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Introduction. Patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) are faced with bearing this burden and report poor mental health. Spirituality can be a key factor in managing these problems among HD patients. Aim. This cross-sectional study aimed at exploring possible factors that are associated with psychological distress among HD patients and testing its relation to spirituality. Methods. HD patients were recruited from six dialysis units in Greece. Psychological distress was assessed using the scale Symptom Check List 90-R and spirituality using the Facit Sp-12 questionnaire. In addition, a special design questionnaire regarding demographic, social, and clinical characteristic was administrated. Results. According to the results, factors such age, gender, marital status and area of residence are associated with psychological distress, while dimensions of spirituality such Meaning in Life and Peace can have a positive influence on psychological distress. Conclusion. This study highlights the vital role of spirituality, which can act as a mechanism for managing stressful situations. In particular, this study highlights the positive effect of the meaning and purpose of life, as well as the role of peace and harmony.

Background Studies have shown that breastfeeding self-efficacy constitutes a determinant used to forecast breastfeeding behaviours. Objective The aim of this study was to examine the factors associated to breastfeeding self-efficacy and identify its predictors among Greek women in their immediate postpartum period. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at the General Hospital of Volos, Greece. A convenience sample of 120 postpartum women who gave birth at the hospital and met all the inclusion criteria were invited to participate; 100 responded. Questionnaires on socio-demographic, perinatal and breastfeeding-related characteristics, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the Breastfeeding Self-Efficiency Scale were completed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed with the use of the linear regression model. Results Women reported a rather good level of breastfeeding self-efficacy (mean = 3.65; SD = 0.85) in the early postpartum period. 52% of women carried out exclusive breastfeeding in the hospital. The prevalence of postnatal depression was 25%. The best-fit regression analysis revealed four predictors (timing of the mother's decision to breastfeed, infant's feeding pattern, previous breastfeeding experience, levels of postnatal depression) explaining 44.7% of the variance in breastfeeding self-efficacy. Conclusion Acknowledging the determinants which affect breastfeeding self-efficacy of women in the immediate postpartum period is a necessary condition in designing targeted intervention services.

OBJECTIVES The study aimed to assess the impacts of organizational silence and favoritism on work outcomes and psychological wellbeing among nurses working in hospitals. BACKGROUND Literature on the organizational climate among nurses in hospital settings is limited, particularly on favoritism and organizational silence and their effect on nurses. METHODS Purposive sampling was used to gather 549 registered nurses who participated in this cross-sectional study. Standardized self-report questionnaires were used to gather the necessary data. RESULTS Years in the nursing profession (β = .028, P

Objective The aim of this study was to examine associated factors of depression and insomnia in community-dwelling elderly people in order to identify independent predictors. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 older people aged 60 years and over living in an urban area. A stratified random sampling method was used for recruiting samples from five Open Care Centers for Elderly People of the Municipality of Larissa, Greece. Data were obtained through a questionnaire that included demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related characteristics, 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), and Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). Simple and multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. Results The prevalence of depression and insomnia was 28.4% (95% CI: 22.9-33.9) and 39.2% (95% CI: 33.0-45.4), respectively. Our findings showed that the overall GDS-15 score was positively related to the overall AIS score (r = 0.405; p < 0.001). The best-fit regression analysis demonstrated four significant predictors (marital status, monthly income, body weight status, and insomnia) explaining 31.6% of the variance in depression risk. Moreover, community-dwelling elderly Greek people with insomnia symptoms were females, had a lower monthly income, and more likely to suffer from chronic diseases and depression. Conclusion These findings point to the importance of recognizing risk factors for both depression and insomnia in attempting to apply preventive interventions in the elderly and optimize their quality of life.

