HEALTH SCIENCES QUARTERLY

Emotional problems experienced by mobbing victims and a research model proposal in terms of cognitive behavioral model

Cem Güney Özveren — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

This study aims to review the literature about the emotional problems experienced by mobbing victims in the workplace and present a research model. Defined as a severe source of social stress in the workplace, mobbing systematically involves protracted and escalating conflicts with frequent abusive acts against the target person. Mobbing significantly impacts a victim’s emotional health, which can cause various psychiatric, psychosomatic, and psychosocial issues. Studies have shown that mobbing victims often suffer from anxiety, depression, irritability, psychosomatic symptoms, and sleep disturbances. In addition, they may experience low self-esteem, a lack of social skills, and a sense of submission. The consequences of mobbing go beyond the individual and affect their families and relatives. In this research, a literature review is conducted about the causes, manifestations, and consequences of mobbing. A research model is designed to emphasize the importance of cognitive behavioral techniques in combating emotional problems caused by exposure to mobbing behaviors in the workplace.

The level of knowledge and awareness of teachers in the province of Kayseri for type 1 diabetes mellitus, the adequacy of schools in diabetes mellitus management

Serkan Bilge Koca — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is an important chronic health problem of childhood. Cooperation of parents and teachers is necessary in diabetes management. In our cross-sectional study, a 3-part questionnaire evaluating the educational status of teachers for T1DM was used. Questions consisting of 4 factors were asked about the level of knowledge, awareness, living with diabetes, and school life with diabetes. In scoring the answers given to the questions in the first part, each correct answer was recorded as +1 point, each incorrect answer as -1 point, and ‘I have no idea’ as 0 points. The total score ranged from -21 to +21 points. Those who scored 11 points or more were considered to have a sufficient level of knowledge and awareness about T1DM. The validity of the first part of the
scale, KMO and Bartlett’s test score, was found to be 0.94. The reliability of the first part of the scale, Cronbach’s alpha value, was 0.91. The mean score of the first part of the scale was 9.3±5.1, and range was between -3 to 19 points. In our study, the number of those who scored 11 points or more in the questions measuring the level of knowledge and awareness about diabetes were 268 (46.4%). We observed that the level of knowledge and awareness about diabetes in schools in our province is not sufficient.

Barriers, vaccine hesitancy and attitudes towards the to the covid-19 vaccine in Türkiye

Melike Yalçın Gürsoy, Fatme Chousko Mechmet — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

This study aimed to determine the barriers, vaccine hesitancy and attitudes towards the to the COVID-19 vaccine in Türkiye. A cross-sectional study included 2031 people aged 18 years and older living in Türkiye. Data were collected through an online questionnaire created by the researchers in line with the literature and the Attitudes towards the COVID-19 Vaccine (ATV-COVID-19) scale. In total, 1043 participants (51.4%) defined themselves as vaccine hesitant. The most-motivating factor for vaccination was protecting self and family, while thinking that vaccines are unsafe was the most common barrier against vaccination. Compared to females, being male (OR=0.770) had a 1.3-times (1/0.770) protective effect from vaccination hesitancy, while one unit increase in the ATV-COVID-19 score (OR=0.080) was 12.5-times (1/0.080) protective. As a result of the study, it was observed that there was a high level of vaccine hesitancy due to mistrust of COVID-19 vaccines or fear of side effects. In addition, vaccine hesitancy was associated with gender and the level of attitude towards the vaccine.

Investigation of symptoms and mortality in hypertension patients diagnosed with COVID-19: A retrospective case-control study

Serpil Uyar, Zeynep Yalçınkaya, Fatma Eti Aslan, Hayat Yalın — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

It was aimed to determine whether there is a difference in mortality and symptoms between patients, aged 60 years or above, with hypertension (HT) and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and those without any chronic disease. The population of the study, which was conducted as a retrospective case-control study, consisted of 2747 HT patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and aged 60 years or above. While 170 patients with HT diagnosis formed the case group, 170 patients without any chronic disease formed the control group from the sample. In this study, the time from diagnosis to death was found to be shorter in the presence of HT in COVID-19 patients, while males diagnosed with COVID-19 had higher rates of intensive care unit admittance, intubation and mortality than females irrespective of HT. The presence of HT was determined not to affect symptoms in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The most common symptoms were fatigue, cough, body ache, fever, headache, and sore throat in HT and control groups and the symptoms were similar in both groups. Further studies are recommended to reveal the relationship between HT, considered one of the most important risk factors for COVID-19, and adverse outcomes related to COVID-19.

