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Children's rights must be realized in all children-related settings, such as hospitals. This study aimed to assess children's rights in hospital settings in Afghanistan in 2021. A cross-sectional survey using the World Health Organization questionnaire was conducted. It was distributed among the randomly selected healthcare providers in the studied hospital. One hundred forty-two hospital managers, physicians, and nurses participated in the study. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyze the results in SPSS. In this study, 54.2% of participants were men, 59.9% had a bachelor's degree, and most were 20–30 years old (56.7%). The total score of the hospital in fulfilling children's rights was 1.71 ± 0.46. Among different children's rights, "equality and non-discrimination" received the highest score (2.01 ± 0.59), and the lowest was for "play and learning" (1.1 ± 0.46). There was a meaningful relationship between education level, years of work experience, and the scores given to children's rights. Various dimensions of the rights had significant relationships (p < 0.05). The hospital has taken action to fulfill children's rights. The main gaps include the lack of adolescent-friendly health services, opportunities to play and learn, and child protection. Hospital managers, staff, and the public should be educated on children's rights. Moreover, protocols for improving children's rights and a monitoring system are needed. Children's rights should receive special attention in hospitals. Educating children, parents, service providers, health policymakers, and society about children's rights is essential. They should know their responsibilities regarding children. • In hospital setting of Afghanistan, children rights and child protection system need to improve. • Hospitalized children's rights to play and learn are among the neglected rights. • Hospital managers, staff and the public should be educated on children's rights in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Human resources play a highly important role in providing health services. The aim of this study was to determine the human resources required for the linear accelerator sector at Reza Radiotherapy-Oncology Center. Methods: This applied analytical-descriptive study utilized human resources determination method based on workload indicator of staffing needs. Expert meetings were held to determine the components of workload and standard time. A survey was used to confirm the standard time of main activities, and interviews and personnel information system were used to determine the amount and factors related to available working time. Furthermore, management system and registries were used to determine the annual workload. The data were analyzed using the Excel and SPSS software version 19. Results: Seven factors related to the annually available working time of employees were identified. Annually available working time for employees was set at 806 hours. Patient preparation, treatment, surgery, and case completion were identified as the main activities. The results of workload index calculations showed that the accelerator sector had a shortage of three people. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that Reza Radiotherapy- Oncology Center is experiencing a shortage of professional staff in the linear accelerator sector. It seems that using the workload indicator of staffing needs method to determine and distribute the required human recourses is a necessary step for the optimal management of human recourses in specialized sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient safety is an essential element in the quality of healthcare, and a clear knowledge of its culture in healthcare organizations will lead to both improved healthcare and patient safety. The aim of this study was to assess the patient safety culture at Islamic Azad University hospitals in Tehran, Iran, in 2013. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on clinical and diagnostic staff in all Islamic Azad University hospitals in Tehran in June 2013. The international "Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture" questionnaire was used as the measurement tool. Results: In these hospitals, the overall positive score of patient safety culture was 35%. "Teamwork within units" (48% positive) was evaluated as reflecting the most knowledge of the aspects of patient safety culture, and "nonpunitive response to error" (12% positive) was evaluated as reflecting the least knowledge of the aspects of patient safety culture. Conclusion: The patient safety culture in the hospitals that were studied should be improved. This goal could be achieved by reinforcing the basics of patient safety culture by teaching the staff members about the aspects of a positive patient safety culture and encouraging them to incorporate these aspects in their day-to-day activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient safety is one of the major issues concerning the medical community and the World Health Organization (WHO) in most countries. This study aimed to evaluate the patient safety status in an Eye Hospital in Tehran, using the WHO model for Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Initiatives (PSFHI) in 2012. Methods: This Cross-Sectional study was done in an Eye Hospital in