Female patients in Oman face a certain amount of pressure from their families when making high-stakes decisions regarding personal healthcare. In fact, some women waive their right to make decisions, typically giving that responsibility to their husbands or fathers. This article highlights the need to empower females in decision-making when it comes to their own well-being. Moreover, informed consent should not be signed by anyone but the patient herself if the patient is deemed competent by a medical professional. Keywords: Informed Consent; Female; Decision Making; Clinical Competence; Medical Ethics; Patient Rights; Oman.

Due to the high rate of consanguineous marriages in Oman, there is a correspondingly high prevalence of hereditary blood disorders, particularly sickle cell disease and β-thalassaemia. This article proposes the possibility of implementing mandatory premarital carrier screening for blood disorders in Oman, while giving due consideration to potential social and cultural obstacles. Although the implementation of such legislation would require collaboration between different sectors and may negatively affect the autonomy of certain individuals, mandatory premarital screening would help to alleviate the burden of hereditary blood disorders on the national healthcare system, as well as reduce avoidable suffering among carriers and their families. A s with many arab countries, consanguineous marriages are fairly common in Oman, accounting for 58% of all marriages. Keywords

Background Despite efforts to improve patient safety, medical errors remain prevalent among healthcare workers. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between self-reported medical errors, occupational outcomes and socio-demographic variables. Methods The study employed a cross-sectional design to survey healthcare workers at a large tertiary hospital in Muscat, Oman. The survey questionnaire included socio-demographic variables, a self-assessment of medical errors, work-life balance, occupational burnout, and work-related bullying. Results A total of 297 healthcare workers participated in this study. In this sample, the average self-reported medical errors was 5.4±3.3. The prevalence of work-life imbalance, bullying, and moderate/high burnout was 90.2%, 31.3%, and 19.5%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that gender, nationality, age, profession, occupational burnout, and bullying were significantly associated with self-reported medical error. Being male was associated with higher self-reported medical errors compared to female workers (ß=1.728, p<.001). Omani workers reported higher medical errors compared to their non-Omani colleagues (ß=2.668, p<.001). Similarly, healthcare workers in a younger age group reported higher medical errors compared with those in the older age group (ß=-1.334, p<.001). Physicians reported higher medical error than nurses (ß=3.126, p<.001). Among occupational outcomes, self-reported medical errors increased with higher burnout rates (ß=1.686, p=0.003) and frequent exposure to bullying (ß=1.609, p<.001). Conclusion Improving patient safety has become paramount in the modern age of quality improvement. In this study, medical errors reported by healthcare workers were strongly related to their degree of burnout and exposure to work-related bullying practice. This study makes a unique and tangible contribution to the current knowledge of medical errors among healthcare workers in Oman.

Social media is becoming an invasive part of the lives of many professionals including those in the healthcare field. One of the countless implications of such an invasion is how the healthcare professional’s engagement with social media affects the traditional doctor-patient relationship. The online presence of professionals should be carefully self-monitored as it affects the individual’s reputation and society’s perception of their profession. Therefore, the contents of public and personal accounts must differ according to their purpose. In the public eye, conflicts of interest must be declared and scientifically-based medical advice should be clearly differentiated from experience-based advice, personal opinions or commercial advertisements. Online doctorpatient relationships risk the privacy of patients as well as the personal privacy of the healthcare professional. Personal accounts created for friends and family should be kept separate from public accounts created for educational, professional or commercial purposes. Published educational material should be clearly differentiated from commercial material so that it is easier for the public to make an informed decision. This paper proposes a code of online ethical conduct to be implemented in Oman.Keywords: Codes of Ethics; Social Media; Health Personnel; Privacy; Confidentiality; Conflict of Interest; Physician-Patient Relations; Oman.