Health Scope
Year:2022 | Volume:11 | Issue:4|Papers Count:9

Background: Patient transporters have a significant impact on the rate of atonement and property of hospital services. They have several duties in hospitals,therefore, managing them and ensuring their abilities plays a significant role in increasing patient satisfaction. Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the thrust competencies of patient transporters. Methods: This study was an exploratory mixed method carried out in two phases in 2021. In the first phase, different competencies required for hospital workers were identified by interviews. In the next phase, the status of patient transporters’,job competencies was assessed through observation and using a checklist in the teaching hospitals in southeast of Iran. The data from the interviews and the checklist were analyzed using Max QDA 20 and SPSS 22 software, respectively. It should be noted that all interviews were conducted between March 2021 and August 2021. Results: The patient transporter’,job skill was divided into the two main categories of common and specialized skills as well as the six sub-categories of communication, esteem, conduct, chastisement, displacement and transfer, and trade notice based on the findings of the qualitative state. According to the findings, sanitarium porters’,scored higher in terms of maintaining presentable appearances, cleanliness, and hygiene,however, they received lower scores in terms of fitting the patients before moving them and showing an amicable behavior toward them. Conclusions: The results highlighted the need to strengthen the general and specialized skills of patient transporters by adopting different methods. To this end, it was suggested that training courses should be carried out in order to help patient transporters perform their duties more appropriately. It was also recommended that health systemmanagers should increase their awareness of the important role played by patient transporters in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the hospitals.

Background: In developing and underdeveloped countries, medical error is often either not reported or reported improperly for various reasons. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a systematic method to determine how various factors contribute to the occurrence of medical errors. Objectives: The current study analyzed the root cause of one of western Iran’, s biggest general hospitals. Methods: This retrospectiveRCAwasconducted through a qualitative approach in 2019 following the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) protocol in seven steps: Initialization of the process, collecting and mapping information, identifying issues related to care delivery problems (CDP) or service delivery problems (SDP), event analysis, identifying the involved factors in the event-root causes, providing solutions, implementing solutions, and submission of reports. Results: According to the results of this study, 61 cases were examined, and committees accepted the errors in 11 cases. Here, 49 CDP and 13 SDP factors were identified. Care delivery problems factors were selected for all events based on the team’, s viewpoints. Overall, task-related causes (20 cases), individual causes (17 cases), management-related causes (14 cases), training-related causes (8 cases), and causes related to work environment and conditions (7 cases) were specified. Conclusions: Accepting mistakes is the first step in the hope of improvement. In this hospital, only 11 cases of mistakes had been accepted by the authorities. In most cases, the proposed solutions to this issue included personnel training, monitoring system strengthening, and developing and standardizing processes. Overall, this study and other similar studies showed errors during service delivery and through service providers.

Dear Editor, Human resources are one of the most critical determinants of a system’, s efficiency and have a crucial role in healthcare systems relative to other factors. That is why it is unquestionably valuable among all hospital and serviceprovider resources. Without qualified and trained personnel, healthcare functions will be hindered (1). Inadequacies and a decrease in the effectiveness and motivation of human resources will deteriorate the quality of patient care services. Identifying healthcare personnel’, s needs is one of the most frequent challenges hospitals encounter. Therefore, human resource management should be an integral part of the planning for healthcare systems (2). The COVID-19 epidemic has put a tremendous amount of strain on healthcare systems, resulting in a shortage of workers as well as an increase in exhaustion, fatigue, and trauma among healthcare professionals. These pandemicrelated hardships have occurred in a setting of significant predetermined workforce shortagesandanunequal distribution of skilled health workers. In addition, exhaustion, stress, andmental health issues (including a persistent risk of post-traumatic stress disorder) have always been a great concern for health managers and policymakers (3)...

Dear Editor, In December 2019, pneumonia of unknown origin was reported in Wuhan, China. Scientists later identified it as SARS-CoV-2, and the new name nCoV-2019 provided information about it (1), causing many symptoms in affected people (2). The rapid spread of the virus and the lack of definitive treatment caused countries to face large numbers of infected people and created social, economic, and health challenges (3, 4). The form of the epidemic has not been the same in different countries (5). Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 relative to other causes of disease and injury is essential in every country, and understanding and quantifying the combined impact of mortality and morbidity from a disease is a key step in standardizing comparisons across countries (6). In this regard, disability-adjusted life years (DALY) is the best health measure to determine the effectiveness of social and systematic interventions. It is introduced by the World Bank and theWorld Health Organization to quantify the burden of diseases and injuries in studying the global burden of disease. This index, which is a combination of years of life with disability and years lost due to premature death, shows the severity of the disease on a scale of 0 (complete health) to 1 (death) (7). It is widely used to calculate the economic effects of alternative interventions in the health sector...

Context: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, as well as environmental conditions, including temperature and humidity changes, were discussed due to the lack of effective medicine. Methods: The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) were implemented to conduct the present systematic review. The articles were selected from papers published by May 2020 in PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. This meta-analysis estimated relative risk (RR) and pooled mean depicted as effect size (ES) using the random or fixed effects methods. Results: Ten studies met inclusion criteria, four of which addressed the effect of face masks and six of which dealt with temperature and humidity changes. This eta-analysis study showed that wearing face masks against the COVID-19 virus had a remarkable safety impact with RR (%95 CI) 8. 56 (2. 10-34. 90), (I2 = %0. 0 P = 0. 999), and the pooled mean changes in temperature and humidity were estimated to be with ES (%95 CI) 9. 03 (4. 32-13. 74), (I2 = %99. 7, P < 0. 0001) and with ES (%95 CI) 56. 82 (46. 12-67. 51), ( I2 = %99. 3, P < 0. 0001) during the outbreak of the COVID-19. Conclusions: The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis illustrate the effectiveness of face masks, in general, in preventing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. According to the findings, temperature and humidity changes do not increase the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.

