of LoB, LoD, LoQ, linearity, and interference. All immunoassays showed negative biases ranging from - 8.6% (DxI 800) to - 19.2% (Access2). DxI 800 and Access2 systems had proportional biases, and the E170 system had a constant bias with the largest random error. Concordance correlation coefficient values ranged from 0.941 (CI: 0.917–0.958) for DxI800 to 0.854 (CI: 0.811–0.889) for Access2. Kappa (κ) coefficients were found moderate for Dxl (0.709; CI: 0.581–0.837) and E170 (0.771; CI: 0.587–0.844) and fair for Access2 (0.572; CI: 0.428–0.716). ConclusionsAll immunoassays can be used in routine 25(OH)D measurements, still fairly diagnosing patients’ status. Recent standardization attempts seem not to contribute too much to clinical diagnosis. A clinical laboratory must at least be aware of its method to avoid misinterpretation of results

Clinical characteristics and growth hormone treatment in patients with prader-willi syndrome

Objective: To investigate clinical characteristics and response to growth hormone (GH) treatment in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) in Turkey. Methods: The data of 52 PWS patients from ten centers was retrospectively analyzed. A nation-wide, web-based data system was used for data collection. Demographic, clinical, genetic, and laboratory data and follow-up information of the patients were evaluated. Results: The median age of patients at presentation was 1.5 years, and 50% were females. Genetic analysis showed microdeletion in 69.2%, uniparental disomy in 11.5%, imprinting defect in 1.9% and methylation abnormality in 17.3%. Hypotonia (55.7%), feeding difficulties (36.5%) and obesity (30.7%) were the most common complaints. Cryptorchidism and micropenis were present in 69.2% and 15.3% of males, respectively. At presentation, 25% had short stature, 44.2% were obese, 9.6% were overweight and 17.3% were underweight. Median age of obese patients was significantly higher than underweight patients. Central hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency were present in 30.7% and 4.7%, respectively. Hypogonadism was present in 75% at normal age of puberty. GH treatment was started in 40% at a mean age of 4.7±2.7 years. After two years of GH treatment, a significant increase in height SDS was observed. However, body mass index (BMI) standard deviation (SDS) remained unchanged. Conclusion: The most frequent complaints were hypotonia and feeding difficulty at first presentation. Obesity was the initial finding in 44.2%. GH treatment was started in less than half of the patients. While GH treatment significantly increased height SDS, BMI SDS remained unchanged, possibly due to the relatively older age at GH start. Keywords: Prader-Willi syndrome, endocrine dysfunction, growth hormone treatment, body compositio

Cultural orientations and preference for HRM policies and practices:the case of Oman

This study empirically examines the influence of cultural orientations on employee preferences of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices in Oman. Data were collected from 712 employees working in six large Omani organizations. The findings indicate that there is a number of differences among Omani employees regarding value orientations due especially to age, education and work experience. The findings show a strong orientation towards mastery, harmony, thinking and doing, and a weak orientation towards hierarchy, collectivism, subjugation and human nature-as-evil. The results demonstrate a clear link between value orientations and preferences for particular HRM policies and practices. Group-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those who scored high on collectivism and being orientations, and those who scored low on thinking and doing orientations. Hierarchy-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those scoring high on hierarchy, subjugation and human nature-as-bad orientations, and those scoring low on thinking and mastery orientations. Finally, preference for loose and informal HRM practices was positively associated with being, and negatively associated with thinking, doing and harmony orientations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in detail

Cross-cultural management education rebooted: creating positive value through scientific mindfulness

Graduates of cross-cultural management (CCM) courses should be capable of both tackling international and cross-cultural situations and creating positive value from the diversity inherent in these situations. Such value creation is challenging because these situations are typically complex due to differences in cultural values, traditions, social practices and institutions, such as legal rules, coupled with variation in, for example, wealth and civil rights among stakeholders. We argue that a scientific mindfulness approach to teaching CCM can help students identify and leverage positive aspects of differences and thereby contribute to positive change in crosscultural situations. This new approach combines mindfulness and scientific thinking with the explicit goal to drive positive change in the world. We explain how the action principles of scientific mindfulness enable learners to build positive value from cultural diversity. We then describe the enactment of these principles in the context of CCM educatio