bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Innovative equipments to monitor and control salt usage during culinary
Authors: Gonçalves C , Pinho O , Padrão P , Silva-Santos T , Abreu S , Moreira P
Published: October 2020

Issue

In Portugal, most of the salt consumed comes from the salt added during preparation/cooking. Therefore, it is urgent to introduce mechanisms to allow the quantification of the salt in foods, and the salt added during culinary.

Description of the Problem

To tackle salt reduction, we considered: having a portable and user-friendly instrument that measure salt content of foods; and controlling the amount of salt added to foods during culinary, assessing its impact on health. The first project was SALT QUANTI (co-funded by NORTE 2020), promoted by a consortium between EVOLEO Technologies and the University of Porto (finished in September 2018, duration 18 months); its major deliverable was to obtain a prototype of a portable device and the analytical procedure that enabled the analysis of salt content in foods/meals produced in catering kitchens, in less than 5 minutes. The second project was iMC SALT (supported by FCT, Grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029269), started in July 2018 (duration 36 months), aiming to develop prototypes for controlling the amount of salt added to foods during culinary, at home and catering, according international recommendations; one clinical intervention to assess the impact on health of the prototype at home is underway.

Results

The SALT QUANTI and iMC SALT prototypes showed good results in validation tests. The preliminary results of the health impact of the iMC SALT prototype will be presented at the conference.

Lessons

The implementation of innovative equipments to help consumers and catering industry to monitor or control the addition of salt during preparation of food or cooking are expected to be available soon and to be useful to consumers and catering industry to reduce salt intake.

Key messages

Innovative equipments may contribute to estimate salt in foods, and to reduce salt added during culinary. The implementation of an equipment to control culinary salt could be one valid approach to reduce salt consumption with impact on health.
Quality Assessment of HTA reports: a Critical Appraisal Toolkit within an institutional HTA program
Authors: Bossi E , Tringali M , Colombo P , Mazzali C , Puleo G , Caruggi M , Branchi M , Odone A
Published: October 2020

Issue

With population aging, increased demand for healthcare and limited availability of economic and human resources, well-functioning and sustainable health systems have to rely on rigorous and evidence-based assessments of complex technologies' clinical effectiveness and safety. The Lombardy Region in Northern Italy has a well-established HTA program that offers technical support to its hospitals' network to produce and to review Health Technology Assessment (HTA) reports.

Description of the Problem

To better coordinate the HTA network and to reduce self-referencing of University and Community hospitals, Lombardy Region carried out an intense field training and distance learning from year 2017, with a project aimed at involving health care professionals in an accurate evaluation of technologies in 18 HTA reports. The regional HTA Supporting Centre developed a Toolkit for the critical appraisal of reports and supporting literature to improve the quality of hospital-based reports.

Results

In compliance with the regional Law DGR XI/1046 17.12.2018 and the framework proposed, during year 2019 hospitals used the Toolkit to help writing complete and good quality HTA reports on 37 different technologies. With a Public Health resident internship, the Toolkit was revised, extended and then used in 2020 by the hospital's HTA network during the double blinded peer review, mandated by the regional Law DGR XI/2672 16.12.2019, of the year 2019 HTA reports. Detailed results will be presented at the conference.

Lessons

We observed an increase in number of HTA reports from 2018 to 2019, a greater language's and format's homogeneity and an improvement in the quality of some reports, which will be submitted to the Regional HTA Committee for appraisal and reimbursement.

Key messages

The development and use of a Critical Appraisal Toolkit in an Regional HTA program can help hospitals write complete and good quality HTA reports. A centrally supported quality improvement of distributed assessment activities in a network of hospitals can enhance the production of HTA reports, relevant to the needs of a local healthcare system.
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in a leading Research Hospital: principles and practice
Authors: Odone A , Mazzuconi R , Ambrosio A , Bottinelli E
Published: October 2020

IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital HTA Committee
The timing of the operatingroom: a 2019 Italian exsperience
Authors: Carcuro C , Bert F , Scarmozzino A , Paleologo M , Roggero S , Caggiola D , Plazzotta C , Griffa C , Rabacchi G , Siliquini R
Published: October 2020

Background

The lack of economic resources for health systems is a public health issue that Europe needs to address in order to guarantee quality and safety of care for patients. Any initiative aimed to reduce waste are welcomed. In this context, the City of Health and Science of Turin (Italy) performed a study aimed to analyse the timing of operating rooms to improve efficacy, efficiency and quality standards in the surgical field.