Older people often feel weak and have limited physical activity and walking capacity, without energy. These characteristics meet the conditions for the onset of the frailty syndrome. The effect that frailty syndrome can have on the elderly's quality of life (QOL) status has not been sufficiently explored, especially in the Greek population. This study aims to investigate the correlation between frailty and QOL in a community population of elderly people with independent living. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed. The study sample consisted of 257 elderly people from three Open Care Centers for the Elderly Population of the Municipality of Grevena, Greece. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator was used to measure frailty in elderly people and the World Health Organization QOL-BREF was used to assess the health-related QOL of older people. The majority of elderly people showed relatively low overall frailty score (mean: 5.44). The elderly people had relatively high QoL assessment values and general satisfaction with their health condition. The obtained results show a statistically significant negative relationship between (i) physical frailty, psychological frailty, and all dimensions of QOL, (ii) social frailty and social relationships, and (iii) total frailty and all dimensions of QOL. Consequently, despite an average age of 75.12 years and higher female participation, the study population was not very frail and were satisfied with their QOL. Frailty has a negative effect in all QOL domains.

Introduction: Elderly suffering from hypertension may also experience other psychological disorders in their daily life, such as depression and anxiety. Moreover, they use spiritual practices to relieve symptoms or comorbidities of hypertension. All these practices produce a calming effect on them. Aim: This study aims at investigating the relation between spirituality and mental health among older adults with hypertension and their sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in Greece. A questionnaire consisting of the sociodemographic characteristics, the FACIT-Sp-12 scale and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was completed by a total of 134 hypertensive elderly (≥65 years of age) persons. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used. Results: The sample consisted of 42,5% males and 57,5% females, aged 65 to 95 years, with a mean age of 78,38 years (SD= 6,68). A statistically significant correlation was found between FACIT-Sp-12 total score and the “physical discomfort (r=-0,562 p

This study aimed to assess the effect of spirituality on quality of life of end-stage renal disease patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD). A cross-sectional study was carried out in six HD Units. The sample consisted of 367 patients averaging 61.8 years of age. For the measuring of spirituality and the quality of life, the FACIT-Sp-12 and the Missoula Vitas Quality of Life Index-15, respectively, were completed. Social and demographic data were, also, collected. Spirituality and its dimensions such as Meaning in Life and Peace had a positive effect on Global QoL, Symptoms, Interpersonal and in Well-being. Spirituality can have a positive effect on the QoL of HD patients. Therefore, in the context of the holistic approach of the individual, health systems can include spiritual evaluation and care of HD patients.

Aim of the study The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity, mental health, and psychological resilience in breast cancer patients. Material and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in an oncology department of a hospital in northern Greece during February and March 2017. The sample consisted of 152 breast cancer patients. Data were collected with the following instruments: Patient Health Questionnaire two-item scale, Generalised Anxiety Disorder two-item scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25, and Centrality of Religiosity Scale. Also, patients' characteristics were included, specifically demographic, social, and clinical information. Statistical analyses were conducted with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences V25. Results According to our results, approximately 1 out of 3 patients had depression and anxiety. Also, the sample had moderate resilience and were moderately religious. Patients who were classified as end-stage cancer patients and those who underwent mastectomy found to be more religious. Religiosity correlated positively with the resilience, while no correlation was found with depression, anxiety, and symptom burden. Based on regression results, religious beliefs seem to be a predictive factor for resilience and resilience is a predictive factor for depression. Conclusions Our findings show that there was no association between religiosity and mental health, while a strong relation was highlighted between religious beliefs and psychological resilience. This study should constitute a starting point for further assessments regarding the fact that religiosity can provide social support that facilitates psychological adaption to illness and helps cancer patients to cope with their illness, which should be recognised by health care professionals.

Introduction: The nursing profession is characterized as one of the most stressful and emotional dementing professions. It is widely agreed that many nurses are experiencing anxiety and depression as a results of their profession. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of depression and anxiety among mental health nurses working in public psychiatric hospitals, in order to identify independent predictors of mental health disorders risk. Material and Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in which 110 mental health nurses who were working in public psychiatric hospitals of Greece participated. The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) questionnaire along with a sheet with basics demographic, social, and work characteristics, including gender, age, marital status, educational level, working experience in nursing, working position and shift, were used as instrument for data collection. Results: The mean age of the nurses was 42.64 years (SD = 5.87 years) and working experience in nursing 15.73 years (SD = 5.64 years). Most participants were women 64.5%, married 59.1% and nursing assistant 53.6%, while 48.2% of them held a higher education degree. A very large percentage found to be classified as depressed (52.7%) and anxious (48.2%) and factors that found to be associated were age, marital status and educational level (for depression and anxiety) and working experience (only for depression). Conclusions: Mental health nurses are in high risk for developing psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. Being single, divorced or widowed, older, with many years of experience and a higher education degree can be predicting factors associated with depression and anxiety in mental health nurses.

