The organizational problems in the postgraduate and additional professional training of military physicians

In the article materials of social research on problems of postgraduate and additional vocational training are analyzed. Original analytical results are received, which characterize real periodicity and volume of increase of qualification of the military doctors, permit deeper to estimate necessity of perfection of military-medical education, put particular questions, concerning improvements of quality of professional training. Research lead to the conclusion about necessity of further scientific search in this direction.     

Job satisfaction among physicians employed in public health services

For several years the high turnover of doctors in municipal public health positions has been a cause of concern in Norway. More information on the causes of the higher turnover, and of factors that could promote greater satisfaction, could provide a basis for discussing what needs to be done. In order to find out the main sources of satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, and their relative importance, a questionnaire was mailed to all doctors in public health positions from 1988 through 1991. They were asked about 12 different aspects of their jobs and general family well-being. 218 (81%) of the doctors who had held such a position for the whole period ("the stable"), and 98 (87%) of those who had quit ("the quitters") responded. Sources of great satisfaction were opportunities for outdoor recreation and the well-being of the family. The doctors were least satisfied with the level of income and the heavy load of work. When asked to state the most important sources of satisfaction, both stable and quitters gave first priority to the professional content of the work and collaboration with colleagues. The stable also gave high priority to general family well-being. For the quitters, an important negative factor was the heavy work load. About 27% of the stable and 42% of the quitters thought the job required too much effort. More of the stable group than of the quitters felt professionally competent, and that they were doing a good job. On the other hand, more of the quitters than of the stable group felt they had little influence on the local health policy, and that the job was uninteresting. In the efforts to reduce the turnover of doctors in public health positions, the health authorities should consider the wider aspects of the job, not just the wage. To increase stability and job satisfaction, greater attention should be given to the professional content of the work, the need for professional collaboration, and the heavy work load.     

The regional characteristics of the health of the population and policy in the public health field

We compared the antimicrobial activities of two rigid gas permeable (RGP) lens care systems, a one-step wetting and soaking system (0.005% chlorhexidine gluconate, 0.02% EDTA) and a conditioning solution (0.006% chlorhexidine gluconate, 0.05% EDTA). The formulations were individually inoculated with approximately 10(6) CFU/mL of a pathogenic organism. Both the one-step wetting and soaking system and the conditioning solution demonstrated good antimicrobial efficacy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Serratia marcescens, and Aspergillus fumigatus. However, the one-step wetting and soaking system provides better disinfection against Candida albicans (1.2 log reduction in 4 hours) than the conditioning solution (0.39 log reduction in 4 hours). The one-step system also reduced S. marcescens by 5 logs in 1 hour, whereas the conditioning solution reduced S. marcescens by about 2 logs only in the same time interval. Although both RGP lens care systems use the same active preservative (chlorhexidine digluconate), the variation in disinfecting activities may be attributed to differences in formulation and buffer systems.     

Continuous system of postgraduate education of physicians in Udmurt Republic

Presents the experience gained by the Izhevsk Medical Institute in two-year training of general practitioners (family physicians): versatile training programs have been developed, as well as individual legislative problems. The program is supplied with training and therapeutic base.     

Sociology in postgraduate training for community medicine

It has been well established that unequal air pressure across the tympanic membrane causes an increase in puretone thresholds. Very little information is available, however, concerning concommitant effects on reception and discrimination of speech material. This study was designed to determine whether or not further detrimental effects upon the communication process might occur in the form of decreased speech discrimination ability. The findings established that a high positive pressure in the external meatus can result in a deterioration of the individual's ability to discriminate speech sounds.     

The Dutch experience with regard to the training for public health

During the last years public Hospitals have experienced a progressive saturation. This has motivated the development of short stay medical units (SSMU) as an alternative to the traditional hospitalization. In our Hospital a SSMU begun to admit patients in April of 1994. During the rest of that year, 1814 were admitted to the unit with a mean hospital stay of 3.22 +/- 2.0 days. 68% of the patients were discharged and 32% were transferred to other units in the Hospital according to their diagnoses. 30% of the patients were seen in an external clinic, by the same medical staff, shortly after the discharge. Since the unit is functioning, the number of ectopic patients of the Department of Medicine decreased to a third and the mean hospital stay of all the medical patients decreased by 3.4 days. We consider that it is possible to achieve a short medical stay with the support of a swift external clinic. The SSMU also improved the allocation of the patients throughout the medical units, and contributed to mitigate the number of the ectopic patients.     

About the nomination and training of family physicians

OBJECTIVE: To study sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequency in lymphocytes of pregnant women with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) infants. METHODS: The frequency of SCE in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 14 pregnant women with IUGR babies and 90 normal pregnant women as well as the umbilical blood of their infants were investigated. RESULTS: The mean frequency of SCE in maternal and umbilical blood with normal pregnancy were 7.58 +/- 0.32 and 5.05 +/- 0.29 respectively, while they were 10.53 +/- 2.69 and 7.25 +/- 1.34 in IUGR group respectively. The difference of SCE levels between the 2 groups of mother was statistically significant (P < 0.01), so was that of the umbilical blood group. CONCLUSION: One of the causes of IUGR may be related to heredity injury. Thus, SCE will be a new diagnostic index to predict IUGR.     

Trends in health legislation and human rights

For the past three or four decades many countries have ranked health as one of their social priorities and have embarked on comprehensive programmes to ensure universal access to health care. In the same period, mostly under the influence of the international community, the protection and promotion of human rights have become an integral part of modern legal theories and, in many countries or regions, these rights have been framed as constitutional norms or as rules paramount to local legislation. Trends observed in recent legislation may lead to infringements of human rights. At the core of these trends are measures, derived from express legislative sources or implemented by having recourse to the use of delegated powers, concerning the allocation of resources and the duty to render assistance. These measures often impact on the rights of an individual and are thus questionable under human rights theories. This article assesses the consequences of these legislative trends and questions the implicit proposal that the balance between individual rights and collective interests should be weighed in favour of the latter.     

Can quality survive in public mental health programs? The challenge for training.

Discusses the critical role of training in the cost-effective delivery of mental health services. It is argued that the expanding knowledge base for psychological interventions and the need to ensure the delivery of quality service have produced a growing pressure for continuing professional education. Mandated program evaluation efforts have been a necessary but insufficient response to this challenge because they have not included the corrective component of training. A review of research on training and adult education indicates that the technology exists for competence-based continuing education, but such programs have yet to be developed. Recommendations for the implementation and funding of training programs are presented. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)