Methods

A multidisciplinary working group created in 2019 a checklist aimed to record the operating times of the first intervention of the day in 5 Hospital Departments (including 12 operating rooms). We registered the time between the moment in which the operating room is considered available for the start of activities and the surgical incision (benchmark: within 60 minutes). All the times needed for nursing, anesthetic and surgical activities were collected and evaluated for a descriptive statistical analysis.

Results

In consideration of a room opening time scheduled for 7:00 and room availability scheduled for 7:30, the goal can be considered achieved if the time of the surgical incision does not exceed 8:30 in the morning. Three out of 5 departments (Ginecology, Orthopaedic and General surgery) reached this aim in more than 80% of interventions, while neurosurgery and thoracic surgery exceeds the time by about 40 minutes. The checklist showed that in many cases is possible to reduce the time between the end of anesthesia and surgical incision.

Conclusions

To analyse the operating times allows not only to optimize the resources but also to reduce waste of time and waiting lists for surgery in election. We described, in a sample of surgical interventions, when and how is possible to improve the efficiency of the operating room. This experience and the checklist created could be useful not only for us but every European hospital.

Key messages

The efficiency of operating rooms is related to several factors. Neurosurgery and thoracic surgery needs longer time to prepare patients and start intervention. A checklist aimed to monitor the times of activities in surgical operating rooms can be useful to reduce waste of time and resources in European hospitals.
After Action Review of the 2019 measles outbreak in Clark County, Washington, U.S.A
Authors: Stoto M , Piltch-Loeb R , Wolfe R , Albrandt R , Melnick A
Published: October 2020

Issue

Clark County experienced a measles outbreak that challenged public health authorities. Description of the practice: We conducted a formal After Action Review with state and local health officials, school officials, and others to identify lessons for public health practitioners facing future outbreaks.

Results

Following the early identification of measles in a child who had recently arrived from Ukraine, active surveillance identified 71 confirmed cases, most in unvaccinated persons under 18 years of age. 4,138 contacts were traced and public health personnel made daily monitoring calls to 816. 53 potential exposure sites in healthcare facilities, schools and other public places were identified and communicated to the public. As a social distancing measure, unvaccinated students, teachers, and staff were excluded from schools in which exposure had occurred. Ascertaining susceptibility status was challenging. The national anti-vaccination sentiment and a parallel outbreak in a New York religious community created challenges in representing community risk while avoiding stigmatization of a community in which the first reported case was identified. Rather than respond to every false claim on social media, the health department developed talking points about emerging issues and engaged the community in dialogue.

Lessons

Responding to the measles outbreak required innovative approaches to surveillance and contact tracing, social distancing (school exclusions), and emergency risk communication. The response required extensive coordinated efforts of the county and state health departments, school systems, and many other organizations. Mutual aid enabled an influx of resources but managing the surge of responders proved challenging.

Key messages

Public health emergencies require effective emergency management practices. Carefully conducted After Action Reviews of health emergencies can help public health practitioners identify challenges and innovative practices.
A negative point of view of the social services students about organ donation and transportation
Authors: Kucuk Bicer B
Published: October 2020

Background

The gap between the number of patients waiting for a transplant and the number of organ recipients increases especially in muslim countries. Social services are responsible for convincing persons to donate their organs for transplantation in Turkey. The aim of the study is to measure the knowledge and awareness of social services students', as they become a part of future convincers of transplantation.

Methods

Knowledge and point of view about organ transplantation (OT) were asked using headtohead interviews. Layered sample (grade) was chosen from social sciences faculty and 442 students were interviewed. SPSS 23.0 was used in descriptive and regression analysis.

Results

Mean age was 21.37±1.94 and 45.1% were male. Knowledge of OT was sufficient (20.1%) according to themselves. Only 1.2% donated their organs. According to knowledge questions 69.3% had insufficient information about organ donation and tranplantation. They would receive (54%) a transplant from their relatives and donate to their relatives (67.6%) if needed. Religion and ethnicity were important factors in logistic regression; 8.6% said that their religion finds donation objectinable. Participants thought that Turkish transplantation centers has insufficient technical equipment (39.8%). According to our logistic model, students unconcerned with religion/ethnicity (β = 1,608;p<0,001), students donated their organs (β = 1,621;p=0,019) and having chronic diseases in their families (β = 1.114;p=0,004) were determiners of high knowledge scores about OT and donation. Family income, mother and father education and grade didn't effect the point of views about donation (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

It's seen that social workers don't have sufficient knowledge about OT and donation. On the other hand they have concerns about religious and ethnical issues. The education program must be improved to raise awareness about OT and donation especially the groups working as a part of a donation team.