Context: Psychological disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are common among young people with substance misuse. Preventive strategies can diminish the negative impact on the society, especially family function. Objectives: The objective of this study was to systematically review the family functions in the risk of serious mental illness among youth with substance misuse. Methods: The main databases Web of Science, PubMed, and SCOPUS were searched for studies published during January 2018-December 202. “, Prevention”, , “, anxiety”, , “, coping”, , “, family”, , “, parents”, , “, patients care plan”, , “, adjustment”, , “, community”, , “, youth”, , and “, drug addiction”,were the keywords searched in the databases. The present review was conducted in 2022. Results: After the screening of articles based on the exclusion criteria, we selected seven studies. The studies were classified as affianced, patience, pulling out, social support, and emotional stability actions. Society and parents, who are the core family members, feel anxious following the drug misuse of the youth. The youngsters felt that these substances were harmful for their health, especially reproductive health. The parents felt very secluded from family and friends. There are different preventive strategies to overcome this behavior. Conclusions: Results of different evaluated studies showed that using emotional strategy is the commontool to prevent substance abuse. Social status and cultural perspective are effective in preventing this issue.

Background: Public participation strengthens the public presence in healthcare. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the dimensions of attracting public participation in the Iranian health system. Methods: A mixed-method research was conducted from May 2019 to July 2020. A comparative study (using the documents of five countries that were selected purposefully), tool design and validation (through holding two expert panels with the participation of 26 people who were selected based on the inclusion criteria), and finalization of the participation framework (field test with the participation of 283 recruited people based on the inclusion criteria) were performed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were applied using SPSS-v26 and AMOS-v26. Results: Forty-eight components on five factors, including citizenship rights and customer orientation, socioeconomic factors, communication with people and non-governmental organizations, research and technology, and managerial and organizational factors with impact factors of 0. 967, 0. 951, 0. 957, 0. 944, and 0. 955 were loaded, respectively. The CFA denoted the approval of the framework with the five mentioned factors. Conclusions: In this study, a framework was developed and approved during different stages. Using this framework, healthcare policymakers can adopt the best strategies for engaging public participation and improving the effectiveness of decisions through evidence-informed policymaking.

Background: This study aimed to investigate COVID-19 protective behaviors of Iranian healthcare workers (HCWs) using an extended parallel process model (EPPM). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted online on a convenience sample of 418 Iranian HCWs in 2020. Data were gathered using a standardized electronic questionnaire published on the Porsline website, designed based on the EPPM, to assess the relationships between different constructs of EPPM and COVID-19 protective behaviors. For data analysis, statistical tests, such as descriptive tests, independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’, s correlation test, and multiple regression analysis, were performed in SPSS version 18. Results: Most participants (40. 4%) were in the age group of 30-40 years, and most were female (70. 6%). Significant associations were found between COVID-19 protective behaviors and EPPM constructs of perceived self-efficacy (r = 0. 373, P = 0. 000), perceived response efficacy (r = 0. 120, P = 0. 014), and intention (r = 0. 462, P = 0. 000). Perceived self-efficacy (P = 0. 000, beta = 0. 398) and behavioral intention (P = 0. 000,Beta = 0. 283) were predictors of protective behaviors. Also, 34. 4% of the HCWs were involved in the danger control process. Conclusions: Only one-third of the HCWs contributed to the process of COVID-19 danger control. The HCWs’,motivation for protection against COVID-19 depended on their perception of self-efficacy and their perceived efficacy of COVID-19 preventive behaviors. The present results can be used to design and implement training programs to improve the protective behaviors of HCWs.

Background: Recent studies indicated the possible relationship between climate change, environmental pollution, and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study reviewed the effects of air pollution, climate parameters, and lockdown on the number of cases and deaths related to COVID-19. Methods: The present review was performed to determine the effects of weather and air pollution on the number of cases and deaths related to COVID-19 during the lockdown. Articles were collected by searching the existing online databases, such as PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, with no limitations on publication dates. Afterwards, this review focused on outdoor air pollution, including PM2. 5, PM10, NO2, SO2, and O3, and weather conditions affecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)/COVID-19. Results: Most reviewed investigations in the present study showed that exposure to air pollutants, particularly PM2. 5 and NO2, is positively related to COVID-19 patients and mortality. Moreover, these studies showed that air pollution could be essential in transmitting COVID-19. Local meteorology plays a vital role in coronavirus spread and mortality. Temperature and humidity variables are negatively correlated with virus transmission. The evidence demonstrated that air pollution could lead to COVID-19 transmission. These results support decision-makers in curbing potential new outbreaks. Conclusions: Overall, in environmental perspective-based COVID-19 studies, efforts should be accelerated regarding effective policies for reducing human emissions, bringing about air pollution and weather change. Therefore, using clean and renewable energy sources will increase public health and environmental quality by improving global air quality.