Objective: Healthcare, from a caring science perspective, aims to support the patients’ health processes. All healthcare is, however, not experienced as being caring by the patients. Consequences of abuse in healthcare (AHC) services have effects on the patients’ health and well-being. The aim of this study was to explore experiences of abuse from healthcare professionals among female patients ...

BACKGROUND Psychological distress in healthcare workers may vary across different specialties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in the rate of anxiety and depression between medical and mental healthcare workers. METHODS The sample was randomly selected and consisted of 229 workers from the medical health sector and 212 from the mental health sector, aged 39.8 ± 7....

INTRODUCTION The healthcare system in South Africa is based on the district health system through a primary healthcare approach. Although many vision and mission statements in the public healthcare sector in South Africa state that the service aspires to be holistic, it is at times unclear what exactly is meant by such an aspiration. The term 'holism' was coined in the 1920s and describes the p...

INTRODUCTION Diagnostic radiology is recognised as a key component of modern healthcare. However there is marked inequality in global access to imaging. Rural populations of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the greatest need. Carefully coordinated healthcare planning is required to meet the ever increasing global demand for imaging and to ensure equitable access to services. Howeve...

Patient-centred digital services are increasingly gaining impact in the healthcare sector. The premise is that patients will be better equipped for taking care of their own health through instant access to relevant information and by enhanced electronic communication with healthcare providers. One initiative to provide such services to patients is the Danish national e-health portal, sundhed.dk...

In an effort to improve operational efficiency, healthcare services around the world have adopted process improvement methodologies from the manufacturing sector, such as Lean Production. In this paper we report on four multi-level case studies of the implementation of Lean in the English NHS. Our results show that this generally involves the application of specific Lean 'tools', such as 'kaize...

The national health services (NHS) of England, Portugal, Finland and other single-payer universalist systems financed by general taxation, are based on the theoretical principle of an integrated public sector payer-provider. However, in practice one can find different forms of participation of non-public healthcare providers in those NHS, including private for profit providers, but also third s...

UNLABELLED Medicines are health technologies that can translate into tangible benefits for numerous acute as well as chronic health conditions. A nation's pharmaceutical sector needs to be appropriately structured and managed in order to ensure a safe, effective and quality supply of medicines to society. The process of medicines management involves the sequential management of five critical ac...

Librarians working in the Irish health sector are under threat. This is a relatively young profession in comparison with international counterparts, with a low staffing base even at its peak. The public sector moratorium has led to professionally qualified librarians and library assistants not being replaced right across the health system. Librarians are employed in the HSE, voluntary sector, a...

Doctors working in public healthcare in South Africa are faced with the unique resource constraints prevalent in a developing country. In this context, doctors can use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to obtain better information and decision support. However, the potential of ICTs to improve the healthcare sector will only be realised if individuals decide to adopt the new tec...