Towards better child protection programmes:a qualitative evaluation of Youth Disseminating Life Skills Programme

The present study aimed to assess the acceptability of a 12-week training programme, Youth Disseminating Life Skills Programme whose aims were to help university students acquire knowledge on and to increase sensitivity towards child abuse and neglect by adopting a qualitative methodology. The sample consisted of 13 university students who took part in the Youth Disseminating Life Skills Programme (10 female, 3 male: mean age 22 years; age range: 20–31). With the help of a general interview guide, the focus group meetings were held. Established conventions guided the analysis. Participants recounted feelings about and benefits of the Programme, and ways to improve the Programme. Feelings about the Programme included both positive (e.g. feeling hopeful) and negative feelings (e.g. feeling traumatised). Participants recounted a variety of benefits of the Programme (e.g. correcting some myths about child abuse). Participants proposed some ways whereby the Programmecouldbeimproved.Some findingscouldbeinterpretedin terms of existing literature/theory. Other findings extended the literature and could be viewed as targets for future child protection programmes

Current treatment options for recurrent nasopharyngeal cancer

Loco-regional control rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has improved significantly in the past decade. However, local recurrence still represents a major cause of mortality and morbidity in advanced stages, and management of local failure remains a challenging issue in NPC. The best salvage treatment for local recurrent NPC remains to be determined. The options include brachytherapy, external radiotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, and nasopharyngectomy, either alone or in different combinations. In this article we will discuss the different options for salvage of locally recurrent NPC. Retreatment of locally recurrent NPC using radiotherapy, alone or in combination with other treatment modalities, as well as surgery, can result in long-term local control and survival in a substantial proportion of patients. For small-volume recurrent tumors (T1–T2) treated with external radiotherapy, brachytherapy or stereotactic radiosurgery, comparable results to those obtained with surgery have been reported. In contrast, treatment results of advanced-stage locally recurrent NPC are generally more satisfactory with surgery (with or without postoperative radiotherapy) than with reirradiation

Medication adherence perspectives in haemodialysis patients: a qualitative study

Background: End-stage kidney disease patients undergoing haemodialysis are prescribed with multiple complex regimens and are predisposed to high risk of medication nonadherence. The aims of this study were to explore factors associated with medication adherence, and, to examine the differential perspectives on medication-taking behaviour shown by adherent and nonadherent haemodialysis patients. Methods: A qualitative exploratory design was used. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 haemodialysis patients at the outpatient dialysis facility in Hobart, Australia. Patient self-reported adherence was measured using 4-item Morisky Green Levine scale. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed and mapped against the World Health Organization (WHO) determinants of medication adherence. Results: Participants were 44–84 years old, and were prescribed with 4–19 medications daily. More than half of the participants were nonadherent to their medications based on self-reported measure (56.7%, n = 17). Themes mapped against WHO adherence model comprised of patient-related (knowledge, awareness, attitude, self-efficacy, action control, and facilitation); health system/ healthcare team related (quality of interaction, and mistrust and collateral arrangements); therapy-related (physical characteristics of medicines, packaging, and side effects); condition-related (symptom severity); and social/ economic factors (access to medicines, and relative affordability). Conclusions: Patients expressed a number of concerns that led to nonadherence behaviour. Many of the issues identified were patient-related and potentially modifiable by using psycho-educational or cognitive-behavioural interventions. Healthcare professionals should be more vigilant towards identifying these concerns to address adherence issues. Future research should be aimed at understanding healthcare professionals’ perceptions and practices of assessing medication adherence in dialysis patients that may guide intervention to resolve this significant issue of medication non-adherence

SELF-EFFICACY IN HAEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE APPROACH

WOS: 000306695401015

An investigation of emotional labor strategies on the basis of empathy among nurses working at intensive care and inpatient units

WOS: 000331837900008Objective: Intensive care nurses produce emotional labor through deep acting by generating empathetic emotional and cognitive reactions during their interactions with patients. On the other hand they produce emotional labor through surface acting whereby they forge empathic behaviors towards patients in the absence of appropriate emotional and cognitive actions. The present study explored emotional labor strategies on the basis of empathy among nurses working at intensive care and in-patient units. Methods: The present study was carried out in a state hospital in Istanbul. The sample of the study consisted of 116 nurses. Emotional Labor Scale, the Empathy Scale and a demographic questionnaire were used to gather data. Results: The hypotheses that as compared with in-patient care nurses, the empathy levels of intensive care nurses would be higher; nurses who have high levels of empathy would show higher levels of deep acting and emotional effort than nurses who have medium or low levels of empathy; nurses who have high levels of empathy would show lower levels of surface acting than nurses who have medium or low levels of empathy; and as compared with in-patient care nurses, intensive care nurses would show higher levels of deep acting and emotional effort and lower levels of surface acting, were not supported by the data. Conclusion: The results have shown that intensive-care nurses do not have higher levels of empathy, and they do not use deep acting and emotional effort more than inpatient clinic nurses. These findings indicate that regardless of the characteristics of the working environment, the nurses show empathy and use emotional labor strategies. More research is needed to understand these findings