The Ramifications of Covid-19 Within the African American Community

The coronavirus (Covid-19) perplexed many aspects of everyday life. Sadly, Covid-19 took a greater toll on African Americans. As Covid-19 developed, medical professionals, health care authorities, and advocates recognized several day-to-day living situations and intrinsic medical conditions that distressed African Americans with higher mortality rates during the pandemic. It is imperative that healthcare leaders understand the ramifications that have occurred and that may continue to surface from the Covid-19 affliction, which could be utilized to adjust and amend current policy surrounding the adversely affected African American population. We explored several substantial questions regarding this pandemic: the perceived reasons for the vast impact of Covid-19 within the African American culture; and what recommendations are needed to aid healthcare leaders in the fight against Covid-19 within the African American community. There are six ramifications that the authors address in this general article, including- employment, poverty, deaths, mental illness, and distrust. We offer suggestions to implement, prevent, and educate the African American public to circumvent these ramifications for present and future pandemics.

Vaccines against COVID-19 through the Eyes of Bulgarian Citizens

The main purpose of the article is to reveal the attitude and behavior of Bulgarian citizens to vaccines and vaccination against COVID-19. To achieve this goal, answers are given to the following questions: 1. What is the state of morbidity of COVID-19 in our country? 2. How are vaccines perceived – reasons “for” and “against”? 3. What is happening with the process of vaccination and what lies ahead? Data from an author’s empirical study “Attitudes of Bulgarian citizens to vaccines and vaccination against COVID-19”, conducted in 2021, have been used.

What led Asian American Buddhist background believers in Hawaii to become Christian: A grounded theory study

The question asked of this grounded theory study was what are the perceived reasons Asian American Buddhist background believers in Hawaii converted to evangelical Christianity? The following factors were perceived as reasons for participants converting to Christianity: an exposure to Christianity, a crisis, a quest or search, and a divine connection—either emotional or miraculous. Studies on transformation or conversion have found a similar pattern (Mezirow, 1991; Rambo, 1993; Tippett, 1992; Ullman, 1989). However, more recent studies have identified an emotional or even supernatural component to conversion that needs to be explored further (Hilderbrand, 2016, 2020, 2021; Iyadurai, 2015; Snook et al., 2018). The outcome of conversion was expressed as a feeling of peace, joy and happiness.

How confident are pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care on anticoagulants? A cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire study in Borneo, Malaysia

Background Anticoagulants are the cornerstone therapy for the management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and atrial fibrillation (AF). Pharmacists should be confident and equipped with the skill and updated knowledge in managing anticoagulation therapy. Objective To explore self-reported confidence level of pharmacists, perceived reasons influencing their confidence and socio-demographic associated with high confidence level in the area of anticoagulation. Methods A cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire survey was carried out among fully registered pharmacists who work in selected government hospitals and clinics in Borneo, Malaysia, from January 2019 to February 2020. Results Overall, responses from 542 fully registered pharmacists were obtained. Proportion of respondents who claimed confident in providing necessary information to patient receiving warfarin (n = 479, 88.3%) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) compared to low molecular weight heparins (n = 317, 58.5%) and direct oral anticoagulants (n = 211, 38.9%). Respondents’ perceived reasons that may influence their confidence level include experience in dealing with anticoagulants’ cases (n = 469, 86.5%), knowledge on anticoagulants (n = 394, 72.7%) and knowledge on diseases needing anticoagulation therapy (n = 311, 57.4%). Practising as ward pharmacist and “always” dealing with anticoagulants during their practice were the socio-demographic that significantly associated with high confidence level of pharmacist in providing pharmaceutical care on all types of anticoagulants (p < 0.05). Conclusion Pharmacists were found more confident in providing pharmaceutical care on warfarin compared to low molecular weight heparins and direct oral anticoagulants. Continuous educational and training programmes on the use of anticoagulants should be carried out to enhance pharmacists’ confidence in supporting patients’ care.

Study of Sports Motivation of Students from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

ABSTRACT. Introduction: The purpose of this article is to analyze the motivation to practice sports and physical activities among university students. Objectives: To identify the perceived reasons, as well as the existing differences between the students from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, regarding the motivation to practice sports and physical activities, depending on the gender and the area of residence. Methods: To find out what motivates university students to take part in various physical sports activities, we conducted a study in the academic year 2019-2020, with 257 participants. The method of quantitative research and the technique of administering questionnaires by sociological survey was used. The research tool was the Sports Motivation Scale-6 (SMS-6; Mallett et al., 2007), which is an evaluation of contextual motivation meant to ascertain the perceived reasons for practicing sports activities. Results: Regarding the behavior of practicing sports among students at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, male students are more motivated compared to female students and intrinsic motivation is predominant compared to other types of motivation. The area of residence does not seem to influence differently the motivation of students to practice sports, the scores obtained on each type of motivation being very close between the respondents from rural and urban areas. Conclusions: Physical education and sports are perceived by some students as a school obligation (external motivation), by others as a recreational, compensatory or recovery activity, while for most of them it means fun, a way to meet new people and to enjoy their company (intrinsic motivation).