Key messages

Important public health problems should be included in vocational education of social service students. Awareness studies on organ transplantation in our country do not reach its purpose.
SHARP Joint Action – Strengthening International Health Regulations and preparedness in the EU
Authors: Katz A , Karvonen O , Di Caro A , Vairo F , Ippolito G , Grunow R , Jacob D , Salminen M
Published: October 2020

Although the preparedness to health emergencies of biological, chemical, environmental and unknown origin across the Europe is at high level, gaps do exist across the EU Member States and European countries. The previous coronavirus epidemic, SARS in 2002, showed that countries responded largely individually to this emerging threat. EU wide, joint responses were not taken. SARS epidemic showed that strengthening of the common EU efforts was needed.

Many actions were taken, and since 2013 the European Commission Decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border threats to health has provided a framework to improve preparedness and to strengthen the response capacities in Europe to health threats.

SHARP Joint Action is a 3-year collaborative action of 26 countries and 61 partners, co-funded by the EC and coordinated by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, and co-coordinated by Robert Koch Institute, Germany and National Institute of Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italy. SHARP started it's actions in June 2019, and it aims to strengthen implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the Decision 1082/2013/EU.

SHARP consists of ten work packages covering core public health capacities, including: IHR core capacity strengthening and assessment, preparedness and response planning, training, laboratory preparedness and responsiveness, chemical safety and threats, and case management, infection prevention and control preparedness.

Through this cross-sectoral approach, SHARP supports the Member States and partner countries in strengthening their capacities. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, SHARP has also supported the EC and the Member States, and especially work packages for laboratory preparedness and responsiveness (WP7) and for case management and infection prevention and control preparedness (WP10) were activated. The activities regarding laboratory preparedness and response have been coordinated with the ECDC.

Key messages

SHARP Joint Action strengthens the implementation of Decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border threats to health and the implementation of International Health Regulations in the EU. SHARP improves preparedness and response to serious cross-border threats to health, and resilience of the health systems at national, EU and regional level.
YouTube viewers’ comments on the opioid epidemic offer solutions to help chronic pain patients
Authors: Bacon L , Ivanitskaya L , Erzikova E , Veverka T
Published: October 2020

Background

Approximately 34.3 million people used prescription opioids for non-medical reasons globally in 2016. In addition, many of the 1.5 billion people worldwide who suffer from chronic pain use opioids. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 76% of overdose deaths are caused by prescription and non-prescription opioids. Opioid use disorder and addiction encompass many aspects; such as, economic forces, cultural forces and individual genetic makeup. Because of this complexity, policymakers will have to address chronic pain and social determinants of health. Understanding the public's perspectives on the opioid epidemic is critical for policymakers to create awareness and treatment programs to decrease opioid related deaths while treating pain.

Methods

This inductive, iterative approach to content analysis of secondary data collected 8,761 comments posted by viewers on ten videos regarding the opioid epidemic on CNN's YouTube Channel and ten videos on Fox News' YouTube channel posted between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018.

Results

After analyzing 8,761 comments, from 20 videos, results indicated 618 (7%) were pain patients, 926 (10.6%) of the comments indicated stigma, (54.5% social stigma and 30% structural stigma). 5,453 (62.2%) of the comments posted claims regarding the opioid epidemic and 1,881 (21.5%) offered solutions. Three of the major solutions offered include legalizing cannabis (608, 7%), developing alternative therapies (174, 1.9%), and kratom (105, 1.2%).

Conclusions

Reducing access to opioids is harming legitimate pain patients. Policymakers need to take the public's opinions into consideration when developing policies and programs that help reduce opioid overdose. These policies must ensure that the 1.5 billion chronic pain patients worldwide receive adequate pain control in order to have a good quality of life that allows them to be contributing members of society.

Key messages

Worldwide, 1.5 billion people suffer from chronic pain, many without access to adequate pain control. Solutions posted by viewers include cannabis, alternative therapies and kratom. Understanding the public’s perspectives will help policymakers create programs that improve quality of life for chronic pain patients that minimize social, internalized and structural stigma.
Evidence-based health security: The nexus of governance and pandemic preparedness
Authors: Greenhill R , Johnson J , Malone P , Westrum A
Published: October 2020

Background

Pandemic preparedness continues to be an important focus of the global health security agenda. Many nations in the sub-Saharan African region remain at high risk for a major pandemic due to limited capacity and endemic co-morbid conditions in their populations. While the literature does suggest that state capacity influences health, no studies to date indicate an association between state capacity and pandemic disease distribution, particularly in the presence of other endemic diseases.

