Quality of nursing work life and turnover intention among nurses of tertiary care hospitals in Riyadh: a cross-sectional survey

Background

Nurse turnover has a negative impact on the ability to meet patient needs and provide a high quality of care, which may create more stress on other staff due to increased workloads. This can lead to critical changes in the behavior of nurses towards their jobs resulting in low work satisfaction, low productivity, and leaving the organization. Thus, this study aimed to assess the quality of nursing work life (QNWL), to explore the nurses’ turnover intention and to examine the correlation between QNWL and nurses’ turnover intention.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted on nurses with at least 1 year of nursing experience at two hospitals selected randomly from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: King Fahad Medical City and King Faisal Specialized Hospitals. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire comprising four sections (Brooks’ survey of QNWL, Anticipated Turnover Scale (ATS), open-ended questions and demographic characteristics).

Results

A sample of 364 nurses was recruited. Results proposed that the participants were dissatisfied with their work life (54.7%), with almost 94% indicating a turnover intention from their current hospital. Moreover, 154 (93.3%) out of 165 nurses who reported satisfaction with QNWL indicated the intention to turnover. The correlation between QNWL and ATS for binary variables was too week (r?=???0.024) and statistically not significant (p?=?0.206).

Conclusion

The QNWL and nurse turnover are challenging issues for healthcare organizations because of its consequences and impact on patient care. Our study provided critical findings low indication satisfaction of nurses with their QNWL and a high turnover intention. The results of this study could be used as a nexus for the development of regulations and practical strategies to enhance QNWL and to decrease the turnover.

     

Knowledge and attitudes towards obesity among primary school children in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

Background:

Childhood obesity has increased over the past two decades. Child obesity is likely to persist through adulthood and increases the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) later in life. This study assessed knowledge and attitudes towards obesity among primary school children in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected primary schools in Dar es Salaam. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge and attitudes. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were taken using standard procedures.

Results:

A total of 446 children were included in the analysis. The mean age of the participants was 11.1 ± 2.0 years. The mean body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were 16.6 ± 4.0 kg/m², 103.9 ± 10.3 mmHg and 65.6 ± 8.2 mmHg, respectively. Prevalence of obesity (defined as BMI >95^th percentile for age and sex) was 5.2%. Half of the children (51.1%) had heard about obesity from teachers at school (20%), radio (19.4%) and books/newspaper (17.3%). Less than half (45.4%) had knowledge about the risk factors for childhood obesity and correctly defined obesity (44.6%). However, a good number of the children (72.1%) were aware that they can be affected by obesity. Majority of them had negative attitude towards obesity and various factors leading to or resulting from childhood obesity.

Conclusions:

Knowledge about childhood obesity among primary school children is moderate and have negative attitude towards obesity. Integrating educational programs early in primary schools may be an effective strategy to impact knowledge about obesity and other non-communicable diseases early in childhood.     

Treatment Outcomes and Health Care Resource Utilization in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma Receiving Lenalidomide-only Maintenance,Any Maintenance,or No Maintenance: Results from the Connect MM Registry

Purpose

Maintenance therapy after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) improves clinical outcomes in multiple myeloma (MM), but the effect of continued treatment with lenalidomide-only maintenance, or any maintenance, on health care resource utilization (HCRU) is largely unknown.

Evaluation of antimicrobial activity of secondary metabolites of fungi isolated from Sultanate Oman soil

Seven fungal species were isolated from soil samples collected from the University of Sultan Qaboos, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. The fungal isolates were identified as Aspergillus athecius, A. terreus var. africans, A. flavus, A. terreus, A. foetidus, Fusarium chlamydosporum and F. nygamai. Phytochemical and chromatographic investigation showed variety of secondary metabolites in all of the fugal extracts (extra and intra cellular). The antimicrobial activity of internal and external extracts of the isolated fungal species were screened against Candida albicans, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Streptococcus gordonii, S. mutans. The antimicrobial activity of external secondary metabolites was generally better than the internal metabolites. The highest antimicrobial activity (32?mm, 30?mm and 29?mm) was obtained from external secondary metabolites of Aspergillus flavus against Candida tropicals, Candida parapsilosis and Candida albicans, respectively.     

Preparation and Optimization of N-Acetylcysteine Nanosuspension through Nanoprecipitation: An Artificial Neural Networks Study

Purpose

Nanosuspensions, as a promising strategy to improve the solubility and bioavailability of poorly water soluble drugs, have been widely investigated in recent years. However, no comprehensive work so far has detailed the effect of independent processing/formulation parameters on the quality of the prepared nanosuspension.

Methods

In the present study, the relations between solvent flow rate, stirring rate of antisolvent and surfactant concentration (i.e., inputs) on size, and polydispersity index (PDI) (i.e., outputs) of an N-acetylcysteine nanosuspension were investigated using artificial neural networks (ANNs).

Results and conclusion

The response surfaces, generated as 3D graphs after ANNs modeling, demonstrated that all the three factors have a reverse effect on size and PDI. The dominant factor appeared to be the concentration of surfactant. Overall, it was found that the optimum formulation (i.e., minimum size and PDI value) is obtained at high values of surfactant concentration, solvent flow rate, and stirring rate (i.e., >0.9 mg/ml and 120 ml/h and 500 rpm, respectively).