OBJECTIVES: To investigate the attitudes and skills of grief counseling in the front-line medical workers from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) designated hospitals in Wuhan for the bereaved family members and to provide the basis for proper hospital management strategies. METHODS: The convenience sampling method was applied to select 422 medical workers who kept touch with the bereaved family members in five COVID-19 designated hospitals in Wuhan from January to February 2020. Questionnaire regarding grief counseling attitudes and questionnaire regarding grief counseling skills were used to evaluate the attitudes and skills of grief counseling in medical workers. The scores of grief counseling attitudes and skills in group of different characteristics were further compared. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the attitudes and skills of grief counseling in medical workers. RESULTS: The scores of grief counseling attitudes in medical workers were 15-46 (33.00±9.31). Length of service, professional title, whether or not receiving relevant training, frequency of contact with bereaved family members contributed to impacting the medical workers' attitudes of grief counseling (all <0.05). The scores of grief counseling skills in medical workers were 9-30 (19.30±4.42). Length of service, professional title, religion, whether or not receiving relevant training, frequency of contact with bereaved family members contributed to impacting the medical workers' skills of grief counseling (all <0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between the attitudes and skills of grief counseling in the medical workers (=0.608, <0.01). CONCLUSIONS The attitudes and skills of grief counseling in the medical workers from COVID-19 designated hospitals in Wuhan still need to be improved. Grief counseling group and a long-term, comprehensive training system are recommended.
Attitude of Health Personnel ; Betacoronavirus ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; psychology ; Counseling ; Grief ; Health Personnel ; psychology ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; psychology

INTRODUCTIONIn Singapore, tissue donation is covered under the Medical (Therapy, Education and Research) Act. The objective of this study is to review the demographic and psychosocial factors, which may cause hesitation/unwillingness amongst healthcare professionals towards tissue donation.

MATERIALS AND METHODSA survey comprising 18-items was conducted at the Singapore General Hospital and National Heart Centre Singapore. A total of 521 individuals participated in the survey. Descriptive statistics were performed for the demographic profiles of participants, the factors leading to the support of tissue donation, reasons for hesitation/reluctance to donate tissue and motivating factors to discuss tissue donation with next-of-kin. Pearson's chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were employed to assess possible association between various factors and support towards tissue donation. Analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences V.21.0 software.

RESULTSA total of 64.9% of participants had heard about skin donation; 48.9% had heard about heart valve donation; 4.5% were tissue pledgers. The primary reason for pro-donation was the altruism of "improving someone's quality of life". However, a majority stated they "can decide this in the later part of life" as their main reason for hesitation; 82.3% were willing to discuss their tissue donation wish with next-of-kin, while 53.1% were likely to make the decision of donation on behalf of their deceased next-of-kin.

CONCLUSIONRESULTS highlighted important psychosocial and professional factors that influence the hesitation/ reluctance towards donation. Hence, there is a need to re-strategise educational efforts in accordance with the target audiences and address specific misconceptions and concerns.

Altruism ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Health Personnel ; psychology ; Heart Valves ; Humans ; Motivation ; Skin ; Tissue and Organ Procurement

Health Personnel ; psychology ; Humans ; Love ; Rare Diseases ; therapy

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to study the prevalence of burnout among various groups of healthcare professionals in Singapore. METHODS: An anonymous online survey questionnaire was conducted using the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services to measure three categories of burnout: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA) from July 2019 to January 2020 in a healthcare cluster in Singapore. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 6,048 healthcare professionals out of a target survey population of 15,000 (response rate 40.3%). The study revealed 37.8% of respondents had high EE score ≥27, 29.7% of respondents had high DP score ≥10, and 55.3% of respondents had low PA score ≤33. Respondents with either high EE score or high DP score constituted 43.9% (n=2,654). The Allied Health group had the highest mean EE score, which was significantly higher than those of Medical, Nursing and Non-clinical groups (P<0.05). The Medical group had the highest mean DP score and this was significantly higher than the Nursing, Allied Health and Non-clinical groups (P<0.05). The Non-clinical group had the lowest PA, which was significantly lower than the Medical, Nursing and Allied Health groups (P<0.005). CONCLUSION There was high prevalence of burnout among healthcare professionals in Singapore, especially the allied health professionals. There were significant differences in the 3 categories of burnout (EE, DP and PA) among the different groups of healthcare professionals. There is an urgent need to address the high burnout rate.
Burnout, Professional/psychology* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Personnel/psychology* ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Singapore/epidemiology* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate community mental health professionals and hospital workers attitude and awareness towards suicide. METHODS: This study investigated 264 community mental health professionals and 228 hospital workers. SOQs (Suicidal Opinion Questionnaires) were used from July 2007 to September 2007. After a factor analysis for the attitude towards suicide, the items on ethics, mental illness, religion, risk, and motivation were included in the subsequent analysis. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the attitude towards suicide according to religion, age, educational background, the marriage status, the economic position, and different professional licenses. Hospital workers' view was different from the community workers'. The hospital workers judged that suicide was due to mental illness, and suicide was high for the people in a special environment and who lacked motivation, which caused them to fall in a dangerous situation. For the lower educational group, they thought that suicide was attributable to mental illness. The awareness for suicide was significantly higher in the group with a postgraduate education, unmarried people, mental health professionals and the persons who had concern and experience with suicide. The factors that had an influence on the awareness of suicide were the items of mental illness, religion, risk and motivational factors. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that the factors to increase the awareness and attitude for suicide were the experience of increased education and case management of suicide. Therefore, education dealing with suicide and reinforcement of crisis management programs should be developed.
Adult ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; *Awareness ; *Community Mental Health Services ; Female ; Health Personnel/*psychology ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Personnel, Hospital/*psychology ; Questionnaires ; *Suicide ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of mental health hospital workers. METHODS: Participants in the study were a total of 8 mental health hospital workers who consisted of nurses, social welfare workers and health managers. To prevent them from being omitted, the interviews were all recorded under the participants prior agreement. The method was analysis using the phenomenological method proposed by Colaizzi(1978). RESULTS: The experiences of the participants of this study were classified into 15 significant areas, from which 10 subjects hard work, conflicts, heavy feeling, irritability, getting familiar, changes of recognition, aptitude determination, feeling of achievement and sense of pride were drawn out. These subjects were then grouped into 5 themes. These five themes were finally grouped into 5 categories, negative emotion, depressive emotion, changes of thinking, delight and value discovery. CONCLUSIONS: The study tried to analyze the experiences of key informants like nurses, social welfare workers and health managers all of whom were serving at mental health hospitals, contribute to social recognition about the special medical establishment, promote qualitative mental health nursing and further provide educational information necessary for understanding mental health hospital workers.
Health Personnel/*psychology ; Helping Behavior ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; *Mental Health ; Models, Nursing ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*psychology ; Workplace/psychology