Methods

This mixed methods study will contribute to existing research by examining how economic and sociopolitical attributes of state capacity influence pandemic-prone disease distribution in sub-Saharan Africa. A convergent mixed methods design was used to collect and analyze quantitative state capacity attributes and prevention, and control using correlation in six sub-Saharan countries. Results of the quantitative study were triangulated through the use of an expert panel and results integrated for an overall interpretation and conclusion.

Results

Variables in the study showed statistically significant relationships between proxies of state capacity and the follow areas: control of pandemics and prevention of pandemics. The Expert Panel interviews illustrated convergence between the correlated results.

Conclusions

This study brought forward associations with expert confirmation suggestive of areas for national governments in sub-Saharan Africa to further review and improve. While many internal factors limit state capacity in these nations (e.g. human and fiscal resources), external funders may consider adding information from this study and other metrics to test progress.

Key messages

Evidence is valuable for pandemic preparedness planning. Nation state capacity is a factor in pandemic preparedness.
Local preparedness for Mass Gatherings in Northern Portugal
Authors: Moreira de Sousa A , Capucho R
Published: October 2020

Issue

Lack of preparedness for mass gatherings and their possible impact on public health at the local and national level

Description of the Problem

Due to an outbreak in a Mass Gathering (MG), that took place in the northern region in 2018, the Public Health Unit (PHU) of Alto Tâmega and Barroso's, in collaboration with the Northern Region Public Health Department and the local government of Montalegre, implemented a risk assessment tool to new MGs, to mitigate the identified risks. Although Montalegre's MGs have considerable importance to the region's local economy, they are also high-risk events, to local and international health, due to the high number of foreigners on those events and the proximity to the Spanish border.

Results

The first in the field collaboration was the Forest Soul Gathering, a biennial transformational festival, held from 17th-21st of July 2019, with more than 1000 participants, from more than 20 countries. The collaboration with the local government continued throughout the year with several work meetings on Mass Gatherings and risk management. On Friday 6th, 2020, the PHU provided a risk assessment to the local government on the event Friday 13th (40.000 participants) and classified that risk as major due to the COVID-19 epidemic. In the local civil defense meeting, it was decided unanimously to cancel the event, taking into account the risk assessment of the PHU.

Lessons

There has been an increase in MG's in Portugal. This requires straight collaboration with the organization, health sector, and local authorities, to mitigate the risks of each event. This can be an example of how to go from theory to practice, in public health risk prevention, and institutional cooperation, being one of the first of its kind in Portugal. In the end, it allowed a fast response to the threat of COVID-19 and public health protection of the community of Montalegre.

Key messages

Proper preparation with partners to a public health emergency is vital to contain an outbreak. Local public health departments need to implement their emergency protocols and risk assessment procedures before a public health emergency.
Preventive and responsive plans to COVID-19 epidemic in a leading teaching hospital in Milan, Italy
Authors: Bellini L , Bossi E , Bucci D , Capraro M , Chiappa F , Ambrosio A
Published: October 2020

Issue

Following the SARS-Cov-2 outbreak in Wuhan, China, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Codogno, Lombardy, Italy, on 20 February 2020. The ongoing epidemic has exposed the health care system to a severe stress. San Raffaele Hospital (OSR) in Milan, Italy - a leader in the emergency management, may provide a benchmarking experience useful for other countries.

Description of the Problem

OSR has established a task force including the health care director, the Infections Prevention and Control Committee (IPCC) and the head of ward and outpatients' facilities management area in order to assess the situation and to define a multi-step strategy. The management process has been divided in two steps. Firstly, a preventive phase was devised, in a preparedness perspective, to avoid the spread of the infection to the Healthcare Professionals (HCP). Secondly, a reorganizational phase was implemented to guarantee assistance to infected patients, especially the critical ones.

Results

Before the outbreak, the IPCC updated OSR's procedures, based on the WHO's, national and regional guidance, planned a lectures series and an online survey to train healthcare professionals and proposed to stack Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to face the expected shortage. The Head of the facilities management area defined separate pathways in the Emergency Department in order to isolate patients with respiratory symptoms, set up a new ward, with 26 beds and dedicated personnel, as well as two Intensive Care Units, with 13 beds, Some wards were merged and more healthcare workers were moved to the COVID-19 units.

Lessons

The coordination between task force members has been crucial for translating the multi-step strategy in a quick reorganization of the whole hospital. Despite early preparations, we could not anticipate the evolution of the outbreak and its logistic impact, especially on the PPE procurement.