We investigated the sources of conflicts in nursing and individual as well as nurse management strategies for conflict resolution, according to certain demographic and work-related characteristics....

III International Conference "Mental Health: global challenges of XXI century" Conference Abstract Introduction: Quality of Life (QoL) among elderly is an important issue that reflects the status of well-being of this vulnerable population. Aim: This study aims to assess quality of life among elderly population and to examine possible correlations with associated demographic, social and health factors. Material and Method: A cross sectional study was conducted, in which 257 elderlies from Greece were participated. For the data collection the WHOQOL-BREF (30-items Greek version) questionnaire was used as well as a questionnaire with questions about demographic data, social & health factors. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations have been utilized. Inferential statistics such as t-test and pearson r correlation have been used to determined correlations between relevant variables. Level of significance accepted is p < 0.05. Results: From the total 257 elderlies 55.6% (n=143) were women and 44.4% (n=114) were men with a mean age 75.12±8.39. The mean score of overall QoL is 14.14±2.87 and the mean of each factor of WHOQOL-BREF is 13.56±2.79 for physical health, 13.61±2.74 for mental health, 13.72±2.60 for social relationships and 13.70±1.96 for environment. Age, marital status, number of children, level of education, residence area, lifestyle, chronic diseases and serious illnesses are the factors that affects levels of QoL among Greek elderly population Conclusions: Results indicates that levels of QoL between elderly are moderate and many demographic, social and health factors are correlated with QoL status.

Αim. To evaluate psychological distress and quality of life of patients with hematological malignancies, as well as to identify the prognostic factors that aggravate their condition. Methods. A cross-sectional, descriptive study including 87 patients with Hematological Malignancies was conducted. Data were collected with an anonymous questionnaire consisted by A) a sheet with socio-demographic characteristics, B) the Depression, Stress and Stress Scale (DASS21), and C) World Health Organization Life Quality Scale (WHOQOL - BREF30). The processing and statistical analysis of the empirical material of the research were done using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) 22.0. Results. The results showed that the age of the sample averaged 71.22 years (SD = 8.71). Regarding their marital status, single mothers were 9.2%, married 62.1%. With regard to disease-related features, 28.7% of patients had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, 27.6% Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, 27.6% MDL and 16.1% of patients had myelodysplastic syndrome Multiple myeloma. In the investigation of the relationship between the Mental health Scale and the Quality of Life, negative correlations of Depression, Stress, Stress and the total DAS Scale with all dimensions of Patient Quality of Life were found. Conclusions. Higher levels of psychological distress and poor mental health are associated with a low level of quality of life.

Aim This study evaluated the role of nurse caring in predicting missed nursing care, adverse patient events and the quality of nursing care. Background Missed nursing care is an issue essential in health care, as it is associated with adverse patient events. While studies have previously examined factors that result in missed nursing care activities and adverse events, the role of nurse caring itself in this context has not yet been explored. Methods A cross-sectional research design was adopted, employing a convenience sample of 549 registered nurses from six hospitals in the Philippines identified between October 2018 and January 2019. Four self-report scales were used in this study as follows: the caring behaviour inventory, the missed nursing care scale, the adverse patient events scale and a single-item scale to measure the quality of nursing care. Results Comforting or talking with patients and changing patients' positioning in bed were the most frequently missed care tasks, while patient/family complaints and patient/family verbal abuse were the most frequently reported adverse events. Nurse caring strongly predicted the quality of care, missed nursing care and patient adverse events. Conclusion Fostering caring behaviours among nurses has a profound effect on nurses' decision to omit or provide nursing care as well as on reducing adverse events and promoting quality nursing care. Implications for nursing management The adoption of strategies to improve caring behaviours among nurses is critically important to prevent or reduce the occurrence of errors and adverse events.

