Patient safety culture in out-of-hours primary care services in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional survey

Objective: To examine patient safety culture in Dutch out-of-hours primary care using the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) which includes five factors: teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management and communication openness.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study using an anonymous web-survey. Setting Sixteen out-of-hours general practitioner (GP) cooperatives and two call centers in the Netherlands. Subjects Primary healthcare providers in out-of-hours services. Main outcome measures Mean scores on patient safety culture factors; association between patient safety culture and profession, gender, age, and working experience.

Results: Overall response rate was 43%. A total of 784 respondents were included; mainly GPs (N?=?470) and triage nurses (N?=?189). The healthcare providers were most positive about teamwork climate and job satisfaction, and less about communication openness and safety climate. The largest variation between clinics was found on safety climate; the lowest on teamwork climate. Triage nurses scored significantly higher than GPs on each of the five patient safety factors. Older healthcare providers scored significantly higher than younger on safety climate and perceptions of management. More working experience was positively related to higher teamwork climate and communication openness. Gender was not associated with any of the patient safety factors.

Conclusions: Our study showed that healthcare providers perceive patient safety culture in Dutch GP cooperatives positively, but there are differences related to the respondents’ profession, age and working experience. Recommendations for future studies are to examine reasons for these differences, to examine the effects of interventions to improve safety culture and to make international comparisons of safety culture.

• Key Points

• Creating a positive patient safety culture is assumed to be a prerequisite for quality and safety. We found that:

• ??healthcare providers in Dutch GP cooperatives perceive patient safety culture positively;

• ??triage nurses scored higher than GPs, and older and more experienced healthcare professionals scored higher than younger and less experienced professionals – on several patient safety culture factors; and

• ??within the GP cooperatives, safety climate and openness of communication had the largest potential for improvement.

     

重庆市农村留守儿童接种率现状及其监护人预防接种知信行研究

目的：了解重庆农村地区留守／非留守儿童监护人的预防接种知识、态度、行为现状和知识需求情况,探索相应干预模式。方法对3个项目县的1岁组留守／非留守儿童监护人进行问卷调查并查验儿童接种证获取信息,完成有效问卷1441份。结果留守儿童监护人文化水平低于非留守儿童监护人,留守儿童监护人对预防接种知识知晓率与预防接种行为依从性比例低于非留守儿童监护人。村医对基层预防接种工作开展起主要推动作用。结论建议引入同伴教育的宣传方式深入农村留守儿童家庭中开展宣传教育;针对留守儿童预防接种干预工作的重点是调动村级预防接种人员积极性,加强对农村留守儿童预防接种工作的投入与关心。     

Men's attitudes: A hindrance to the demand for voluntary medical male circumcision – A qualitative study in rural Mhondoro-Ngezi,Zimbabwe

Male circumcision has witnessed a paradigm shift from being regarded as a religious and cultural practice to a global intervention strategy meant to curb transmission of HIV. This is particularly evident in sub-Saharan African countries where the HIV prevalence is greater than 15%. Zimbabwe adopted the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) strategy in 2009; however, since then the uptake of the intervention has only 10% of the adult male population has reported having been circumcised. To better understand this limited uptake of VMMC, we conducted a qualitative study with uncircumcised men aged 15–79 years in Mhondoro-Ngezi, Zimbabwe. Through assessing men's attitudes towards VMMC in seven focus group discussions, conducted between July and August 2012, this article seeks to provide improved strategies for delivering this intervention in Zimbabwe. These data reveal that, in general, men have a negative attitude towards VMMC. Specific barriers to the uptake of VMMC included the perceived challenge to masculinity, post-circumcision stigma, lack of reliable and adequate information and perceptions about the appropriateness of VMMC. These results suggest that structural interventions aimed at reducing stigma related to circumcision, in addition to increased efforts to disseminate accurate information about VMMC, are required in order to dispel men's attitudes that hinder demand for VMMC.     

