HEALTH SCIENCES QUARTERLY

The effects of cultural and emotional intelligence on care in nursing

2022-09-06T08:02:48+03:00

This study was conducted to find out the effects of cultural intelligence, which is one of the strategies used in managing intercultural differences, and emotional intelligence which enables individuals to understand and manage their own emotions, to understand others’ emotions and develop their self-confidence, on care behaviour, which is the basis of the nursing profession. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in a city hospital between 01.09.2019 and 01.03.2020. The data were collected from nurses in the hospital who volunteered to participate in the study within the dates above. The sample was not selected, and 225 nurses who volunteered to participate in the study were included in the study. The total mean score of the participants from the cultural intelligence scale was 47.558±12.092, while the full scores from the factors were 7.9208±2.857 (min 4-max 20) for metacognitive factor, 15.963±4.89 (min 6-max 30) for cognitive aspect, 12.004±3.656 (min 5-max 25) for motivational factor and as 11.821±3.493 (min 5-max 25) for behavioural factor. The total mean score of the participants from the Caring Behaviors Inventory was 5.053±0.819, while the total scores from the factors were 5.045±0.823 for the assurance factor, 5.208±1.240 for the knowledge and skill factor, 4.994±0.831 for respectful factor and 4.949±0.842 for connectedness factor. The total mean score of the participants from the Emotional Intelligence Scale was 141.367±18.656, while the full scores from the factors were 44.563±5.96 for optimism/mood regulation, 18.940±4.15 for the use of emotions and 33.493±7.565 for evaluation of emotions. Cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence were found to have an effect on caring behaviours of nurses. Although there was no direct significant correlation between cultural intelligence total score and caring behaviours total score, there was a significant correlation between cultural intelligence factors and caring behaviours. There was a significant correlation between caring behaviours of nurses with high emotional intelligence.

Significance of laboratory biomarkers in monitoring patients with COVID-19 pneumonia

2022-08-29T07:57:03+03:00

Clinical and laboratory parameters are useful tools to improve success rates in the management of COVID-19 patients. Indices such as NLR, PLR, MHR, SII, AIP and CAR may indicate poor prognosis in predicting poor prognosis in COVID-19. It was aimed to identify such parameters of disease progression in COVID-19 patients by examining demographic data, comorbid conditions, some biochemical and hematological parameters. A retrospective analysis was performed for patients admitted to intensive care unit or pulmonary diseases department or treated on an outpatient basis due to a diagnosis of COVID-19. Patients with positive PCR test and thoracic CT compatible with COVID-19 pneumonia were included in the study. A control group was formed from volunteers of similar age and gender. The study population was divided into four groups as follows: patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU group); patients admitted to chest diseases department (Inpatient Group); patients treated on an outpatient basis (Outpatient Group); and controls (Control Group). There were 61, 201, and 30 patients in the ICU, inpatient, and outpatient groups, respectively. A total of 96 subjects served as controls. Study groups were comparable with respect to gender distribution. ICU patients had higher NLR, PLR, AIP, SII, and CAR, and lower LMR as compared to other groups. NLR, SII, AIP, and CAR emerged as predictors of ICU admission, while MHR was predictive of inpatient treatment. Certain clinical and laboratory parameters may be useful tools for improving the success of COVID-19 management. High NLR, SII, AIP, CAR, and MHR values may indicate low prognosis in COVID-19 patients.

Rising health problem of Türkiye, healthcare professionals’ suicides in media

2022-09-29T11:40:41+03:00

It is known that the risk of suicide increases in professionals who are frequently exposed to intensive and stressful working conditions. Health professionals may be susceptible to depression and suicide due to occupational stressors besides risk factors such as violence against healthcare professionals, mobbing and burnout. However, it is noteworthy that there is no institutional data or statistics regarding suicides of healthcare professionals, in Türkiye. In this context, we aimed to reveal sociodemographic characteristics and risk factors related to suicides of health workers by evaluation cases subjected to media. Due to the lack of detailed institutional data, we investigated national media releases and reports between 01/01/2010 and 31/12/2020 in order to extract data regarding suicides of healthcare professionals. Obtained data was discussed in the light of the related literature. During the study period, a total of 138 healthcare professionals were reported to have committed suicide, out of which 69 (50%) were male and 69 (50%) were female. The mean age of the presented cases was 34.79 years. It was determined that 68 (48.28%) victims were medical doctors, and the most frequent suicide method was drug intoxication with a rate of 36.23% (n=50). Health workers’ suicides and dynamics have not been fully revealed and have not been studied sufficiently. In this regard, health policies and a professional approach need to be developed in the light of the information obtained through joint studies by Ministry of Health and Associations/Organizations of Healthcare professionals.