Key messages

A major Hospital was proved to be capable to respond to the changing healthcare requests. Organizational flexibility is crucial for proper emergency management.
Applied health communication training as active methodologies in undergraduate medical
Authors: Hermes E , Dantas D , Xavier A , Siqueira A C , Neto A Freitas , Barbosa E , Bevilacqua G , Fortkamp M , Hamessi D , Smanioto G
Published: October 2020

Background

Health education plays a fundamental role in the formation of critical and reflective health professionals, preparing them to transcend theories and experience challenging practices. For the educator, it is unique to guide the way that can transform a gap in the undergraduate medical education into a possibility of positive action. It was in this sense that the health communication training was developed, supported by theory of neurolinguistics and techniques of emotional intelligence. Teachers of the Communication, Leadership and Management Skills (speech therapist, psychologist, nurse, doctor, dentist) programmed a training to work with students, all from the second year of the undergraduate medical course, to stimulate verbal communication. and nonverbal. Six experiential activities were used in the classroom, detailing: Activity 1 - Assertive Communication;. Activity 2 - Consensus Groups. Activity 3 - Nonverbal Communication. Activity 4 - Body Shapes. Activity 5 - Perception of the Other.

Objective

This qualitative descriptive study aimed to report the experience of a trainning on the topic of health communication held in an institution of the public higher education system in Brazil with the purpose of promoting innovation in the education of medical students.

Results

Faced with activities like this, we realize that students go through a process of breaking paradigms, which significantly influences their way of thinking. Initial training should provide adequate support to students from the perspective of the knowledge spiral. From the generalist content, with the evolution of the undergraduate years, the student perfects and deepens his reflections, in a continuous process of meanings.

Conclusions

The training of verbal and nonverbal communication with medical students satisfactorily developed skills in personal interaction, behavioral, empathy, self-perception.

Key messages

This work represents a breakthrough in the field of health education towards producing technology for health professionals. Among the challenges of the 21st century is the use of new teaching methodologies that address the demands of world health problems.
Evolving healthcare; nurses’ attitudes towards complementary therapies
Authors: Hall H , Leach M , Brosnan C , Collins M
Published: October 2020

Background

Integration of complementary therapies alongside conventional medical treatment is common and affects health behaviour and outcomes. Nurses frequently interact with patients and their attitudes to these therapies may play a significant role in decision-making. This mixed-method study investigated nurses' attitudes and behaviour towards complementary therapies.

Methods

A sequential exploratory design was utilised. Qualitative data were collected via interviews with nurses working in primary and tertiary settings, in all states of Australia. Interview data underwent thematic analysis. Findings from the interviews informed the development of a questionnaire, which was used to conduct a national online survey. Survey data were descriptively analysed using frequency distributions and percentages.

Results

Nineteen nurses were interviewed and 614 responded to the survey. Themes that emerged from the qualitative data were; Promoting safe care, Seeking complementary therapies knowledge; Supporting holistic health care and Integrating complementary therapies in practice. Survey responses revealed most nurses (77.5%) discussed complementary therapies with patients. More than one half (55.5%) would 'sometimes' recommend complementary therapies and 12.0% would 'almost always/always' do so. The majority (91.8%) believed nurses should have some understanding of complementary therapies. There was a lack of agreement regarding integration of these therapies into nursing practice.

Conclusions

Nurses were generally supportive of patients' interest in complementary therapies and want basic education about these therapies.

Key messages

Nurses working in Australia often engage with patients about complementary therapies. Increasing nurses’ complementary therapy knowledge is likely to promote informed decision-making and improve patient safety.
O-Health-Edu: Advancing oral health: A vision for dental education
Authors: Tubert-Jeannin S , Field J , Davies J , Manzanares C , Dixon J , Vital S , Paganelli C , Quinn B , Gerber G , Akota I
Published: October 2020

The prevalence and burden of untreated oral diseases throughout the life course remains high worldwide, and inequalities in oral health and dental care are increasing. This is a major public health issue that is not being enough addressed by the health care systems. To better manage populations' oral health, oral health professionals must be trained to adapt to population needs and societal and technological changes. Furthermore, dental institutions must fulfill their social responsibility by prioritizing educational and research activities that promote advancing individual and community health. In Europe, great variability exists between dental programs within the same country or between countries. This variability is an issue as European graduates can practice around the European Union through mutual recognition of their qualifications. This might lead to inequities in the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health services. The convergence of competencies and quality standards at the international level must thus be better clearly identified, defined and improved. The purpose of the O-Health-Edu, EU funded project, “Advancing Oral Health: A vision for Dental Education” is thus to assess the current situation concerning the oral health professionals' education (OHP) and to identify educational priorities so that future graduating OHPs have competencies aligned with emerging population needs. The project is supported within the KA203 - “Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices - Strategic Partnerships for higher education” Erasmus program. It began in October 2019 for three years, with eight European university partners and the ADEE (Association for Dental Education in Europe). The firsts steps consist of a scoping review to identify the available information followed by a questionnaire survey to gather more comprehensive data so that to build an opened data source, and a glossary of dental education terms.

