BACKGROUND Youth-friendly health services are a key strategy for improving young people's health. This is the first study investigating provision of the Youth Friendly Services programme in South Africa since the national Department of Health took over its management in 2006. In a rural area of South Africa, we aimed to describe the characteristics of the publicly-funded primary healthcare faci...

BACKGROUND The physical healthcare environment is capable of affecting patients. This concept of 'healing environments' refers to the psychological impact of environmental stimuli through sensory perceptions. It excludes more physiological effects such as those produced by ergonomic (i.e. fall prevention) or facilitative (i.e. hygiene-related) variables. The importance of an atmosphere in the h...

OBJECTIVE Vaccination against hepatitis A is recommended in risk groups, including healthcare workers. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of antibodies to HAV (IgG) among workers in the healthcare setting in order to establish criteria for vaccination. METHODS A cross-sectional, analytic, observational study of 4,864 employees was undertaken in four healthcare compani...

BACKGROUND Health worker density per 1000 population in Ghana is one of the lowest in the world estimated to be 2.3, below the global average of 9.3. Low health worker motivation induced by poor working conditions partly explain this challenge. Albeit the wage bill for public sector health workers is about 90% of domestic government expenditure on health in countries such as Ghana, staff motiva...

Communication problems among healthcare professionals are known to adversely affect patient care. Web-based healthcare messaging systems (WMS) are seen as a means to improve communication. However, power imbalances among healthcare professionals may affect their communication and WMS use. In this study, we aim to understand how power relations affect WMS usage patterns. The hypotheses are teste...

In their treatment, patients with chronic conditions must remember to perform recurring tasks such as taking their medication or measuring their bodily parameters. They have to document the progression of their condition as well as supply this data to their healthcare providers. To target these problems, we suggest applying a mobile alerting system. To fully exploit the potential of such a syst...

Background: The impact of healthcare ethics educational interventions on participants’ ethical development is rarely reported on and assessed; even less attention is paid to educational interventions that focus on end-of-life ethical issues. Aim: To evaluate the impact of the Ethical Framework for End-of-Life Care Study Sessions Programme (EOLCSS) on the moral development of healthcare staff wh...

Background Smoking cessation advice provided by healthcare professionals can be effective in increasing smoking cessation among patients. Any successful intervention will require staff knowledge of local barriers to implementation. However, the views of Irish healthcare professionals in increasing provision of smoking cessation advice and these barriers are unknown. The aim of this qualitative ...

It is inevitable that healthcare workers throughout their careers will witness actual or potential threats to patient safety in the course of their work. Some of these threats will result in serious harm occurring to others, whilst at other times such threats will result in minimal harm, or a 'near miss' where harm is avoided at the last minute. Despite organizations encouraging employees to 's...

Healthcare institutions face high levels of risk on a daily basis. Efforts have been made to address these risks and turn this complex environment into a safer environment for patients, staff, and visitors. However, healthcare institutions need more advanced risk management tools to achieve the safety levels currently seen in other industries. One of these potential tools is occurrence investig...