Core self-evaluation (CSE) is a theory that includes four personality dimensions: self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control and emotional stability. CSE proved to be a significant predictor of the ...research on cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses across various situations in the workplace. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between personality traits of the core self-evaluation and clinical decision-making in nurses' profession. A cross-sectional design was applied. Data was collected with standardized instruments: Core Self-Evaluation Scale and Clinical Decision-Making Nurses Scale, 584 nurses have participated in the study. Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the relations and prediction of variables. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between overall core self-evaluation and nurses' clinical decision-making, and there is a significant contribution of self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control on all dimensions of clinical decision, especially in the area of canvassing of objectives and values. Nurses with high CSE have positive self-views and tend to be confident in their ability and they also feel in control while performing nursing interventions, whereas those with low CSE tend to have fewer accessible positive resources and are more prone to risk aversion.
The aim of this study is to examine the influence of nurses' self-concept (NSC) on clinical decision-making (CDM) among nursing students and hospital nurses. A further aim is to examine whether there ...is a difference in CDM and NSC between hospital nurses with various levels of experience and nursing students. A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2018 in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health and the University Hospital Center, in Osijek, Croatia, EU. The respondents consisted of 568 hospital nurses, and 129 BSc nursing students. Data were collected with the clinical decision-making in nursing scale (CDMNS) and the nurses' self-concept questionnaire (NSCQ). There was no correlation between CDM and NSC in either students or hospital nurses. Hospital nurses generally had significantly higher scores in CDM than nursing students. On the other hand, students had a significantly higher total NSC level. The results of this study suggest that experience has a positive impact on nurses' CDM skills. The high NSC estimated by students enables them to easily take up their clinical roles and approach the patient in a holistic manner, which is an attitude that gradually develops during studies and with clinical experience.
Medical activity is assumed to be service activity the effects of which can be measured. The SERVQUAL scale was used as a starting point for our research, which resulted in a new, adopted scale ...called MEDQUAL. The MEDQUAL scale aims to measure the quality of healthcare provided by medical staff of one hospital department instead of the overall quality of hospital services or parts of services on which medical staff in one department has no influence. The study was conducted in a clinical hospital department in Croatia and included 300 respondents (169 patients and 131 medical staff members). The MEDQUAL scale, designed and tested in the study, showed high reliability in all established dimensions, i.e. trust in doctors (Cronbach's Alpha 0.923), nursing professionalism (0.913), medical professionalism (0.938), and departmental organization (0.810). The scale proposed evaluates both patient satisfaction with the quality of healthcare received and medical staff satisfaction with the quality of healthcare provided. The results were comparable to the groups of respondents, departments, and institutions with potential longitudinal studies of this phenomenon. MEDQUAL is a simple, repeatable and cost-effective scale, applicable to almost all departments and used for measuring the quality of healthcare services both provided and received, the aim of which is to contribute to the assessment of healthcare quality and its improvement.
Introduction: Research on self-esteem and quality of life has been so far predominantly focused on younger age groups. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the differences regarding ...self-esteem and quality of life between the residents of old people's home and the elders living at home. Methods: A questionnaire used in the survey inquired about socio-demographic data and the respondents' activities. It included the respondents' self-esteem assessment, based on the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), the assessment of quality of life, based on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) and the assessment of their functional abilities. The purposive sample included 204 respondents. The research was conducted from November 2012 to March 2013. Results: The respondents in both groups expressed equal satisfaction with life (p = 0.846). The respondents who live in their own home demonstrate higher self-esteem than those who live in old people's home (difference in mean scores of the RSES was 3.4; 95 % CI for the difference from 1.0 to 5.8; t-test for independent samples, p = 0.005). Results of the study suggest that the respondents with higher self-esteem are more satisfied with their life (p = 0.537, p < 0.001). Discussion and conclusion: Self-esteem has to be recognised as a factor associated with the quality of life and should therefore be included in the care of the elderly. Timely and adequate interventions may prevent the decline in quality of life, which requires adequate training of health personnel and family members, and the public awareness.
Aim The aim of this pilot study was to compare knowledge on securitythreats and habits in dealing with computer security issues.Methods Two groups of researchers and teaching staff, portablepersonal ...computer (PC) users, coming from different environmentswere included in the study: School of Medicine (n=19) andSchool of Electrical Engineering (n=20). Participants were askedto complete an anonymous questionnaire consisting of 21 questionsabout basic demographic data, years of using PC, years ofowning/using portable PC, position at the School, habits in dealingwith security issues and knowledge about potential securitythreats.Results Both groups demonstrated similar pattern of behaviourin dealing with security issues. Participants from the School ofElectrical Engineering showed a higher level of knowledge inthree questions about security experts’ terminology (Fisher’s exactP<0.05 for all questions). Results also showed a very low frequencyof making security backups.Conclusion The results of this pilot study indicate that workingenvironment and background do not have a great impact on behaviourof highly educated portable PC users in connection withsecurity issues. However, it seems that information about the importanceof security backups should be presented more often toeach PC user.
