Rostrum of Asclepius Vol 13, No. 4 (2014): October - December 2014

Stress work place influences the physical and mental well-being of health professionals, reducing performance and negatively affecting health-related quality of life. Aim: The purpose of this review was to investigate the causes of occupational stress and the impact on the professional and personal lives of healthcare professionals. Methodology: It is conducted a literature review of published journals from scientific databases such as Medline, Pub Med, Google Scholar, for the period 1985-2010, using keywords: "health professionals", "stress", “anxiety”, "working environment", "working conditions "," effects of stress on mental health. " Total of 205 studies were found and 48 of them were reviewed for this study. Results: The last fifteen years there was a significant increase of anxiety disorders in workplace and specifically in health organizations (hospitals, private clinics etc). The vast majority of the sample was nurses and practitioner doctors. However it is important to note that because of these cases, (which were persistent and repetitive), there were (increasing), negative impacts in mental and physical health of professionals. These were the key factors, due to which the employees are reluctant to work, or in many cases they think to quit their profession. Conclusions: The work environment in combination with other factors of the life of health professionals helps in triggering anxiety. Although the context is still under investigation by the authorities of health facilities (hospitals, clinics, etc.)Also, health care professionals are invited to acquire knowledge for recognition of anxiety in the workplace and to develop policies and intervention in order to prevent and cope with the phenomenon.

Keywords: Health professionals, anxiety, workplace, conditions, stress, effects of stress on mental health

Feelings of ambivalence, melancholy, despair and fear are usual psychological reactions prior to a surgical intervention. Αim: the main aim of this review is a comprehensive presentation of pre-operative anxiety as well as the analysis of the effectiveness of relevant nursing and psychological interventions. A secondary aim was to highlight the role of the nurse in treating pre-operative anxiety. Method: A search in Greek and international databases (IATROTEK, PubMed, CINAHL) was conducted. The search strategy combined the following key word: preoperative anxiety, nursing, psychological support. Initially, 123 articles were identified (general articles, clinical studies, reviews, and meta-analysis) and after adjustments for duplicate results, the final material of this review were 38 selected articles published during the last decade. Results: Many studies demonstrate the usefulness of preoperative preparation through specialized information and social support interventions in relation to post-surgery adaptation process. The use of methods and strategies that enable the individual to reduce stress and handle the highly-stressing dimensions of the impending surgery have also been proposed. Finally, various psychotherapeutic interventions and other specialized techniques of crisis management as measures to address both the pre-operative anxiety and stress brought about by the disease have also successfully been implemented. Conclusions: The preoperative clinical care must include the systematic treatment of pre-operative anxiety through specialized information. However, behavioral or cognitive interventions that facilitate self-control appear to be more effective and have significant influence on the patient’s postoperative course. Training and education of nurses should be sufficient and part of their continuing education.

Keywords: Pre-surgical stress, nursing, psychological support

The physiologic heart is a muscular powerful pump that twitches with rhythm and pushes her content, the blood, to the circulation. Diseases that influence the good operation of heart are diseases of myocardium and cardiomyopathies. Moreover the two more frequent types of cardiomyopathy are the hypertrophy and the dilated cardiomyopathy or differently the congestive cardiomyopathy. The patients with dilated cardiomyopathy require continuous follow-up and pharmaceutical treatment. The patients that will not have marks of improvement despite the pharmaceutical treatment and their situation is overloaded will need to be submitted in cardiac transplantation. The prognosis of dilated cardiomyopathy was particular adverse while today, the early recognition of illness increases the rate of survival. Recently, has been made a huge progress in identifying genetic causes for each cardiomyopathy.

Keywords: Dilated cardiomyopathy, clinical events, treatment, heart transplantation

Allergic diseases have dramatically increased over the past decades. It is very difficult to identify the reasons for this rapid growth, but experts are examining the contribution of several factors such as air pollution, mainly in urban areas, genetic factors and pets. Also examined is the degree of influence of humidity and temperature and the prevailing conditions at home and work, regarding allergies and generally acquired damages in the conjunctiva of microbes, fungi, mites. After identifying the factors that cause allergies or other damage to the conjunctiva, we move on to the next stage, where we detect and initially emphasize at the best prevention possible, which is usually the removal of harmful factors and changing conditions that cause them, and also the pharmaceutical treatment trying to repair the damage caused.

Keywords: First word, second word, third word

In our country there have been many efforts in recent years to introduce laws that lead to the introduction of the concept of quality in the field of public hospitals. The implementation of health quality systems contributes to health care improvement, while the assessment of quality services is a basic tool in quality management. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe the benefits that can be gained by a public institute of health when a quality model is applied. Material and methods: This paper focus on the application of the ISO 9001:2008 standard in the Intensive Care Unit of the General Hospital of Larissa during the years 2010-2012. The results and benefits of its implementation, recorded by measuring satisfaction of the relatives of the patients. The questionnaire Family Satisfaction with Care in the Intensive Care Unit (FS-ICU 24) and quality indicators were applied. The study sample was all the relatives of the patients hospitalized in ICU during 2010-2012. Descriptive statistics was performed. Results: Quality indicators were considerably improved after ISO implementation with SMR falling to 35% in 2012 (from 58% in 2007), thus being one of the lowest in Greece and below European ICU’s SMR mean value. Over 80% of patients’ relatives answered that Nursing and Medical care was “excellent” and over 10% characterized it as “very good”. Family members’ total satisfaction surpassed 90%. Medical and Nursing care were highly appreciated by family members (very positive attitude expressed by over 90% of participants) and satisfaction from nursing services approaches 100%. Conclusion: The implementation of quality systems in healthcare organizations is not easy and has many dimensions. However, it offers competitive advantage, improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care service providers and substantially contributes to the improvement of the delivered heath care.

Keywords: Quality, satisfaction of the patient relatives, Intensive Care Unit, International Organization for Standardization, nursing care