AIMS Educating women regarding breast cancer and increasing breast self-examination uptake continues to remain a major challenge despite the intensive campaigns. An innovative, cost-effective and easily customised intervention is needed especially in under-resourced and hard to reach communities. This paper is a report examining the effects of mobile text messaging on women's knowledge of breast cancer and BSE, BSE self-efficacy and frequency of BSE. METHODS A randomised controlled trial design was used. The study sample consisted of 128 women of reproductive age (WRA) (64 in the experimental group and 64 in the control group) from two communities in the Philippines during the months of August to October 2018. Three to five short messages were sent to the participants in the experimental group daily for one month while the control group did not receive the messages. RESULTS Women who received mobile text messages had higher knowledge of breast cancer (F = 21.756, p = 0.001) and breast self-examination (F = 6.776, p = 0.010) than the control group. However, no significant improvements were seen in the BSE self-efficacy (F = 1.446, p = 0.232) and frequency of BSE (F = 3.374, p = 0.69). CONCLUSION Mobile text messaging significantly improved the knowledge on breast cancer and breast self-examination among women; however, it did not affect their breast self-examination self-efficacy and frequency. Mobile text messaging can be a viable tool that can be used by healthcare workers in order to educate women regarding breast cancer and breast self-examination.

Background Caring is the core and essence of the nursing profession. Nurse educators, are in a key position to role model for perspective nurses the role of caring while including caring as a vital component in a nursing curriculum. Objectives This paper is a report on students' perceptions of instructors' caring behavior in four countries: India, Greece, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Methods This study utilized a quantitative, cross-sectional, comparative approach. A total of 450 nursing students participated with an almost equal nursing student frequency distribution. The main instrument used in this study was the Nursing Students' Perceptions of Instructor Caring (NSPIC). The study was conducted during the months of September 2013 to January 2014. Descriptive statistics, correlations analysis, linear regression model and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data collected. Findings The highest rated subscale in the NSPIC was “instills confidence through caring” (M = 4.268, SD = 0.964), while the lowest ranked subscale was for the subscale “Control versus flexibility” (M = 3.609, SD = 1.076). No significant correlations were found between the NSPIC scale and gender (F = 0.060, p = 0.807), age (F = 3.220, p = 0.073), educational level (F = 0.100, p = 0.752) and family status of students (F = 1.417, p = 0.235), except the country of origin (F = 3.703, p = 0.012, η2 = 0.024). Conclusion With this study as an initial investigation into ascertaining nursing instructors caring focused on a cross-country approach, nurse educators can utilize this information to better portray their role as a nurse educator when being perceived by their nursing students.

Purpose This study explored the prevalence and predictors of postpartum depression (PPD) as well as the utilization and evaluation of PPD services among postpartum women in rural areas of the Philippines. Design and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted. One hundred sixty-five women who visited maternal facilities in the rural areas of the Central Philippines completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Findings The prevalence of PPD was 16.4% at the sixth postpartum week. Occupation and marital status had significant direct influences on PPD. PPD services were not routinely provided by doctors and nurses. Practice implications Our results highlight a greater need to intensify government programs relative to PPD services, specifically related to the early detection and screening of PPD among high-risk pregnancies.

Purpose The aim of this study was to identify perceptions of caring behaviors in student nurses from four countries. Methods This study employed a descriptive, comparative survey design. Four hundred sixty-seven students were recruited from four countries (Nigeria, India, Greece, and the Philippines) to participate in the study during the months of September 2013 to January 2014. Data were collected using the Caring Behavior Inventory. Findings The highest ranked subscale was “assurance of human presence” (4.827 ± 0.927), while “positive connectedness” (4.610 ± 0.949) was the lowest ranked subscale. There were no statistically significant correlations between the Caring Behavior Inventory scale and gender (F = 0.215, p = .643), educational level (F = 0.396, p = .529), and family structure of students (F = 0.680, p = .410), except for age (F = 9.380, p = .002, η2 = 0.141) and the country of origin (F = 5.772, p = .001, η2 = 0.036). Conclusion Students from four countries possess positive caring behaviors, specifically on physically based caring interventions, while there is a need to emphasize expressive caring behaviors during nursing education and training. Implication for Nursing Practice Caring interventions should be carried out in order to help students build or enhance their caring behaviors that can be adapted to clinical situations.