Tracheal intubation is not difficult with flexible bronchoscopy guidance

2022-11-23T17:05:30+03:00

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of flexible bronchoscopy-guided tracheal intubation during difficult airways. We retrospectively evaluated the hospital records of intubated patients with the assistance of a flexible bronchoscope during 5 years-period, (between January 2015 to 2020). All patients were intubated under general anesthesia. A total of 67 patients were enrolled in the study. The majority of the patients were male (n=42, 62.7%). The mean age was 55.5±15.3 years. Mallampati classification was revealed frequently in class IV in 76.1% of cases. Only one patient with class II is evaluated as having a difficult airway because of obesity. The most frequent 3 indications for endotracheal tube (ETT) insertion (intubation) with the help of a bronchoscope were limitation of the mouth opening (40.3%), obesity (20.9%), and cervical-vertebrate fracture (11.9%). The intubation route was preferred as the oral way in 53 patients and the nasal way in 14 patients. The mean duration for ETT intubation via bronchoscopy guidance was 3.38 minutes. There was no severe complication other than transient oxygen desaturation (SaO2) below 90% (n=8, 11.9%) and epistaxis (n=2, 3%) in the complication records of all patients. Intubation with the help of a flexible bronchoscope is an effective, practical, and safe method in patients with a difficult airway.

Evaluation of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis

2022-11-21T14:34:46+03:00

Surgical prophylaxis is one of the areas where antibiotics are used commonly. In this study it is aimed surgical prophylaxis appropriateness and determination of cost analysis in our hospital. The study was performed November 30-15, 2018. 108 patients who underwent surgery in general surgery, orthopedics and neurosurgery clinics have been included in this prospective study. Patient selection was based on the classification of clean and cleancontaminated. Demographics, features of the surgery, applied prophylactic antibiotics and surgical prophylaxis appropriateness were recorded in the forms. All patient information forms were evaluated by infectious disease specialists using the surgical prophylaxis guide. The costs of unnecessary antibiotics were determined. Mean age of 108 patients who underwent a surgical procedure was 52.4 years and 39.8% of the patients were male and 60.2% were female. Of the surgery procedures 75.9% (n:82) were clean and 24.1% (n:26) clean-contaminated. Preoperative 58.3% (63) unnecessary antibiotic prophylaxis was detected. Continuing prophylaxis at a prolonged time were used in 99 (91.7%) patients in the postoperative period. Cefazolin is the most commonly used agent for surgical prophylaxis. The cost of unnecessary and long-term antibiotic use was determined as ₺6983,69. In this study, the time of antibiotic prophylaxis were to be a big problem. Prophylaxis often starts very early and continues for days. The wrong practices in surgical prophylaxis lead to unnecessary antibiotics treatment to the patients and also burden to the budget of the country.

Psychological resilience and stress coping methods in patients presenting with conversive symptoms and general medical symptoms

2022-08-16T07:06:27+03:00

To investigate the differences between the levels of psychological resilience and coping with stress among individuals presenting with conversion symptoms and general medical symptoms to the emergency department. A comparative-descriptive research study was conducted on 118 patients (n = 59) who presented with conversion symptoms (n = 59) and general medical symptoms (n = 59) from the Kafkas University Health, Practice and Research Hospital, Emergency Department. The research data were collected using a general information form, the Stress Coping Styles Scale (SCSS) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). In addition to descriptive statistical methods, chi-square analysis and t-test were used in the evaluation of differences between groups. The mean age of the participants in the conversion symptoms group was 28.10 ± 13.49 and 25.69 ± 7.85 in the control group. The mean score obtained by the participants in the control group on the BRS was found to be significantly higher than that of the participants in the conversion symptoms group (p <0.05). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the mean scores on the subscales of the SCSS (p > .05). Psychological resilience levels were low in patients presenting with conversion symptoms. Based on this finding, individuals presenting to health centers with conversion symptoms would greatly benefit from the development of therapeutic interventions that aim to improve psychological resilience.

Improvement in renal function after empirical steroid therapy in NSAID-induced acute kidney injury

2022-10-14T14:11:18+03:00

We report a case of an 81-year-old woman, who developed acute kidney injury (AKI) during treatment of gout with naproxen. The patient’s other comorbidities were chronic kidney disease grade G3b, chronic heart failure with permanent atrial fibrillation, arterial hypertension, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. After excluding other causes of AKI, a presumptive diagnosis of NSAID-induced acute interstitial nephritis was established. Because of multiple comorbidities and anticoagulation, renal biopsy was not attempted. Since we observed no improvement after naproxen discontinuation, steroid-pulse therapy was initiated, with subsequent oral steroid follow-up. As a result, after several days we achieved improvement in renal function, with complete recovery after couple of months. In conclusion, we suggest that aggressive steroid therapy be considered for patients with presumptive diagnosis of NSAID-induced interstitial nephritis, especially when comorbidities and general state preclude invasive diagnostic measures.