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates lay beliefs about the etiology and treatments of tic disorder and Tourette's syndrome, as well as identifying sociodemographic and personality variables affecting these beliefs among South Koreans. METHODS: In total, 673 participants (mean age 41.77±12.03 years) completed an online survey regarding their beliefs about tic disorder and Tourette's syndrome. The factors related to their lay beliefs about the disorders were analyzed, and the correlates were investigated. RESULTS: Results indicated that lay people in South Korea held strong beliefs that the causes of tic disorder and Tourette's syndrome lie within the parenting/psychological and neurological/biological categories, compared to the dietary/environmental one. Among the sociodemographic variables, sex, age, and levels of subjective mental health knowledge were primarily associated with the aforementioned beliefs. Familiarity with tic disorder and Tourette's syndrome was also associated with these beliefs. Among the personality traits investigated, extraversion and conscientiousness had significant influences on the beliefs people had about tic disorder and Tourette's syndrome. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that both policy makers and mental health service providers should adopt a strategic approach for developing and implementing health education interventions about tic disorder and Tourette's syndrome because individual sociodemographic variables, familiarity with the disorders, and personality traits are all associated with the beliefs about these disorders.
Administrative Personnel ; Extraversion (Psychology) ; Health Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Mental Health ; Mental Health Services ; Recognition (Psychology) ; Tic Disorders ; Tics ; Tourette Syndrome

Death and dying is an ultimate process that every human being must experience. However, in these days we do not like to think or discuss about death and dying. Actually, hatred and denial is the usual feeling when we encounter death and dying. Dying is more than a biological occurrence. It is a human, social, and spiritual event, but the spiritual dimension of patients is too often neglected. Whether death is viewed as a "wall" or as a "door" can have significantly important consequences for how we live our lives. Near death experience is one of the excellent evidences to prove that there should be spiritual component being separated from the human physical body when we experience death. People have called it soul, spirit, or nonlocal consciousness. Caregivers need to recognize and acknowledge the spiritual component of patient care. Learning about death and dying helps us encounter death in ways that are meaningful for our own lives. Among the several learning tools, utilizing cinema with its audio and visual components can be one of the most powerful learning tools in death education.
*Attitude to Death ; Caregivers/education/psychology ; Health Personnel/*education/psychology ; Humans ; Psychodrama

Diagnostic errors can result in tangible harm to patients. Despite our advances in medicine, the mental processes required to make a diagnosis exhibits shortcomings, causing diagnostic errors. Cognitive factors are found to be an important cause of diagnostic errors. With new understanding from psychology and social sciences, clinical medicine is now beginning to appreciate that our clinical reasoning can take the form of analytical reasoning or heuristics. Different factors like cognitive biases and affective influences can also impel unwary clinicians to make diagnostic errors. Various strategies have been proposed to reduce the effect of cognitive biases and affective influences when clinicians make diagnoses; however evidence for the efficacy of these methods is still sparse. This paper aims to introduce the reader to the cognitive aspect of diagnostic errors, in the hope that clinicians can use this knowledge to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes.
Affect ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Cognition ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diagnostic Errors ; psychology ; Humans ; Physicians ; psychology ; Prejudice ; Thinking

INTRODUCTIONTo investigate the attitudes of medical and nursing student towards the older Chinese population.

MATERIALS AND METHODSA reliable and valid Chinese language version of Kogan's Attitudes toward Older People (KAOP) with 17 matched item pairs (34 items) was completed by 275 medical and nursing students. Descriptive data analysis was employed.

RESULTSParticipants reported slightly to have a more positive attitudes (Mean, 144.30 +/- 17.89) than those reported from studies in other countries (Jordanian: Mean, 110.6 +/- 21.79). Students who were females (Mean, 148.27 +/- 18.97), younger (Mean, 146.01 +/- 18.59) and studying nursing (Mean, 156.86 +/- 17.56) were more likely to have a more positive attitudes than older (Mean, 140.04 +/- 15.31), males (Mean, 140.47 +/- 15.93), studying medicine (Mean, 138.77 +/- 15.04).

DISCUSSIONResults show that students may have greater ambivalence attitudes on 10 out of 17 matched item pairs which provides useful information for faculty involved in aged care curriculum design. Working as a volunteer in the university hospital may increase students' interactions with the elderly and may positively influence attitudes towards the elderly.

Aged ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Students, Medical ; psychology ; Students, Nursing ; psychology ; Taiwan