Introduction: Mental disorders are the most stigmatized diseases. Despite the progress in social psychiatry and the adoption of mechanisms that raise awareness in the public, mentally ill patients are continuing to be victims of discrimination. Nurses and health care professionals are working together with patients and their families in order to address issues that are raised by those behaviors. Propose: The present study aims to investigate the nurses’ attitudes towards mental disorders and their relation to the following factors: age, gender, education and working experiences in mental health settings. Material and Method: A group of 160 nurses are recruited who work in psychiatric or general hospitals as well as in community based on rehabilitation facilities. Data are obtained by an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that is consisted by demographic questions and the Opinion on Mental Illness Scale (OMI). Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations is being utilized. Inferential statistics has been used to determine relations between relevant variables. The level of significance which is accepted is p < 0.05. Results: The sample of the study consists of 160 health professionals. The vast majority of the respondents are women (75.3%), while men number to 24.7% of the total. The age of the participants ranges from a low end of 24 years of age, to high end of 56 years, with the average age being 39.40 years a standard deviation of 7.04. Age level of education and working environment yield a statistical significant difference among the respondent scores. Conclusions: Factors such as, age, level of education and working environment seem to be shaping the perceptions that nurses have about mental illness.

Introduction: Burnout is usually defined as a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that results from long-term involvement in work situations that are emotionally demanding. A great deal of researches has been devoted to the understanding of factors contributing to burnout and the negative effects that burnout has in the cost and the quality of the provided healthcare. Discussion: Many researchers believe that in difficult and stressful working conditions the work environment should be changed in order to reduce burnout levels successfully. Indeed, recent studies have highlighted the role of human resources management in burnout. It has been widely recognized that human resource management policies should be at the core of any sustainable solution that aims to increase health care systems performance and efficient. Conclusion: Motivation, leadership, empowerment and confidence are very important factors that should be considered in this direction because they are strongly related with burnout levels.

Spiritual health is one of the important aspects of health status that is often neglected. Aim: the present study aims to evaluate spiritual wellbeing in end stage renal disease patients undergoing hemodialysis and its relation to sociodemographic and clinical variables. Methods: A convenience sample of 183 individuals undergoing hemodialysis was recruited. Measurements were conducted with the following instruments: (a) a sheet containing demographic data and clinical information such as duration of dialysis e.t.c (b) Facit Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (Facit-Sp12). Statistical analysis was contacted with SPSS v.22. Descriptive statistics were initially generated for sample characteristics. Parametric and no-parametric statistics were used for searching the relations between the variables. P values

While stress is gaining attention as an important subject of research in nursing literature, coping strategies, as an important construct, has never been comprehensively reviewed.The aims of this review were: (1) to identify the level of stress, its sources, and (2) to explore coping methods used by student nurses during nursing education.This is a systematic review of studies conducted from 2000 to 2015 on stress and coping strategies in nursing students. CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and PubMed were the primary databases for the search of literature. Keywords including "stress", "coping strategy", "nursing students" and "clinical practice" in 13 studies met the criteria.Stress levels in nursing students range from moderate to high. Main stressors identified included stress through the caring of patients, assignments and workloads, and negative interactions with staff and faculty. Common coping strategies utilized by nursing students included problem-solving strategies such as developing objectives to resolve problems, adopting various strategies to solve problems, and finding the meaning of stressful events.Nurse educators may consider the use of formulation and implementation of empirically tested interventions to reduce stress while enhancing coping skills.

