background and aim: nurses are among the main contributors to patient care and are in direct contact with patients. nurses’ professional commitment can affect their job satisfaction and retention in nursing and enhance patient safety and care quality. therefore, identifying factors behind their professional commitment is crucial. one of the factors which may affect professional commitment is or...

PURPOSE To examine how professional commitment influences patient safety and patient-perceived care quality. DESIGN Investigators for this study used a cross-sectional design with questionnaires. A total of 348 pairs of nurses and inpatients were contacted at two medical centers in Taiwan during the period from August 2007 to January 2008, yielding 284 pairs of completed questionnaires. MET...

BACKGROUND Morbidity arising from unprepared bereavement is a problem that affects close personal relations of individuals at the end-of-life. The bereavement studies literature demonstrates that a lack of preparedness for a loved one's death is a risk factor for secondary psychological morbidity among survivors. Short awareness time of death negatively correlates to preparedness for bereavemen...

This article contributes a theoretical perspective on aspirations and technology in ICT4D research. The paper draws on the results of a grounded theory study to examine the aspirations for professional development of undergraduate pre-service teachers in South Africa, and the extent to which these are marked by or influence the formation of technology attitudes. It is found that the relations b...

In his seminal work, Truth and Method, the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer distinguishes between three types of what he calls the experience of the 'Thou'. In this paper, Gadamer's analysis of this experience is explained in terms of his philosophical hermeneutics and brought to bear upon the patient-professional relationship. It is argued that while Gadamer's analysis implies fruitful in...