Tehran. Measurement tool was a checklist related to the PSFHI, including 140 standards in three groups of critical, core and developmental. It was covering five domains of: a) Leadership and management, b) Patient and public involvement, c) Safe evidence-based clinical practices, d) Safe environment, and e) Lifelong learning. Results: Compliance with critical, core and developmental standards were 77.78%, 75.29%, and 21.42% respectively. The Rates of Meeting Standards in the leadership and management, patient and public involvement, safe evidence-based clinical practices, secure environment and for lifelong learning were 66.89%, 42.85%, 75.68%, 73.68%, and 63.63% respectively. Conclusions: The PSFHI standards play important role in improving patient safety using leadership, safety practices and creating good working conditions and environment for the staff. So focus on these standards is essential in improving the patient safety in hospitals in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mixed health care systems to work simultaneously on both public and private facilities, is common today. This phenomenon referred to as dual practice (DP), has potential implications for access, quality, cost and equity of health services. This paper aimed to review systematically studies that assess the implications of DP among health workers., Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and The Cochrane library were searched for obtaining published literature between Feb 1990 and May 2014. Google and Google Scholars, organizational websites, and reference lists of relevant papers searched to get grey literature. Only studies concentrated on consequences and impacts of DP among health professionals and conducted using "randomized controlled trials", "non-randomized controlled trials", "controlled before and after studies", or "interrupted time series" were eligible for inclusion., Results: From 3242 records, we focused on 19 studies, which aimed to assess effects and impacts of dual practice. After that, the current understanding of DP positive and negative implications was categorized and discussed based on two perspectives., Conclusion: There has been a propensity to over-reliance on theoretical methods in predicting the implications of this phenomenon. Almost all of the mentioned implications are based on theoretical predictions undermined in the broader literature. Furthermore, assessing the current literature showed positive and negative impacts of DP on different parts of the health system and various dimensions of service delivery. These implications are contexted specific and may vary from system to system.

Background: Physician dual practice is a common phenomenon in almost all countries throughout the world, which could potential impacts on access, equity and quality of services. This paper aims to review studies in physician dual practice and categorize them in order to their main objectives and purposes., Methods: Comprehensive literature searches were undertaken in order to obtain main papers and documents in the field of physician dual practice. Systematic searches in Medline and Embase from 1960 to 2013, and general searches in some popular search engines were carried out in this way. After that, descriptive mapping review methods were utilized to categorize eligible studies in this area., Results: The searches obtained 404 titles, of which 81 full texts were assessed. Finally, 24 studies were eligible for inclusion in our review. These studies were categorized into four groups - "motivation and forces behind dual practice", "consequences of dual practice", "dual practice Policies and their impacts", and "other studies" - based on their main objectives. Our findings showed a dearth of scientifically reliable literature in some areas of dual practice, like the prevalence of the phenomenon, the real consequences of it, and the impacts of the implemented policy measures., Conclusion: Rigorous empirical and evaluative studies should be designed to detect the real consequences of DP and assess the effects of interventions and regulations, which governments have implemented in this field.

Background: Inequality in households' payments on food and health expenditures presents the accessibility and utilization patterns between them. This study investigated the Iranian rural and urban households' inequality in payments on food and Out-of-Pocket health expenditures from 1998 to 2012., Methods: This descriptive study was conducted through the analysis of Iranian Statistics Centre data on Iranian households' income and expenditures. The Gini Coefficients, Concentration and Kakwani indices have been calculated for Iranian rural and urban households' Out-of-Pocket health and food expenditures., Results: The means of Iranian rural and urban total consumption expenditures inequality were 0.48 and 0.48, respectively. The means of concentration index of food expenditures for rural and urban regions were 0.35 and 0.34, respectively. The means of Out-of-Pocket payments for health services for rural and urban regions were 0.51 and 0.5, respectively. Finally the means of Kakwani index of Out-of-Pocket health payments in rural and urban households were -0.005 and -0.018, respectively., Conclusion: There are relative high levels of inequality in Iranian households' payments on food and Out-of-Pocket health expenditures.