Background: General satisfaction is a personal experience and sources of satisfaction or dissatisfaction vary between professional groups. General satisfaction is usually related with work settings, work performance and mental health status. Aim: The purpose of this research study was to investigate the level of general satisfaction of health care workers and to examine whether there were any differences among employees of medical and mental health sector. Methods: The sample consisted of employees from the medical and mental health sector, who were all randomly selected. A two-part questionnaire was used to collect data. The first section involved demographic information and the second part was a General Satisfaction Questionnaire (GSQ). The statistical analysis of data was performed using the software package 19.0 for Windows. Descriptive statistics were initially generated for sample characteristics. All data exhibited normal distributions and thus the parametric t-test was used to compare mean scores between the two health sectors. P values < 0.05 were defined as reflecting the acceptable level of statistical significance. Results: 457 healthcare workers completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the sample was 41.8 ± 7.9 years. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for GSQ was 0.79. The total mean score of general satisfaction for the employees in medical sector was 4.5 (5=very satisfied) and for the employees in mental health sector is 4.8. T-test showed that these results are statistical different (t=4.55, p

The goal of our study was to evaluate the extent of disease-related knowledge and the need for further information of cancer patients in Greece.We evaluated 203 mentally competent adult cancer patients hospitalized in general and oncological hospitals in the city of Athens and its suburbs. Data were collected by means of semistructured interviews. Patients were evaluated as to whether they had awareness of their diagnosis. Those who did so (n = 83) were further questioned about additional disease-related information.The majority of patients (59%) claimed to have no knowledge of their diagnosis. Women (p = 0.004) as well as high school and university graduates (p = 0.024) showed significantly superior levels of information when compared to men and graduates of elementary schools, respectively. Age was also a factor that influenced the level of the awareness of the diagnosis and the request for additional information: patients who were informed about the diagnosis and patients who asked for more information were significantly younger than their counterparts who ignored the diagnosis (p0.001) and those who didn't ask for further information, respectively (p = 0.03). Hospital specialization (oncological versus general, p0.001) and department specialization (medical versus surgical, p = 0.004) were associated with significantly increased levels of information. The patient's educational level was associated with increased request for additional information (p = 0.006). Most patients with knowledge of their diagnosis requested detailed information about severity of their disease and prognosis. Only 13% of those in the informed group claimed they would have benefited psychologically by having been unaware of their diagnosis.Although Greek patients with diagnoses of malignancies want and need to be adequately informed, the amount of information they receive is inadequate. Over half of those patients evaluated were not aware of their diagnosis. Attitudes of health care professionals, preestablished family beliefs, "mind-set" difficulties, and organizational issues should not become barriers to the patients' right to be fully informed of their diagnoses and choices of potential therapies.

Omissions and errors are commonly found concerning hospital oxygen use and the use of nebulizers. The aim of the study was to record oxygen use in seven hospitals located in a large district city of Greece. Another aim was to record the use of nebulizers in the same hospitals. We included 105 head nurses (HNs) working in seven hospitals of a large city district of Greece. Data were collected after interviewing each HN using a questionnaire and completing an anonymous data form. Data are expressed as percentages and analyzed using the chi-square test. We found that 41% of HN believed O(2) is a gas that improves patient's dyspnea. The majority of the nurses (88.6%) stated that there was no protocol for O(2) therapy in the departments in which they worked. We found that O(2) therapy was commonly started, modified, discontinued by nurses in the absence of a medical order. Oxygen therapy was commonly not guided by arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis. We also found that there are no guidelines to prevent O(2) therapy interruption during intra-hospital transportation, and that few measures were taken to prevent O(2) explosion. In 95.2% of the departments the nebulizers were filled with tap water and were not changed on a daily basis (81.2%). Our results indicate that educational programmes, nursing protocols and guidelines are becoming mandatory in our country in order to ensure the proper use of O(2) therapy and nebulizers.

