PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the satisfaction of women who underwent normal delivery and cesarean section (or C-section) with maternal care in five state-run hospitals in Northwestern Turkey.Design/methodology/approachThis was a cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 580 women who underwent normal delivery (ND) and 392 who had a C-section (CS). Data were collected using two maternal satisfaction questionnaires, which participants completed right before they were discharged.FindingsMore than half of ND (61.7%) and CS (56.9%) participants were satisfied with maternal care. ND participants who had received antenatal training were more satisfied with maternal care than CS participants who had not received antenatal training. Higher income was a significant predictor for reduced satisfaction with maternal care among CS participants (p = 0.031).Practical implicationsHospital administrators and decision-makers should meet women's expectations, provide them with comfort, encourage them for skin-to-skin contact and respect their right to privacy in order to increase their satisfaction with maternal care. Pregnant women should also be encouraged to receive antenatal training offered by hospitals before delivery.Originality/valueThe evidence-based results of the study will help hospital administrators to improve healthcare quality and focus on increasing women's satisfaction with maternal care.

In The high level communication skills and empathy behaviors of the healthcare professionals is important to achieve better health outcomes, provide high quality of health care, effective patient participation to the treatment and higher patient satisfaction. The aim of this study is to determine levels and relationship between communication skills and empathy tendency of support staff in public hospitals. A descriptive study was conducted between January and June 2015 in all public hospitals (nine hospitals) in Kocaeli. 387 support staff working in public hospitals (receptionist, clinical assistants, patient services assistants and porters) involved to the study. Communication Skills and Empathy Tendency Scales were used in the study. This study indicated that the level of communication skills and empathy tendency of support staff is in medium level, women have higher communication skills (mental and behavioral) and empathy tendency than men. Also it was found that there was a significant relationship between total working experience and emotional, behavioral and general communication skills. In addition, there was significant relationship between sub-dimensions of communication skills and empathy tendency levels. As a result, effective and continuous in-service trainings should be organized to improve communication skills and empathy levels of support staff.

Objective: Hospitals are medical institutions that contain a lot of risk factors. One of these factors is that employees are exposed to radiation. The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness stage of radiology technicians in regards to radiation safety and to emphasize the importance of radiation safety in terms of hospital administration. Methods:The study was carried out on 96 radiology technicians employed in hospitals in Kocaeli province, Turkey. Employees were given a survey obtained from a literature review, a questionnaire on radiation awareness by Turkish Society of Radiology, and other related resources. The results were then analyzed.Results: The majority of the radiology technicians (96.9%) regularly use their personal dosimeters, but only 70.8% of them keep track of the dosimeter results. Usage rates of lead aprons were detected as 26% for both them and their patients. A semantic statistical relation between employees' use of lead apron and their insistence on the patients' use was also detected. More than 61.4% of the employees correctly answered more than half of the test questions regarding their radiation knowledge levels and 89.6% of them stated that radiological requirements should be given importance. Conclusion:Both radiology technicians and hospital administration have very crucial tasks so as to protect healthcare professionals and patients from detrimental effects of radiation. This has irreplaceable importance in diagnosis and treatment in health sector. It has been determined that radiology technicians are qualified in the knowledge level of radiation safety, but they do not pay enough attention to this knowledge in practice.

As violence in society is increasing in recent years it is an important problem in health institutions as well. Changes in health systems

Medikal turizm sağlık turizminin bir türüdür ve ileri tedavi, organ nakli, tüp bebek uygulamaları, estetik cerrahi, saç ekimi, göz, diş, diyaliz tedavileri vb. hizmetlerin alınabilmesi için başka ülkeye gerçekleştirilen ziyaretleri ifade eden bir kavramdır. Sağlık turizminin bir çeşidi olmakla birlikte genellikle sağlık turizmiyle birlikte anılır. Bu çalışmada, İstanbul'da faaliyet gösteren özel bir hastanede çalışan sağlık personelinin medikal turizme bakış açılarının değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Toplam 30 sorudan oluşan bir anket hastanede çalışan 100 sağlık personeline uygulanmıştır. Katılımcılar hasta ile iletişimde, ödemeler konusunda, hastane kurallarında, hasta yakınları ile iletişimde ve aracı kurumlar ile önemli bir düzeyde bir sorun yaşamadıklarını belirtmişlerdir. Yabancı hastaların Türk hastanelerini tercih etme sebeplerini sıralarken ülkemizdeki sağlık hizmet standartlarının yüksek oluşunu, hekim kadrolarının tatmin edici olmasını ve uluslararası tanınırlığını ilk sıralarda göstermişlerdir. Çalışmamızın sonucunda görülmüştür ki, medikal turizmin her iki tarafında bulunan sağlık hizmeti sunucuları ve sağlık hizmeti kullanıcıları açısından olumlu bir durum vardır. Çalışanların eğitimi konusundaki iyileştirmeler ve gerekli tanıtımların arttırılması ile ülkemizin çok daha iyi bir düzeye geleceği düşünülmektedir.