Clinicians’ perspectives as medical teachers: A qualitative study

Bilge Delibalta, Şükrü Keleş, Selçuk Akturan — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Clinicians both have the responsibility to take care of the patients and to facilitate students to learn. Having different responsibilities at the same time can be stressful for medical teachers and can affect their identity as medical teachers. The aim of the study is to determine and identify approaches to the teaching of medical teachers in a university hospital. The methodology of the research is qualitative research. The educational case study method was used to develop an in-depth understanding of medical teachers’ teaching approaches. We asked the meaning of being a medical teacher, the related factors with teaching, and their best experiences of teaching by individual indepth interview. Nine individual in-depth interviews were held with participants. The most experienced medical teacher has the 27-year of experience and the junior one has 6 months of experience. Three main themes have emerged. The issues at clinical education, teachers’ perspectives on clinical education, and the roles of students and teachers at clinical education. Our study shows the residents, nurses, peer students have roles in clinical education in addition to medical teachers. One of the issues is the limitation to standardize clinical education for each student. All participants mentioned they become an academician for the greater good. The medical teachers are expecting the students to have a high level of situated interest. However, increasing students’ situated interest is up to their prior knowledge of the context, the characteristics of the learning activity, the learning environment, and the approach to the teaching of medical teachers.

The effect of thanatophobia and professional commitment on compassion fatigue in nurses in Türkiye: Cross sectional study

Gönül Gökçay, Yeliz Akkuş — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The study was executed as cross-sectional to unearth the effect of thanatophobia and professional commitment on compassion fatigue in nurses in Türkiye. This study is cross-sectional. 521 nurses were reached by using the regional stratified method. Data were collected online via Google forms between July and November 2021.Data were obtained with the Sociodemographic and Occupational Characteristics Questionnaire, the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale, the Thanatophobia Scale and the Scale of Commitment to the Nursing Profession. Data were evaluated using the number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, One way ANOVA, and using correlation and regression analysis. The mean age of the nurses was 32.22±7.51. Nurses acquired a moderate score on the Compassion Fatigue (64.63±30.89), Thanatophobia (30.69±12.26), and Professional Commitment (67.66±14.33) scales. Thanatophobia predicted Compassion Fatigue at a rate of 41.2% in terms of providing care to a terminally ill patient and thinking about quitting the profession in the near future. Nurses acquired a moderate score on the Compassion Fatigue, Thanatophobia and Professional Commitment scales. It is recommended to evaluate Compassion Fatigue, Thanatophobia, and Professional Commitment in nurses regularly, to provide training for nurses who cared for patients who have fear of death or who have died, to rotate nurses working in this field, and to strengthen the collaboration among employees to increase their commitment to the profession.

A study evaluating the relationship between phubbing levels and empathic attitudes of college students

Fatoş Uncu, Dilek Güneş, Nur Özlem Kılınç, Muhammet Emin Güneş — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between phubbing levels and the empathy attitude of college students. In our descriptive and correlational study, data were gathered from 528 college students studying in the undergraduate program of a university in Eastern Türkiye. Personal information form, Phubbing Scale, and Empathic Tendency Scale were employed as data collection forms. The research’s findings were examined using the SPSS 22.00 package program, and all analyses were judged significant if the p-value is less than 0,05 (p<0.05). The average total scores of the college students were found to be 42.77±19.09 on the Generic Scale of Phubbing (GSP) and 62.52±7.56 on the Empathic Tendency Scale (ETS). We found a significant difference between the mean phubbing and empathic tendency scores of college students and the number of book readings per week, the number of friends, and the meeting with friends weekly. The conclusion was that there was a strong negative and significant association between students’ total mean scores on the ETS and GSP scales (r=-0.581, p=0.00).

Evaluation of ocular and genetic findings in patients with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Özgür Eroğul, Muhsin Elmas, Ayça Nur Demir, Emrah Mat — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominantly inherited disease affecting multiple organ systems and showing many different clinical symptoms. The severity of the disease varies from person to person and progresses gradually over the years. In this study, 17 NF1 patients who had a definite diagnosis were evaluated in terms of genetic, ophthalmological, and nervous system investigations. Approximately 5000 patients who visited medical genetics clinic between 2012 and 2022 are recorded in our archive. In 17 of these patients, a definitive genetic diagnosis was made. In the course of the study, the researchers collected some clinical parameters such as antenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum history and family history. In the family history, the researchers did a detailed pedigree with at least 3 generations of analysis, questioned parental kinship, looked for similar members in families, and identified inheritance patterns of the disorder. Peripheral venous blood samples were taken from the patients and sent to a commercial laboratory for gene panels or WES while the karyotyping was carried out in our laboratory. After obtaining the definitive genetic diagnosis of all patients, we compiled a table with the other parameters we questioned. This study presented the genotype and phenotype findings of NF1 patients. Ophthalmological symptoms in patients were also examined. These new-generation genetic disease diagnosis methods can be routinely used in clinical practice by medical geneticists. The diagnosis of a disease is one step ahead of its treatment. Because if the necessary diagnosis is not made, treatment of the disease is not possible. While this situation was more difficult in the past, nowadays, with the developing technology, diseases can be diagnosed more easily. In NF1 disease, more information can be obtained as a result of genetics, imaging, and examinations of other branches.