Managers from heaven: how do hospitality employees describe good managers?

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the characteristics of good hospitality managers and the core causes that lead to developing such characteristics.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative inquiry approach, 93 line-level hospitality employees were surveyed online regarding their experiences about the characteristics of good managers.FindingsThe research findings revealed five key themes of good managerial characteristics, including interpersonal skills, communication skills, supervisory skills, leadership skills, and positive personality and professionalism. Additionally, the root causes of these managerial characteristics were also analyzed. The good managerial characteristics were perceived to have developed from having worked under either a great manager or a terrible manager.Research limitations/implicationsThis study advanced the literature on managerial characteristics by confirming several existing categories from the viewpoint of hospitality industry employees.Practical implicationsHuman resource managers should be considerate of these findings in terms of recruitment, hiring, and training, development, and promotion of employees in their companies.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to analyze the perceived reasons behind the development of these characteristics.

What do women in rural Bareilly think about postmenopausal bleeding? A mixed-method study

Background: Perception of women about postmenopausal bleeding (PMB) varies across different social, cultural and economic settings and it may have a greater influence on their treatment seeking behavior. Postmenopausal bleeding (PMB) is an alarming sign of a probable underlying cervical/endometrial cancer. Objectives were to explore the perceptions of causes and treatment of postmenopausal bleeding among menopausal women and to quantify the various perceived reasons for PMB.Methods: It was a sequential exploratory mixed methods study design, where two group interviews were conducted with purposively selected eight postmenopausal women (>30 years of age) in each group (qualitative phase) followed by a house-to-house survey among a representative sample of 1530 postmenopausal women (quantitative phase). The qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis and quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics in Epi infoTM 7.Results: Women perceived problems in uterus, cancer, improved nutrition, old age, sudden liberation of stagnant blood from uterus body nature as causes for PMB. Lack of seriousness about PMB, stigma, shyness and lack of resources were stated as barriers for treatment of PMB. Among 1530 women surveyed, 40.8% of them didn’t know the cause for PMB. Problem in uterus, cancer and sudden liberation of stagnant blood from uterus were stated as reasons by 17.6%, 16.8% and 8.7% of respondents respectively. About 15.8% and 13.2% of women stated improved nutrition and old age respectively as cause for PMB.Conclusions: Most of the women did not know the reason for PMB and its awareness is crucial for better uptake of screening to detect any underlying pathology at an early stage.

Patient Satisfaction in Medicine and Dentistry

Health professionals, such as medical and dental clinicians, have scant understanding of patients’ experiences and perceptions of satisfaction. Nevertheless, implementing a patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) research practice in surgical sciences is necessary. Hence, the objective of this article was to better understand patients’ satisfaction with their medical and dental care. The methods of the current article are based on a narrative review of the literature strategy. A literature review was conducted using both EMBASE and Medline databases up to July 12, 2020, by combining keywords and terms related to “satisfaction theories” and “patient satisfaction,” and “medicine” or “dentistry/stomatology/odontology.” Patient satisfaction’s multidimensional nature has been established since the perceived reasons for satisfaction varied widely among patients. Many aspects of treatment influence participant satisfaction at different stages of the intervention process. An improved understanding of the basis for managing patients’ expectations with information reiteratively and efficiently may ultimately reduce patients’ potential for negative feelings toward the medical and dental treatment experience. Lastly, the consumerist method may misrepresent the still undertheorized concept of satisfaction in health service.

Perceptions of students and researchers of food technology towards plagiarism

The pandemic of plagiarism, which is wide-spread all over the world, is incredibly common among the generation of students of secondary, higher secondary and university education.The present study investigates the level of awareness of plagiarism among food technology students in India and to understand their perceptions towards academic dishonesty and reasons behind indulgence in plagiarism. A structured questionnaire was administered to the students and researchers of the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) in India. The findings of the study reveals that 18 per cent, 57.8 per cent and 11.8 per cent of the students are extremely aware, moderately aware and somewhat aware that what constitutes plagiarism and what does not. Most of the respondents believe copying from a publication/book without crediting the source/author is plagiarism (Mean=4.318, SD=1.0041) and plagiarism as stealing (Mean=4.024, SD=.9126). It is also found that busy schedule (Mean=3.67), easy accessibility of electronic resources (Mean=3.69), unwareness of plagiarism instructions (Mean=3.6), poor knowledge of research writing (Mean=3.95) and lack of penalty (Mean=3.4) are the perceived reasons of indulging in plagiarism by the students and research scholars, hence, conducting orientation programmes and workshops on academic integrity, scholarly writings and referencing styles could be helpful in discouraging plagiarism in academic writing among students.