Seventy children were observed during structured play with their primary professional caregivers and three peers in the child care center and with their primary caregiving parents at home at 15 and 23 months of age. The same structured play tasks were used in the two settings and the quality of the children's interactions with caregivers and parents was rated using the same 7-point scales. As e...

OBJECTIVE Determine the appropriate model for incident study of adverse or undesirable events in more extensive levels from primary to tertiary hospitals across Thailand. MATERIAL AND METHOD The present study was mainly a qualitative research design. Participating anesthesia providers are asked to report, on anonymous and voluntary basis, by completing the standardized incident report form as...

BACKGROUND There is an increasing demand for quality healthcare in the face of limited resources. With the health personnel consuming up to three quarters of recurrent budgets, a need arises to ascertain that a workforce for any health facility is the optimal level needed to produce the desired product. OBJECTIVE To highlight the experience and findings of an attempt at establishing the optim...

BACKGROUND Evidence-based standards for management of the seriously sick child have existed for decades, yet their translation in clinical practice is a challenge. The context and organization of institutions are known determinants of successful translation, however, research using adequate methodologies to explain the dynamic nature of these determinants in the quality-of-care improvement proc...

An Izindaba review of annual reports from 2006 to 2008 shows a growth in departmental staff numbers of 13 360 people and a budget spending increase of R5.5 billion (including a R1.2 billion overspend for 07/08). In spite of the heavy spending, the average of medical specialist vacancies at Pietermaritzburg and Durban’s tertiary hospitals stands at 70% and 63% respectively. Medical officer vacan...

This cross-sectional, analytical and correlational study investigated the existence of Burnout based on a sample of 149 nurses of a university tertiary hospital from October to December 2008 and correlate Burnout with stressors in the hospital work environment. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Nurses' Stress Inventory and a questionnaire to characterize the subjects were applied. The results ...

The mechanisms of linezolid resistance among 86 staphylococcal isolates from two intensive care units were investigated. The most frequent was the G2576T mutation in the 23S rRNA (82%). The cfr gene was found in 17% of the isolates, seven S. aureus and eight S. epidermidis isolates. Four of the S. epidermidis isolates had the G2576T mutation and the cfr gene. In four S. haemolyticus isolates, t...

In October 2005, northern Pakistan was devastated by an earthquake killing 73,000 people. Some of the seriously injured were airlifted to a tertiary hospital in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. This field report describes the psychiatric services delivered at that hospital. It explains how the needs were assessed and psychosocial interventions designed at different levels. The training needs of the ...

The author gives the case history of an evacuation of a child care center and its temporary location at his medical center. Advance planning, he says, is the key to any emergency.

To determine the extent and pattern of influenza transmission and effectiveness of containment measures, we investigated dual outbreaks of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and influenza A (H3N2) that had occurred on a cruise ship in May 2009. Of 1,970 passengers and 734 crew members, 82 (3.0%) were infected with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus, 98 (3.6%) with influenza A (H3N2) virus, and 2 (0.1%) with both. Am...