Introduction: Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) is a chronic disease, which has a negative impact on the quality of patients’ life. The study of factors affecting the quality of life of these patients is necessary to investigate the impact of the disease in a biological, psychological and social level. Aim: The purpose of this research study was to investigate the satisfaction of patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis and their perceptions of their quality of life. Material and Method: The study sample consisted of patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis at a Dialysis Unit in Athens. The study lasted from January 2016 to March 2016. To measure the health related quality of patients’ life, the Greek version of the questionnaire WHOQOL-BREF of the World Health Organization was used. The completion of the questionnaires was made by the method of the structured interview. A total of 70 questionnaires were completed. Results: According to the study results, most of the patients considered the quality of their life as good (48.6%), while the 8.5% described it as bad or very bad. The lowest satisfaction rates associated with issues of physical health and independence with mean (12.89 ± 2.23) and the highest with social relations (14.68 ± 1.50). Conclusion: The effect of Chronic Renal Failure on the physical, psychological and social background of patients on dialysis is an essential factor in creating a tailor-made holistic treatment program, adjusted to the specific needs of each patient.

The clinical learning environment constitutes an initial area of professional practice for nurses and student opinion contributes to its improvement. Purpose :The assessment of students' views and perceptions of a Greek nursing school on their clinical learning environment. Material and Methods :The study was concurrent and included 196 students. We used the published questionnaire “Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI)” which is a tool for identifying and assessing Nursing students' perceptions of the psychosocial characteristics of their clinical learning environment. The questionnaire was anonymous and completed by the students themselves during their clinical training at the hospital. We conducted inductive and descriptive statistics. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The statistical program SPSS 16.0 was used. Results :The highest mean score for the Actual Clinical Learning Environment was observed in the scales of “Personalization” (23.97) and “Task orientation” (23.31) while for the Preferred Clinical Learning Environment in the scales of “Personalization” (27.87), “Satisfaction” (26.82) and “Task orientation” (26.78). The lowest mean score for the Actual Clinical Learning Environment was found in the scales of “Innovation” (19.21) and “Individualization” (19.24) while for the Preferred Clinical Learning Environment in the scales of “Individualization” (22.72) and “Involvement” (24.31). Statistically significant positive correlation was found between “Satisfaction” and all other scales of the CLEI. Conclusions :There is a noticeable gap between the expectations and reality of the clinical learning environment for the students in nursing. Reorganization of the educational framework is needed with an emphasis on innovation and individualization.

Aims and objectives: It is widely recognized that Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients have a greater likelihood of developing pressure ulcers in comparison to hospital or home care patients. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate whether specific clinical characteristics could be used as clinical indicators towards pressure ulcers prevention. Method: We monitored 210 hospitalized ICU patients during a 12-month period. Pressure ulcers were assessed following the current guidelines. Clinical characteristics such as gender, age, hospitalized days, hemodialysis treatment, hematocrit, and serum albumin levels were considered as the most common predictors for pressure ulcers development. The significance of associations was controlled using multiple logistic regression after adjusting for clinical characteristics and was presented as adjusted odds ratio (AOR). Results: The prevalence of pressure ulcers was 24.3%. Logistic regression revealed that patients with increased age AOR=1.04; (CI: 1.01-1.07) and last-long hospitalization AOR=1.17; (CI: 1.11-1.23) were significantly more likely to present pressure ulcers compared to the younger ones and patients with less length of stay, respectively. We also found that patients under hemodialysis treatment were more likely to present pressure ulcers AOR=4.09; (CI: 1.12-14.98) compared to patients that did not underwent hemodialysis and the risk of pressure ulcers development was decreased by 9% for every single unit of hematocrit value increase AOR=0.91; (CI: 0.82-0.99). Conclusion: Our data analysis confirms that the clinical characteristics that were studied are independently associated with pressure ulcers development, and therefore, it is a crucial incentive to consider that these specific clinical characteristics are important indicators in the evidence-based practice.

Medical researches as well as the study of the Earth's surface, better still, geography are interlinked with each other; their relationship dates from antiquity. The science of Geographic Information Systems and, by extension, Geomatics engineering belongs to a discipline which is constantly developing at a global level. This sector has many applications regarding medical / epidemiological research and generally, the social sciences. Furthermore, this discipline may act as a decision making tool in the healthcare sector and it might contribute to the formulation of policies into the healthcare sector. The use of GIS so as to solve public health issues has an exponential increase and has been vital to the understanding and treatment of health problems in different geographic areas. In recent years, the use of various information technology services and software has lead health professionals to work more effectively.