Key messages

Few Information about the current situation of dental education in Europe. Graduates must be equipped with adequate competencies to face populations needs.
Integration of migrant healthcare workforce from the perspective of leading hospital staff in Germany
Authors: Peppler L , Schenk L
Published: October 2020

Background

The German healthcare system is facing a serious shortage of healthcare professionals and is therefore dependent of foreign staff to ensure adequate healthcare. 14 % of the physicians and 17 % of the nurses working in Germany have foreign citizenship. The variety of cultural backgrounds and language skills raises the question for advantages and challenges when it comes to human resource policies in hospitals and outpatient care services.

Methods

The findings are based on 16 expert interviews with physicians, nurses, and managers in leading positions of two hospitals and two outpatient care services. These institutions differ in the extent to which they treat migrant patients and hire foreign healthcare workers.

Results

From the experts' perspective, the biggest advantage in foreign health workers are their language skills. Foreign language skills are a huge advantage provided that their knowledge matches the patients' languages and their German skills are adequate as well. Additionally, their knowledge about other medical cultures are very much appreciated. The experts see challenges in different qualifications that the professionals have gained in their home countries as well as diverse working cultures, which often leads to frustration among the teams. Therefore, too much ethnic diversity is difficult for everyday working life. Ethnic discrimination is the case in hospitals with less migrant staff and patients.

Conclusions

To ensure adequate healthcare, healthcare professionals should get a special training, which enables them to work in diverse teams with colleagues from other countries. Meanwhile, foreign staff need time to get used to new hospital structures and should feel strengthened to bring their skills in. This is a process, which the institutions must moderate and accompany constructively.

Key messages

Immigration of foreign healthcare professionals leads to multicultural teams in healthcare, which are characterized by differences in cultures and qualifications. Therefore, leading professionals should support and encourage multicultural teams to learn how to deal with this diversity in everyday working life.
Strategies to prevent sexual harassment in the hospitality workplace in Sweden
Authors: Gillander Gådin K , Persson K , Zampoukos K
Published: October 2020

Background

Sexual harassment is a problem at workplaces, particularly in the hospitality business. These workplaces are known for having a lot of challenges for the psychosocial work environment such as working hours, leadership and the relation to alcohol, but also being workplaces with a high risk for being exposed to sexual harassment, from managers, coworkers as well as from guests. Sexual harassment is a kind of gendered violence and a work environmental problem that needs to be prevented in order to reduce work-related stress. The aim of this study was to analyze strategies to prevent sexual harassment in the hospitality business. A second aim was to analyze factors in these kind of workplaces that constitute barriers to effective prevention strategies.

Methods

Twenty-five employees and managers in the hotel and restaurant business were interviewed individually about their experiences of sexual harassment and what kind of strategies they use to cope, prevent and counteract sexual harassment at their work places.

Results

The preliminary results indicate a broad range of preventive measures that employers and managers deploy, stretching from the arrangement of the physical environment to team-building activities and onto efforts aimed at creating a common value-system. Workers, on their part, strategize collectively for instance by close communication with each other regarding “difficult” customers. Furthermore, individual workers use their bodily resources and clothing, to counteract harassment and threatening situations.

Conclusions

There are several conflicting aims and contradictions inherent in this industry, e.g. in terms of profit and the expectations of service and hospitality towards guests, no matter of their behavior. There are also gendered expectations on staff that increases the risk for sexual harassment from managers, coworkers as well as guests that make preventive work more challenging than in other types of businesses.

Key messages

Sexual harassment in the hospitality business is more challenging than in other work places, and thus need specific prevention strategies in order to promote a healthy psychosocial work environment. As gendered hierarchies in the hospitality business put women at risk for sexual harassment to a higher degree than men, there is a need for increased gender awareness in the preventive work.
Determining future professions and competencies of health workers
Authors: Koikov V , Akanov A , Abduazhitova A , Aubakirova A , Otargalieva D , Derbissalina G
Published: October 2020

Background

Constantly growing needs and challenges for the healthcare sector lead to the development of new technologies and new approaches to health promotion, which, in turn, leads to the emergence of new needs of new professions (NPs) and new competencies (NCs). Accordingly, timely forecasting of NPs and NCs of health workers (HWs) is of high relevance, since it is necessary to create conditions for the timely training of HWs with NPs and NCs

Methods

At the first stage, we carried out an analysis of technological trends and challenges in modern healthcare to identify potential NPs and NCs of HWs that may be required in the future. Then, the selection of the most demanded NPs and NCs was carried out on the basis of a study of a 2-round Delphi study - 196 experts selected according to the principle of “Side of the World” - from 5 organizations in 5 regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan (north, south, west, east, center). Then we made prioritization of NPs and NCs, which will be in demand in the next 10 years for the health system.