A Survey of Physicians' Attitudes and Practices about the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine in Hawai‘i

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has the potential to decrease the incidence of several cancers that affect women and men. Despite recommendations by the medical and public health community, and the incorporation of the vaccine into the adolescent immunization schedule, uptake of the vaccine remains well below target goals. To understand potential physician barriers to recommendation and provision of the vaccine, a cross-sectional survey was administered to Hawai‘i pediatricians and family physicians from July 2012 to September 2012 on their attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers regarding HPV vaccination. Surveys were mailed to 465 members of the local pediatrics and family medicine professional chapters, and 87 responses were received for a response rate of 19%. After excluding 14 responses, 73 surveys were included in the analysis. Although almost all of the respondents reported stocking and administering the HPV vaccine in their offices, only 71% reported strongly recommending the HPV vaccine to girls 11–12 years, and only 57% strongly recommend the vaccine to boys 11–12 years old. Lack of insurance coverage and other financial considerations were barriers to provision of the vaccine by physicians. Physicians who felt it is necessary to discuss sexuality with patients prior to recommending the vaccine were significantly less likely to strongly recommend the vaccine to boys 11–12 years old. Public health efforts should focus on addressing the financial barriers and encouraging physicians to recommend the HPV vaccine according to the guidelines.     

肺结核患者健康教育在临床实践中的实施现状与思考

肺结核是一种严重影响人类健康的慢性传染病。我国肺结核患者人数众多,目前结核病仍未得到有效控制。影响结核病治愈率的主要因素是患者较低的治疗依从性。健康教育是提高患者治疗依从性较为经济有效的措施,作者从肺结核患者健康教育的内容、实施方式、效果评价等方面进行综述。     

Narrative medicine as a means of training medical students toward residency competencies

Objective

This study sought to explore the perceived influence of narrative medicine training on clinical skill development of fourth-year medical students, focusing on competencies mandated by ACGME and the RCPSC in areas of communication, collaboration, and professionalism.

Methods

Using grounded-theory, three methods of data collection were used to query twelve medical students participating in a one-month narrative medicine elective regarding the process of training and the influence on clinical skills. Iterative thematic analysis and data triangulation occurred.

Results

Response rate was 91% (survey), 50% (focus group) and 25% (follow-up). Five major findings emerged. Students perceive that they: develop and improve specific communication skills; enhance their capacity to collaborate, empathize, and be patient-centered; develop personally and professionally through reflection. They report that the pedagogical approach used in narrative training is critical to its dividends but misunderstood and perceived as counter-culture.

Conclusion/Practice implications

Participating medical students reported that they perceived narrative medicine to be an important, effective, but counter-culture means of enhancing communication, collaboration, and professional development. The authors contend that these skills are integral to medical practice, consistent with core competencies mandated by the ACGME/RCPSC, and difficult to teach. Future research must explore sequelae of training on actual clinical performance.     

Development of a coronavirus social distance attitudes scale

ObjectiveOur goal was to develop a scale to assess social distance attitudes related to COVID-19.MethodsWe performed an online national survey of US adults (n = 1,074) to assess social distance attitudes, COVID-19 related beliefs and behaviors, and demographics. We assessed scale structure using confirmatory factor analysis and evaluated internal consistency and validity. We assessed association of scale factors with respondent characteristics.ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis supported a hypothesized two-factor solution. Internal consistency was high for both positive (Alpha = 0.92) and negative (Alpha = 0.91) attitude factors. Analyses supported construct and predictive validity with expected associations between scale factors and perceived norms and behavior (e.g. trips out of the home). We found an interaction suggesting that holding highly negative attitudes reduced the effect of holding positive beliefs. Both attitude factors were related to age, gender, race/ethnicity, and political affiliation. Perceived COVID-19 risk (to others but not for self) and perceived severity were consistently associated with higher positive and lower negative attitudes.ConclusionThis COVID-19 Social Distance Attitude Scale contains positive and negative factors with high internal consistency and construct and predictive validity.Practice implicationA greater understanding and ongoing assessment of COVID-19 social distance attitudes could inform policymakers, researchers, and clinicians who seek to promote protective social distance behaviors.     

Family climate in children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol

The family climate has notable impact on cognitive, emotional, behavioural, social and physical development of children and adolescents and can be influenced by parents' health status. The present study aimed at evaluating whether living with a parent with alcohol use disorder negatively influences the perceived emotional family climate, parental attitudes and internal representations of family relationships. Forty-five children living with a parent with alcohol use disorder and 45 controls, matched for sex and age, completed the Level of Expressed Emotion Scale and the Family Attitudes Questionnaire. Their significant parent completed the Parental Attitudes Scale. The results suggested that living with a parent with an alcohol use disorder increased the risk of having perceived higher levels of emotional response, attitude towards illness and expectations from their parents; it also increased the probability of being exposed to lower parental pleasure and of having represented worse family relationships. Emotion regulation interventions might be useful to protect children living with a parent with alcohol use disorder from a potential chaotic and unpredictable family environment.