Caring profession

BACKGROUND: There is a growing, global awareness and recognition of the important, interdependent relationships between our natural world and human health. Several contemporary health organizations have placed calls to action and emphasize an urgent need for collaboration and interdisciplinary research, education, and clinical work to address the increasing degradation of our planetary and human health. With more research dedicated to nature's health impacts, health professions schools would benefit by including such training in their programs while also cultivating a comprehensive mind-body health perspective to support both the health of student practitioners and their future patients...

INTRODUCTION: Twenty-two Arab countries comprise the League of Arab States. While united in Arab identity, diversities among these countries exist at many levels. Conducting and publishing research in the Arabic speaking countries is an essential pillar for improving the status of the nursing profession. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to assess the current status, trends, challenges, and opportunities of nursing research in Arab countries. METHODOLOGY: An integrative review was conducted using (1) Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office Database Journals Directory (IMEMR), (2) the Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals Database (IASJD), (3) Ulrichsweb (UW), (4) The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research/Middle Eastern Journals (GFMER), (5) the Nursing Journal Directory (NJD), (6) the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and (7) Google Scholar...

BACKGROUND: Neurosurgery is one of the most complex and challenging areas of medicine, and it requires an ongoing commitment to education and expertise. Preparing young neurosurgeons with comprehensive education that can allow them to achieve high professional standards is a pivotal aspect of our profession. METHODS: This paper aims to analyze the current scenario in neurosurgical training identifying innovative methods that can guarantee the highest level of proficiency in our specialty...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted people's mental health significantly. Frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) were arguably most affected, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries like South Africa. Understanding their experiences is important to inform interventions for social and psychological support for future pandemics. AIM: This study explored the experiences of frontline HCWs in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. SETTING: The sample included HCWs from various professions and health sectors who worked with COVID-19 patients across South Africa...

BACKGROUND: Clinical training, supervision and practice are the most important aspects of health profession education, including optometry. Institutions implore various methods for students to gain access, exposure and experience in different clinical environments, away from their normal academic settings. AIM: This review aimed to investigate studies and related documentary evidence to determine existing standards and methods for educational institutions in conducting optometry clinical training at the external sites...

BACKGROUND: The UK National Health Service (NHS) is one of the largest employers in the world and employs around 360,000 registered nurses. Following a protracted pay dispute in December 2022 NHS nurses engaged in industrial action resulting in the largest nurse strikes in the 74-year history of the NHS. Initially it appeared these strikes were a direct consequence of pay disputes but evidence suggests that the situation was more complex. This study aimed to explore what the key factors were in driving UK NHS nurses' decision to strike...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of missed nursing care and its associated factors among public hospitals in Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia. DESIGN: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 369 randomly selected nurses. SETTING: The study was conducted in primary and secondary-level public hospitals in Bahir Dar City. PARTICIPANTS: Nurses who had worked in hospitals in Bahir Dar City were included...

Information may be required within a short time-frame for making decisions about programmes and interventions in health professions education. Rapid research methods have been increasingly used in healthcare, especially for qualitative research studies and literature reviews. An essential aspect of using rapid research methods is pragmatism, in which there is a balance between the constraints of the short time frame (typically less than 3 months), the available resources, and the rigour for an appropriate standard of quality...

Interprofessional care obliges different healthcare professions to share decision-making and sometimes, practices. Given established hierarchies, it can be difficult to promote interprofessional care, partly because of the need to reshape professional identities. Despite interest in effective interprofessional care, there is limited research on how professional identity can be mobilised to promote it. A scoping review as well as lexical review of academic publications was conducted to address this void. After searching seven academic databases and screening the identified publications, 22 publications met the inclusion criteria...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Nurses tend to exhibit higher rates of presenteeism compared to other professions. Presenteeism can cause the work performance of nurses to suffer, jeopardizing their own and their patients' safety and leading to decreased quality of care and increased risks of errors. However, there is a lack of a validated assessment tool for presenteeism in Taiwan. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a Nursing Staff Presenteeism Scale (NSPS). METHODS: To develop questionnaire items, participants from three medical centers in Taiwan were recruited...

The rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is posing major challenges for the healthcare systems of many countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific Region, in which T2D can present at younger ages and lower body mass index when compared with Western nations. There is an important role for insulin therapy in the management of T2D in these nations, but available evidence suggests that insulin is under-utilized and often delayed, to the detriment of patient prognosis. The authors of this article gathered as an advisory panel (representative of some of the larger Asia-Pacific nations) to identify their local barriers to insulin use in T2D, and to discuss ways in which to address these barriers, with their outputs summarized herein...

OBJECTIVE: To map the ethical-legal dilemmas related to nursing practice in emergency and disaster situations. METHOD: A scoping review developed in accordance with the JBI method, whose information sources were accessed in databases, in addition to gray literature. The selection was made by reading the titles, abstracts and descriptors, observing eligibility criteria, including two reviewers and a third in case of discrepancies. After reading, data extraction and content analysis of 17 selected studies were carried out...

The healthcare landscape has long been characterized by a noticeable separation between the medical and dental fields, influencing how both oral and overall health are perceived and managed today. Long ago, tooth extraction was perceived as a form of entertainment, with barber-surgeons conducting procedures in front of crowds.1 Dentistry's transformation into a profession in the mid-1800s established a separate educational path, intensifying the divergence between medical and dental healthcare.2,3 The US Surgeon General's Oral Health in America reports in 2000 and 2021 highlighted the need to close the gap between dental and medical healthcare...

Patient-centered care (PCC) is a key domain of healthcare quality. Its importance is driven by evidence-based medicine, the predominance of chronic conditions requiring self-care, and the recognition of the priority of patient goals, values, priorities, and preferences in determining care plans. This article emphasizes the urgent need for Africa to develop PCC and a workforce committed to its implementation, as well as highlights an initiative by African medical students to champion PCC continent-wide. Embracing this transformative approach presents Africa with an unprecedented opportunity to improve care for each person...

AIM: Clinicians across the entire medical profession are responsible for detection, prevention and imparting importance of oral health to the patients. However, many studies conducted so far show lack of knowledge of medical students regarding dental conditions. The present observational study was undertaken to evaluate the knowledge of oral manifestations of systemic diseases amongst medical students undergoing Internship program at a tertiary centre. MATERIALS & METHOD: A self-structured Questionnaire comprising of 20 questions was used as a survey tool to assess the understanding of 100 medical students undergoing internship program...

Career shifts are a naturally occurring part of the trauma and acute care surgeon's profession. These transitions may occur at various timepoints throughout a surgeon's career and each has their own specific challenges. Finding a good fit for your first job is critical for ensuring success as an early career surgeon. Equally, understanding how to navigate promotions or a change in job location mid-career can be fraught with uncertainty. As one progresses in their career, knowing when to take on a leadership position is oftentimes difficult as it may mean a change in priorities...

PROBLEM: Burnout and the psychological co-morbidities stress, anxiety and depression have a significant impact on healthcare providers, including midwives. These conditions impact the quality of care provided to women, and midwives' ability to remain in the profession. BACKGROUND: There is growing concern regarding the retention of maternity care providers in Canada, particularly midwives. Nationally, 33% of Canadian midwives are seriously considering leaving practice; impacts of the profession on work-life-balance and mental health being commonly cited reasons...

PURPOSE: As the largest profession within the health care workforce, nurses and midwives play a critical role in the health and wellness of families especially children and infants. This study suggests those countries with higher nurse and midwife densities (NMD) had lower infant mortality rates (IMR). DESIGN AND METHODS: With affluence, low birthweight and urbanization incorporated as potential confounders, this ecological study analyzed the correlations between NMD and IMR with scatterplots, Pearson r correlation, partial correlation and multiple linear regression models...

This issue of JORH explores a broad range of topics looking at the professions of nursing, clergy and chaplains. This issue also concludes the series on Parkinson's disease (Part 2), and for the first time, JORH presents a collation of articles relating to workplace religiosity. Finally, this issue revisits the topics of women's health and family issues in relation to religiosity and spirituality.

Our professional activity is constantly under pressure from a multitude of elements and factors that can be classified into the four components of the VUCA phenomenon-volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity-components that define the turbulence and challenges of the external environment. Considering the general elements of this phenomenon, we designed a new VUCA dimension specific to the healthcare field within which we have identified and analyzed all the factors that can influence the main actors of the doctor-patient relationship and the effects that can occur within the healthcare system in which this relationship is born...