Results

Based on our research, a list of the following NPs was determined: IT specialist in medicine, bioethics, telemedicine physician, molecular nutritionist, clinical bioinformatics, consultant for healthy old age, expert in personalized medicine, engineer for organs and tissues, life style strategist, operator of medical robots, ergotherapist, kinesiotherapist, biopharmacologist, medical journalist, architect of medical equipment, developer of cyber prosthetics and implants. A list of NCs that will be in demand in the coming years for HWs was also determined: competencies in the fields of personalized and preventive medicine, robotic medicine, IT technology, logistics of health services, biotechnology, nanomedicine, online counseling.

Conclusions

The results of our study indicate the need to consolidate selected professions in the sectoral qualifications system, as well as the need to launch training programs for these NPs and NCs.

Key messages

An analysis of technological trends in the healthcare system and Delphi research allowed us to formulate a list of NPs and NCs. It is necessary to create a system of support and promotion of NPs and NCs to improve the quality of health services.
Second victim experience: cross-sectional survey at the Department of Maternal-Child Health in Udine
Authors: Scarpis E , Ruscio E , Bianchet B , Doimo A , Moretti V , Cocconi R , Farneti F , Castriotta L , Quattrin R
Published: October 2020

Introduction

Healthcare workers (HCWs) can experience psychological distress if involved in adverse patient events, becoming second victims. The aim of this study is to determine the extension of the second victim phenomenon and the preference of the support resources of the HCWs working in the Department of Maternal and Child Health (DMC) at the Academic Hospital of Udine.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was carried out from June to November 2019. All HCWs involved in direct patient care working in the three units of DMC [Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OG), Neonatology (Neo), Pediatrics (Ped)] were included. A validated version in Italian language of the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (SVEST) was used to assess the experience of second victim and the support resources preferred by the HCWs (Likert-scale: 1-5). Agreement of the support options were considered with an overall mean subscale score of ≥ 4.0. The Wilcoxon signed rank sum test was used to calculate the statistically significant differences (p < 0.01).

Results

The response rate was 44,9% (120/267). Women were 95.8%. Mean age was 38.7±9.7; HCWs from OG were 48.3%, 26.7% from Neo and 25% from Ped. Nurses were 34.2%, 32.5% were obstetrics, 15.8% were doctors and 8.3% were residents. HCWs who experienced adverse patient events were 80 (66.7%). Out of these, 63 (52.5%) were near-miss events. The overall mean score of the first two dimensions of SVEST (”Psychological distress” and “Physical distress”, as representative of the trauma experience) was respectively 3.3±1.0 and 2.3±1.1. The difference between their scores was statistically significant (p < 0.01). The most preferred support option was: “a respected peer to discuss the details of what happened” with the 80.0%.

Conclusions

The study highlights that HCWs of the DMC are frequently involved in adverse patient events. Psychological distress was significative more impactful than physical distress. The majority of HCWs preferred a peer for colleagues support.

Key messages

SVEST is an instrument that helps to determine the support resources preferred by HCWs in order to develop a support program for second victim. A peer for colleagues support is the support resource preferred by the HCWs working in the Department of Maternal and Child Health.
Corporate Psychopaths: implications for organizational health and well-being
Authors: D'Souza M , Oliveira D
Published: October 2020

Studies on Psychopathy in corporate settings and its toxic effects at the workplace are of the utmost importance. Corporate psychopaths reach upper echelon positions, and demonstrate egocentrism, lack of guilt or remorse; they influence those who are around them to achieve their own goals. In this regard, this study aims to discuss the implications of leaders named corporate psychopaths for the organizational health and well-being.

For this purpose, the study adopted an empirical-theoretical approach, a quantitative evaluation and a survey as the method of data collection, by applying a questionnaire made up by the Self Report Psychopathy (SRP) scale (Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, 2014), in order to illuminate the non-pathological traits of Psychopathy; the Well-being at work Scale (Paschoal & Tamayo, 2008); and the Perception of Organizational Health Scale by Gomide Jr., Moura, Cunha, & Sousa (1999). The questionnaire was applied to 100 employees from the administrative area of an open capital Brazilian company in the educational area.