Free web‑based e-mail services are considered to have more security flaws than institutional ones, but they are frequently used among scientific researchers for professional communication. The aim of ...this study was to analyze frequency of usage of the insecure free e-mail services for professional communication among biomedical, economical and technical researchers, who published papers in one of three different journals: Croatian Medical Journal, Automatika and Economic Research.
Contact details of the authors who provided their e‑mail address from the papers published in those three journals during one year period were collected. These e‑mail addresses were collected from the electronic archive of the journals in question. The domains of all e‑mail addresses were assessed and contacts were categorized into three groups according to the following types: world-wide known free web‑based e‑mail services, national Internet Service Provider (ISP) e-mail services, and institutional or corporate e-mail addresses.
The proportion of authors using free web-based e-mail services, the least secure group type, was highest among biomedical researchers (17.8%) while every e‑mail address collected from the technical journal belonged to the secured institutional e‑mail group type.
It seems that all researchers from the technical scientific field and most of the researchers from the economical field value good security practice and use more secure systems for professional communication. High percentage of the biomedical researchers who use insecure e‑mail services may mean that they need to be warned of the possible security disadvantages of those kinds of e‑mail addresses.
The contribution disclosure forms used by medical journals to assess and confirm authorship are surveys of self-reported behaviour that follow the cognitive rules of psychometric instruments. We ...sought to analyze how autobiographical memory, defined as memory for events and issues related to oneself, affected the reliability of contribution forms for the judging of authorship of research articles.
We conducted a prospective study, which ultimately included 919 authors of 201 articles submitted to a general medical journal from July 2001 through December 2002. A authorship disclosure form with a checklist of 11 possible contribution choices for all authors was sent first to each article's corresponding author, who was asked to fill it out for all authors. A blank form was then sent to each author individually to disclose his or her own contribution to that article. The main outcome measure was test- retest differences between the corresponding authors' self-declarations, expressed in percent as the gross difference rate (GDR) for each article.
More than two-thirds of the corresponding authors (69.7%) differed in at least 1 contribution choice between the 2 disclosure statements made about their own contributions. The reliability of their answers was low to moderate (GDRs > 10%), especially for contributions on the provision of study materials or patients or final approval of the article (GDR 22.9%), guarantor of the study (GDR 20.9%) and drafting of the manuscript (GDR 20.4%). As a proxy for their coauthors' contributions, corresponding authors also differed from them in the perception of noncorresponding authors' contributions, disagreeing in 69.4% of cases. Of the 718 noncorresponding authors, 204 (28.4%) met all the criteria for authorship set out by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors according to the statement given by the corresponding author. When they described their own contributions, this prevalence increased to 40.5%.
Psychological factors such as autobiographical memory may confound contribution disclosures as an evaluation tool for authorship on scientific articles and affect responsible authorship and publication practices.
Connectedness is a multidimensional human experience that is essential to successful aging. The aims of this cross-sectional study were to assess connectedness and self-perception of successful aging ...in older people, to examine whether there are differences in relation to basic characteristics, and to examine whether there is a connection between connectedness and self-perception of successful aging. The respondents were elderly people in the Republic of Croatia. Data were collected using two validated scales: Croatian versions of the Register–Connectedness Scale for Older Adults and the Self-Assessment Scale of Successful Aging. The study included 824 respondents, of which 319 (38.7%) were men and 505 (61.3%) were women. The median age was 72 years. The median connectivity of the respondents was 8.9 (IQR= 7.6–10.2), and the median rating of successful aging was 3.25 (IQR = 1–5). Spearman’s correlation coefficient ρ (p value) was 0.585 (<0.001). Connectivity was rated better by respondents with a higher level of education, who were married, resided in their own homes, used modern technologies, and were active in the community. There is a significant positive association between connectedness and the self-perception of successful aging overall, as well as in all individual connectedness domains.
Research on self-esteem and quality of life has been so far predominantly focused on younger age groups. Here, Pluzaric et al examine the differences regarding self-esteem and quality of life between ...the residents of old people's home and the elders living at home. Moreover, they suggest that self-esteem has to be recognized as a factor associated with the quality of life and should therefore be included in the care of the elderly. Time and adequate interventions may prevent the decline in quality of life, which requires adequate of health personnel and family members, and the public awareness.
PDF
