Volume 4 Issue 3
Authors: David E. Bukusi; Donald A. Kokonya; John M. Mburu; Dammas M. Kathuku; Ndetei, D. M.; Desire A. Nshimirimana; Adam H. Adam; Louise Mapleh Kpoto; Phocas S. Biraboneye
Abstract: Background: Compassion Fatigue (CF) continues to take toll on the health and outputs of the medical worker as attested by the outcomes of the studies conducted mainly in Europe and the United States of America. Little is known about its impact on the health and performance of the Kenyan medical workers. Not much in Kenya is known about the adaptability of the Kenyan medical workers to compassion fatigue and their hardiness in coping with it. Objective: To establish the prevalence and factors associated with compassion fatigue among medical workers (medical practitioners and nurses) at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Design: Cross-sectional and descriptive. Subjects: Three hundred and forty five (345) medical workers (medical practitioners and nurses) with six or more months of work experience at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Outcome measures: Prevalence rates, socio-demographic characteristics, factors associated with and influencing compassion fatigue among the medical practitioners and nurses. Methods: Proportionate allocation and simple random sampling strategy were used to recruit the study participants on the basis of qualifications, departments and area of deployment. Results: The crude prevalence rate of compassion fatigue was 29.6% (2.9% for medical practitioners and 33.1% for the nurses). The risk factors for compassion fatigue were found to be nursing (p=0.002) and middle college level of education (p=0.03). Overall, 93.0% of the compassion fatigue intensity scores among the medical practitioners and 91.0% among nurses were attributed to a combination of ‘self’, ‘patients and their relatives’, and the ‘practitioner’s work environmental factors. The remaining 7.0% among the medical practitioners and 9.0% among nurses were attributed to unexplained factors, not captured by the questionnaire. Individually, factors pertaining to self contributed 83.0% among medical practitioners and 73.0% among nurses and patients and their relatives contributed 26.0% of compassion fatigue intensity scores among the medical practitioners and 33.0% among the nurses. Work environment did not contribute to compassion fatigue among the medical workers. Conclusion: Compassion fatigue is prevalent and it affected both medical practitioners and nurses at the KNH, but the nurses were almost three (3) times more affected than the medical practitioners. The factors associated with compassion fatigue were multiple, highest being ‘self-related’ factors. These findings suggested that large-scale studies should be undertaken to provide more evidence.
Keywords: Compassion Fatigue Self-Test; Compassion Fatigue; Secondary Traumatic Stress; Contagion; Medical Workers; Empathy
Authors: Tozhiboev Temur; Khurmatoy Hankeldieva; Ibragim Kasim-Khodzhaev; Gulnora Kamalova
Abstract: In order to reliably estimate the ovarian parameters of girls over the age of 13, it is necessary to study their physiological formation. The lack of reliable data on ovarie from ovarian studies of this age group prompted the authors to study ovaries during sexual development. In this study, the authors examined the formation of ovaries of adolescent girls from Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan. Research materials are 385 echograms obtained from routine inspections in Chartak town and the Chartak district of Namangan region. Studies were conducted in women with a regular 28-29 day menstrual cycle, to identify age-related individual performance ultrasound. Inadequate lighting in the available ultrasonic images of ovaries in women 13 to 23 years old, suggested that a thorough investigation of the female reproductive organs precisely in this developmental period contributes to the prevention and early detection of reproductive disorders. This helps prevent not only the sterility of women at childbearing age, but also helps the early detection and treatment of cancer in the reproductive organs. The lack of standard indicators of ovarian development in this age group is a significant gap in the study of female reproductive organs by echolocation.
Keywords: Ovaries; Puberty; Diagnosis Disorders,