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The present study was conducted to determine the extent of observation of patients' privacy by physicians and nurses and its relationship with patient satisfaction. This descriptive correlational study was conducted on 600 patients selected by convenience sampling. Based on the patients' points of view, the level of observation of patients' privacy and its dimensions, especially the psychosocial dimension, were reported to be higher in nurses than in physicians. Pearson's correlation coefficient showed a direct and significant relationship between the observation of privacy by the nurses and physicians and different dimensions of patient satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Health system responsiveness is a complicated issue that guides researchers in determining an efficient methodology to enhance the understanding of health care systems' perspectives. This study examined the relationship between patients' experience profiles and their satisfaction with medical outcomes. Design: The authors used 11 items from the Taiwanese Annual National Health Insurance survey and used latent class analysis (LCA) to develop experience profiles for 2012 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) patients. A logistic regression model was developed to explore differences in patients' satisfaction with their treatment outcome across four groups identified using the LCA, with adjustment for demographic factors. Subjects: Patients' experiences with medical services in TCM in 2015. Outcome measures: Patients' satisfaction with their treatment outcome. Results: Participants (N = 2012) were divided into four groups. Regardless of gender and age, Group 2 (nall) held the lowest satisfaction with treatment outcome relative to those reported by the other three groups (odds ratios with p-value: Group 1 [pall]: 7.40, Group 3 [nComm]: 1.37, Group 4 [Skip]: 2.20, p < 0.001). Respondents with a more favorable patient experience reported higher satisfaction with treatment outcome. Conclusions: An increased favorable treatment experience in TCM (such as positive accessibility and better interpersonal relationships with providers) is associated with higher satisfaction with treatment outcome. The World Health Organization emphasizes that traditional medicine integrated with Western medicine can play an important role in achieving the goal of "Health for All." Health authorities should develop strategies aimed at enhancing patients' experiences in TCM to contribute to a positive care process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The promotion of a positive birth experience has been a main goal of the World Health Organization's (WHO) recent work on improving maternity care. The purpose of this study was to assess the cesarean rates, the prevalence of birth practices, perinatal outcomes, and maternal satisfaction, in women involved with the respectful maternity care (RMC) support groups in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Methods: This was a cross‐sectional study of women with low‐risk pregnancies who were assisted by professionals recommended by the RMC groups. An online questionnaire was administered. Variables to assess birth practices were classified as positive, negative, or unspecified according to the WHO guidelines. The Pearson chi‐square tests and odds ratios (ORs) with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed to assess differences between the groups. Results: Five‐hundred and eighty women completed the questionnaire. The cesarean rate was 14.7%, and the operative vaginal birth rate was 9.5%. The VBAC rate was 87.1%, and there was no significant difference in risk for cesarean between women with or without a prior cesarean. Of all women, 83.1% had a midwife's assistance and 75.5% hired a doula; 81.4% gave birth in a nonlithotomic position. The practices of enema, fasting and episiotomy were all under 2%. All 5‐minute Apgar scores were ≥7. Most (83.1%) women reported having a positive birth experience. Conclusions: Woman's engagement with the birth support groups and a transdisciplinary team focused on RMC are key elements to achieve positive perinatal outcomes and high women's satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study was conducted using a sample of 374 Portuguese occupational therapists to evaluate burnout levels and prevalence among occupational therapists as well as to relate those levels to practitioner age, gender, client age, years of professional activity, and area of practice. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory questionnaire (Portuguese version) and a sociodemographic questionnaire was used. Results showed that ∼23%, 44%, and 45% of occupational therapists presented with client-related burnout, personal burnout (PB), and work-related burnout, respectively. Higher rates of burnout were observed across all dimensions as the age of the professionals increased, with more years of working increased the client-rated rate, and client age increased the PB rate. Outcomes suggest a need to implement intervention programs to promote personal and organizational strategies to prevent burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Extracellular volume fraction (ECV) is altered in pathological cardiac remodeling and predicts death and arrhythmia. ECV can be quantified using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) T1 mapping but calculation requires a measured hematocrit (Hct). The longitudinal relaxation of blood has been used in adults to generate a synthetic Hct (estimate of true Hct) but has not been validated in pediatric populations. Methods: One hundred fourteen children and young adults underwent a total of 163 CMRs with T1 mapping. The majority of subjects had a measured Hct the same day (N = 146). Native and post-contrast T1 were determined in blood pool, septum, and free wall of mid-LV, avoiding areas of late gadolinium enhancement. Synthetic Hct and ECV were calculated and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and linear regression were used to compare measured and synthetic values. Results: The mean age was 16.4 ± 6.4 years and mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 59% ± 9%. The mean measured Hct was 41.8 ± 3.0% compared to the mean synthetic Hct of 43.2% ± 2.9% (p < 0.001, ICC 0.46 [0.27, 0.52]) with the previously published model and 41.8% ± 1.4% (p < 0.001, ICC 0.28 [0.13, 0.42]) with the locally-derived model. Mean measured mid-free wall ECV was 30.5% ± 4.8% and mean synthetic mid-free wall ECV of local model was 29. 7% ± 4.6% (p < 0.001, ICC 0.93 [0.91, 0.95]). Correlations were not affected by heart rate and did not significantly differ in subpopulation analysis. While the ICC was strong, differences between measured and synthetic ECV ranged from -8. 4% to 4.3% in the septum and -12.6% to 15.8% in the free wall. Using our laboratory's normal cut-off of 28.5%, 59 patients (37%) were miscategorized (53 false negatives, 6 false positives) with published model ECV. The local model had 37 miscategorizations (20 false negatives, 17 false positives), significantly fewer but still a substantial number (23%). Conclusions: Our data suggest that use of synthetic Hct for the calculation of ECV results in miscategorization of individual patients. This difference may be less significant once synthetic ECV is calculated and averaged over a large research cohort, making it potentially useful as a research tool. However, we recommend formal measurement of Hct in children and young adults for clinical CMRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:The use of the borderline regression method (BRM) is a widely accepted standard setting method for OSCEs. However, it is unclear whether this method is appropriate for use with small cohorts (e.g. specialist post-graduate examinations). Aims and methods:This work uses an innovative application of resampling methods applied to four pre-existing OSCE data sets (number of stations between 17 and 21) from two institutions to investigate how the robustness of the BRM changes as the cohort size varies. Using a variety of metrics, the ‘quality’ of an OSCE is evaluated for cohorts of approximatelyn = 300 down ton = 15. Estimates of the standard error in station-level and overall pass marks,R2coefficient, and Cronbach’s alpha are all calculated as cohort size varies. Results and conclusion: For larger cohorts (n > 200), the standard error in the overall pass mark is small (less than 0.5%), and for individual stations is of the order of 1–2%. These errors grow as the sample size reduces, with cohorts of less than 50 candidates showing unacceptably large standard error. Alpha andR2also become unstable for small cohorts. The resampling methodology is shown to be robust and has the potential to be more widely applied in standard setting and medical assessment quality assurance and research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]