The results showed that employees who identified psychopathy traits in their immediate leaders externalized preoccupation, irritation, depression, anxiety, frustration, nervousness, tension and rage, demonstrating uneasiness at the workplace. They also reported that there is a dishonest competition to achieve higher hierarchical positions, no respect between colleagues, and people do not trust each other, demonstrating therefore aspects that reveal a compromised organizational health.

The study will make a contribution by providing insights into how companies can recognize and avoid the selection and recruitment of employees who exhibit psychopathy traits, especially due to the potential of these employess becoming leaders and compromising organizational health and well-being. The issue deserves especial attention and more studies should be carried out regarding the consequences of psychopathic leaders' actions for corporate and public health.

Key messages

Provide insights into how companies can recognize and avoid the selection and recruitment of employees who exhibit psychopathy traits and compromising organizational health and welbeing. The issue deserves especial attention and more studies should be carried out regarding the consequences of psychopathatic leaders’ actions for corporate and public health.
Experience report on the training of Brazilian dental managers using active methodologies
Authors: Nacao M , Machado V , Ribeiro S , Barreto B , Carvalho M , Witer A , Fonseca V
Published: October 2020

This is an account on the training of dental managers in a Social Welfare, not-for-profit, non-governmental institution present in all Brazilian states. Given the continental dimension of Brazil, its regional inequalities and the need for uniformity in the management conduct, as well as in the planning and evaluation of services, it is understood that developing managers' skills and competences is fundamental. Bearing in mind that the model adopted by the company is based on collective health, and its structure is organized in Primary Care, this proposal can be applied by other organizations that offer services of a similar nature. The aim of this study is to describe the training of oral health managers (n = 54) on the themes of sustainability, practices based on evidence/health economics and social determinants - themes that were requested by the managers themselves. Using problem-based learning, active and distance-learning methodologies, three working groups were set up among the managers to go through the contents of the training program, which aimed at training mentors and identifying successful service experiences for sharing. This process peaked at a face-to-face session with all participants where a specialist and their respective mentors presented each topic. The products obtained were: (1) three scientific-economic studies for decision making on the incorporation of hard technologies; (2) a guide to sustainable practices in dentistry and (3) a set of criteria for prioritizing access based on social determinants. In the evaluation of the training, 89% of managers were very satisfied, 8.98% were satisfied and 1.79% were dissatisfied. It is concluded that the methodology used in this process significantly contributed to the development of the company's regional service managers and such improvement stemmed from the empowerment, engagement and alignment of these managers, to which action plans were directed, with measures for monitoring and evaluation.

Key messages

Active methodologies in training contributes to the empowerment, engagement and alignment of dental managers before epidemiological, economic and social challenges faced in the management of services. Trainings where the participants are protagonists in all stages of the educational processes, are those that produce the best results and the highest degree of satisfaction among employees.
International co-authorship in Kazakhstan’s authors publications in medicine
Authors: Umbetzhanova A , Derbissalina G , Koikov V , Bekbergenova Z
Published: October 2020

Background

Starting in 2013, the rating of medical universities Republic of Kazakhstan(RK) on scientific and innovational activities was introduced. Various characteristics that can influence on scientific performance were investigated. We assessed the impact of national and international collaboration on the scientific performance of medical universities of RK.

Methods

Publications metrics such as impact factor (IF) of journals, quartile of the journal and the number of citations of RK authors in the field of medicine published in 2013-2018 in Web of Science database were analyzed, according to the level of co-authorship.

Results

Authors affiliated with one organization (group 1) average impact factor of journals was (0.391(CI = ±0.04), in national co-authorship (group 2) (0.648(CI = ±0,04), in international co-authorship (group 3) 3.703 (CI = ±0.08) There is no statistically significant difference between IF of journals in which authors are from one organization or in national co-authorship, and there is a statistically significant difference between 3 (international co-authorship) and the 1 and 2 groups. Further, the journals were distributed depending on the quartile of the journal (Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4) and an analysis was carried out depending on citations and the level of co-authorship (one organization, national, international). The highest percentage of co-authorship was found in the journals of the first quartile (92.8%), in the journals Q2-80.1%,Q3-74%,Q4-28.6%). 95.9% of citations come from publications in international co-authorship.

Conclusions

International cooperation expands the possibilities of obtaining an interest in the study. Not the poor quality of research of local authors, but the difficulty of publishing the results of research in top journals for authors from developing countries without the support of international co-authors, also due to the 'Matthew effect' for some countries. It is recommended that medical researchers should expand international cooperation

Key messages

When presenting the results of their research, researchers should consider the impact and possibilities of international co-authorship to expand the audience. The difficulty of publishing research results in leading journals for authors from developing countries without the support of international co-authors.