Mandatory HIV Testing for Healthcare Workers: Is it Ethical?

The AIDS epidemic has caused hysteria among the public and concern to many healthcare workers in the past 12 years. Currently, legislation exists for mandatory AIDS testing in some populations. The questions remain: Should healthcare workers be routinely tested? If so, is mandatory testing ethical? The author explores the incidence and prevalence of AIDS among healthcare workers, discusses why mandatory testing for healthcare workers is an issue, and examines the legal and ethical principles involved in mandatory testing.     

Prevention and Management of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting: A Look at Complementary Techniques

Complementary modalities, used alone or in combination with pharmacologic therapies, play an important role in the prevention and management of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and post discharge nausea and vomiting (PDNV). This article will review the evidence for the effective use of complementary modalities: acupuncture and related techniques, aromatherapy, and music therapy that may be integrated in the perianesthesia nurse's plan of care to prevent or manage PONV.     

The ethical use of fetal tissue for transplantation and research

The exercise of organ and tissue transplantation is a common occurrence in our society Expectations of future advances in this arena are raising many ethical, moral and public-policy questions The scientific data base supporting the usefulness of fetal tissue to repair or reverse disease is modest, and uses are speculative Should fetal tissue transplantation research proceed and, if so, under what conditions? This paper examines the issues related to the use and procurement of fetal tissue for research and transplantation     

Diploma-prepared nurses' use of technological equipment in clinical practice

Increasingly, nurses throughout the western world are receiving their educational preparation for initial registration in a tertiary environment at either the diploma or bachelor degree level The length of time spent in the clinical setting has been reduced considerably, with the elimination of the apprenticeship system and the role of the student nurse as paid staff member Concurrently, the amount of technological equipment used in the health care sector is both increasing rapidly and now found in general wards, not just the traditional 'high tech' environments It is important to evaluate how well the tertiary experience prepares students in terms of their ability to handle common technological equipment such as infusion control devices or suction pumps In the study reported here 245 diploma-prepared registered nurses completed a questionnaire designed to assess how nurses from tertiary institutions perceived their ability to handle technical equipment in the workplace The majority of the respondents had been working for 7 to 12 months No significant relationship was found between the frequency of use of specific items of clinical equipment and whether that item caused the nurse concern in practice There was also no significant relationship between the frequency of use of an item and whether participants believed that competence should be acquired in relation to that item prior to tertiary graduation Although moderate levels of comfort in the use of technical equipment were reported upon entry to the workplace, subjects rapidly acquired high levels of comfort in relation to equipment handling The implications for hospital administrators and tertiary teaching programmes are discussed     

Job satisfaction in Japanese nurses

This study investigated job satisfaction among nurses in Japan The instrument for measuring occupational satisfaction of hospital nurses developed by Stamps and her associates was used Initial items were reviewed by content experts who were familiar with measurement of work satisfaction among health professionals and nursing practice in Japan Based on the item analysis in the cultural context, several items were reworded or eliminated from the original version Twenty-five items were retained and translated into English by bilingual professionals The questionnaire was administered to 613 nurses Practising in a large, acute-care hospital in a southern part of Japan The results from testing psychometric properties of the translated version of the instrument were satisfactory It may be concluded that nurses in the study were not satisfied but not dissatisfied either On all items, they showed relatively strong commitment to their work However, extrinsic factors such as having little opportunities for promotion or less favourable working conditions appeared to negatively influence job satisfaction in the study The findings support the dual factor theory of Herzberg and also Maslow's theory Considering the lowest scored item, little opportunities for promotion, which reflects the employment system in Japan, administrators, who are usually male medical practitioners, should be made aware of a need for creating clinical ladder opportunities for nurses who would be promoted based on a merit system, instead of the current practice of a seniority system