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Objectives In the framework of the EU project 'Improving quality and safety in the hospital: The link between organizational culture, burnout and quality of care', focus groups ( FGs) were conducted to explore hospital environment stressors and their relationship with health care professional ( HP) well-being and quality of care. Methods Semi-structured interviews and FGs were used. Three mixed FGs with 23 health care workers, two FGs with 12 nurses, and another one with nine physicians were conducted. Thematic analyses were performed. Data were coded into main themes and subthemes. Results Three themes emerged from the discussions: (1) Organizational stressors associated with working conditions concerning the nature of the job, workload and working schedule, unclear role definition, lack of time for personal development, interpersonal relationships at work, changes in health policy, (2) work-family spillover and (3) the gendered nature of health care work and of patients' expectations, and the gendered character of the workplace. Conclusions Health care professionals are faced with numerous challenges that create stress affecting their daily life. Job stressors related to working conditions, the negative and positive spillover of work-family interference and the gendered nature of health care work emerged as important issues for Turkish HPs. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? In Turkey, gender has rarely been considered in the healthcare studies., Rapid changes in health reforms are making healthcare professionals more vulnerable to stress., The deteriation in the health system impacts women more than men, as higher ratios work in outsourced services., What does this study add? Despite signifcant changes in attitudes towards women, nurses are treated as 'mothers' of the clinics., Women as health workers are particularly exposed to multiple stressors, that are rooted in ideals about gender., Understanding the way healthcare is organized along gendered lines is a precusor to any real organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Turkey has undergone a 'Health transformation programme' putting emphasis on the reorganization of primary care (PC) services towards a more market-oriented system., Objectives: To obtain a deep understanding of how family physicians (FPs) experienced the process of the reforms by focusing on working conditions., Methods: This phenomenological and qualitative research used maximum variation sampling and 51 FPs were interviewed in 36 in-depth and four focus-group interviews., Results: Thematic analysis of interviews provided seven themes: (1) change in the professional identity of PC physicians (physician as businessperson); (2) transformation of the physician-patient relationship in PC (into a provider-customer relationship); (3) job description and workload; (4) interpersonal relationships; (5) remuneration of FPs, (6) uncertainty about the future and (7) exhaustion. Most FPs felt that the Family medicine model (FMM) placed more emphasis on the business function of family practice and this conflicted with their professional characteristics as physicians. FPs complained that some of their patients behaved as extremely demanding consumers. Continuously increasing responsibilities and extremely high workload were commonly reported problems. Most participants described the negative incentives in the performance scheme as a degrading method of punishment. The main factor was job insecurity caused by contract-based employment. FPs described the point at which they are with terms such as exhaustion., Conclusion: By increasing workload and creating uncertainty about the future and about income, the PC reforms have led to working conditions, which has led to changes in the professional attitudes of physicians and their practice of medicine.

Background: In both developed and developing countries; breast cancer is the major cancer observed in women. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of nursing and mammographic intervention on women with breast cancer between the ages of 50 and 70., Materials and Methods: A training program, which was quasi- experimental and had a pretest-protest design, was applied in Kemalpas?a district of Izmir, between October 2008 and August 2010. The target population was women between the ages of 50 and 70, who were registered in the list of 3rd Family Medicine Unit in Izmir's Kemalpas?a metropolis. A total of 106 women who were in conformity with the study criteria participated in the study. Research data were collected through home visits that included face-to-face interviews; Ministry of Health education material and video films were modified and used for the training. Data analysis was performed through 82 women who were paired at the first and the second phase., Results: It was observed that although the rate of breast self examination significantly increased after the training (p=0.022), the rate of clinical breast examination (p=0.122) and mammographic screening (p=0.523) did not. Differences in the stages of change after training were found to be statistically significant (p<0.001) and the group showed a progression in the stages of change in general (46.3%). In women mean scores of breast cancer awareness (p<0.000), severity (p<0.000), health motivation (p<0.000) and perception of the benefits of mammography (p<0.000) increased significantly and mean score of perception of mammography barriers decreased significantly (p<0.000) after the training., Conclusions: After the training on breast cancer and mammography it was determined that nursing interventions provided positive progression of stages of change of women, affected health beliefs positively and significantly increased BSE incidences. However, it did not have a significant effect on CBE and mammographic screening.

Objective: To verify the incidence of cryptosporidiosis among Turkish elementary school students., Methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Turkey during a 3-month period in 2006. We assessed the fecal samples of 707 children using modified acid-fast and phenol-auramine staining followed by modified Ritchie concentration method. All Cryptosporidium species isolates were analyzed by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to differentiate the genotypes of the isolates. After the coprological examination, 4 samples were found to be positive for Cryptosporidium species oocysts., Results: In the present study, all 4 oocysts were of zoonotic origin and belonged to Cryptosporidium parvum genotype 2 indicating that in Turkey the potential sources of human cryptosporidiosis is from animals., Conclusion: The application of genotyping to clinical isolates of Cryptosporidium has significantly increased our knowledge and understanding of the distribution and epidemiology of this parasite. The PCR and RFLP techniques represent a more rapid and simple method of genotyping to support epidemiological and clinical investigations than conventional analytical DNA techniques.

Many antineoplastic drugs are known to be carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic to humans. There is thus a potential risk due to occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs (CDs). Nurses and pharmacists are the main groups that are exposed to these drugs in the ambulatory care and hospital settings. An analytic cross sectional study was here carried out in order to evaluate the level of knowledge of nurses on the health effects and the routes of exposure to CDs, to clarify the protective measures while handling these agents and to determine the influence of this knowledge on clinical attitudes, behaviour and actual usage of safety measures. The level of knowledge of the nurses concerning antineoplastics was not satisfactory. Findings for nurses' safety behaviour and usage of recommended health safety measures showed that, notwithstanding the rules and regulations pertaining to CDs, nurses did not comply with them fully. In service training is a very effective tool to increase the level of knowledge. This study also revealed the necessity for improvement of the working environment and the availability of appropriate protective equipment.