Comparing Pregnancy and Childbirth-related Hospital Visits in Arizona Before and During COVID-19 Using Network Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe effect on all facets of human society, including healthcare. One of the primary concerns in healthcare is understanding and mitigating the impact of the pandemic on pregnancy and childbirth. While several studies have looked at challenges such as contract tracing of positive cases, predicting confirmed cases and deaths in individuals and communities, few studies have examined differences in hospitalization and treatment of pregnant mothers and infant care in large populations. In this study, the prevalence and co-occurrence of pregnancy and childbirth-related diagnoses reported in Arizona State hospitals for three sixth-month periods - before COVID-19 (second half of 2019), COVID-19 onset (first half of 2020), and COVID-19 (second half of 2020) are analyzed using network analysis. The results show that there are considerable differences in ego networks of few diagnoses during these time periods warranting further investigation into the causality of such population changes.

Job Satisfaction and Quality of Healthcare Delivery: A Cross-Sectional Study in Ogun State Hospitals Management Board, Nigeria

Job satisfaction is vitally necessary in the daily life of the workforce, and the essential elements, materials and mechanism that drives job satisfaction demand great attention. At present, the situation of healthcare workers in the employment of Ogun State Hospitals Management Board, Nigeria, seems to be less satisfied with the policies of the healthcare institutions. The study examined job satisfaction and the quality of healthcare delivery in Ogun State Hospitals Management Board (HMB) in Nigeria. This study adopted a cross-sectional design method and was conducted among the healthcare professionals in the study area. A total of 729 copies of a well-structured questionnaire were administered using a multi-staged sampling technique to obtain information from all the available healthcare professionals in the study area. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings of this study revealed that 12.5 % of healthcare professionals in Ogun State Hospitals strongly agreed, 21.9% moderately, and 32% slightly agreed with the level of satisfaction of the leadership and management styles. 25.7% of the healthcare professionals disagreed (7.4% strongly, 4.0% moderately and 14.3% slightly) that they would recommend employment in the study area. The results further revealed that 47.9% of healthcare workers had a low level of job satisfaction that could lead to many factors. In addendum, 43.6% of the respondents believed that the healthcare delivery was not low but with moderate quality. The study concluded that majority of the healthcare workers had low level of job satisfaction. The quality of healthcare delivery is of medium quality. Finally, this study recommends that there should be an establishment of health and life insurance for health workers; improved health infrastructures; conducive work environment and working conditions; job security; regular and continuous training of healthcare professionals; and attractive rewards and compensation.

An Assessment of Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction of Healthcare Professionals in Ogun State Hospitals, Nigeria

In the healthcare sector, the job satisfaction of professionals and/or healthcare workers plays a profound role in their performance and is further reflected in the health and satisfaction of the patient. In recent times, the healthcare workers in Nigeria were not seen to be gratified with the organizational policies. The various industrial unions of the health care professionals have engaged in several industrial strike actions over the years in an attempt to demand for better remuneration, improved working conditions, increased staff strength, reduction of work overload, and the likes. This situation among the healthcare professional has become worrisome in Ogun State. This study assessed factors influencing job satisfaction of healthcare professionals in Ogun State Hospitals, Nigeria. The study was conducted with a sample of 729 healthcare professionals from the five zonal offices comprising Thirty-Nine (39) Health facilities across the study area. Data and/or items that assessed job satisfaction with management, supervision, nature of work/profession, work environment, salary, benefits, and promotion were subjected to exploratory factor analysis in order to group the major constraints variables. The results showed two orthogonal factors in management, two factors in supervision, five factors in nature of work/profession, three factors in a work environment, and three factors in rewards/compensation, which were derived with total explanations of 50.54%, 61.30%, 58.32%, 58.82%, and 68.68% respectively, of the Variance. Only variables with constraints loadings of 0.60 and above were used in naming the factors. The results further revealed that rewards, opportunities for career development, working conditions, and promotional schemes of the organizations have high associations with job satisfaction, whereas work environment was found to have low significance towards job satisfaction. This study concludes that the Ogun State Hospitals Management Board needs to improve the work environment; attractive rewards/compensation, opportunities for career development, and promotions. Keywords: Factors, Healthcare Professionals, Job satisfaction, Nigeria, Ogun State Hospitals.

The microbiological quality of food in hospitals kitchen in Khartoum State, Sudan

An interventional research was conducted in the kitchens of Khartoum state hospitals 2021 on the impact of microbial quality in (12) hospital. Samples taken from meals, hands, environment, surfaces, equipment, and utensils before and after interventions and measuring results. Questionnaires were filled out with interview with nutrition supervisor about kitchens. The data was statistically analyzed by using the Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 25; the Paired Samples T Test and Chi-Square Test was used and there is an improvement at the level of indication 0.000 at the level (0.05). The results showed that the lack of quality of kitchens in buildings, equipment, utensils, hand facilities and no periodic inspection for raw materials. The study concluded that taken samples has an effective impact on microbial quality. The study recommended that the ministry of health and hospitals to commitment to take samples periodically.

Psychosis Without Meaning: Creating Modern Clinical Psychiatry, 1950 to 1980

Over the last fifty years, American psychiatrists have embraced psychotropic drugs as their primary treatment intervention. This has especially been the case in their treatment of patients suffering from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. This focus has led to an increasing disregard for patients’ subjective lived-experiences, life histories, and social contexts. This transformation of American psychiatry occurred abruptly beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s. My essay looks the ways these major transformations played themselves out in everyday clinical practices of state hospital psychiatrists from 1950 to 1980. Using clinical case records from California state hospitals, I chronicle the ways institutional and ideological forces shaped the clinical care of patients with psychotic disorders. I show there was an abrupt rupture in the late 1960s, where psychiatrists’ concerns about the subjective and social were replaced by a clinical vision focused on a narrow set of drug-responsive signs and symptoms. Major political, economic, and ideological shifts occurred in American life and social policy that provided the context for this increasingly pharmacocentric clinical psychiatry, a clinical perspective that has largely blinded psychiatrists to their patients’ social and psychological suffering.

The effect of training of food handlers in hospitals kitchen in Khartoum State, Sudan

An interventional research was conducted in the kitchens of Khartoum state hospitals 2021 on the impact of training of food handlers in (12) hospitals with (56) food handlers to identify food hygiene requirement. Training was done before and interventions training after. Questionnaires were filled out with food handlers and interview with nutrition supervisor about kitchens. The data was statistically analyzed by using the Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 25; the Paired Samples T Test and Chi-Square Test was used and there is an improvement at the level of indication 0.000 at the level (0.05). The results showed that the majority of food handlers were females (75%), the lack of quality of kitchens in buildings, equipment, utensils, hand facilities, no periodic inspection for raw materials and no any training about food safety and hygiene for all food services staff. The study concluded that training has an effective impact on kitchen quality. The study recommended that the ministry of health and hospitals to design kitchens with standardization and provide training to all workers periodically.