Hatice Mert

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among People With Diabetes in Turkey

The aim of this study was to investigate use of complementary and alternative medicines, and factors that affect use of these agents, in individuals with diabetes. This cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed at the outpatient clinics of four hospitals in Turkey with 396 diabetic individuals between October 2006 and March 2007. In this study, 34.6% of the participants were using complementary and alternative medicine in addition to conventional medicine; 73% of these individuals had not informed their doctors and nurses about their complementary and alternative medicine practice. Nurses, as health care providers, should not ignore complementary and alternative medicine options. Instead, they should try to determine the rate of complementary and alternative medicine use among their patients and understand their effects and the reasons for use of these agents. Nurses should learn more about these medicines and educate their patients.

Barriers to Medical Error Reporting for Physicians and Nurses

The purpose of the study was to determine what barriers to error reporting exist for physicians and nurses. The study, of descriptive qualitative design, was conducted with physicians and nurses working at a training and research hospital. In-depth interviews were held with eight physicians and 15 nurses, a total of 23 participants. Physicians and nurses do not choose to report medical errors that they experience or witness. When barriers to error reporting were examined, it was seen that there were four main themes involved: fear, the attitude of administration, barriers related to the system, and the employees’ perceptions of error. It is important in terms of preventing medical errors to identify the barriers that keep physicians and nurses from reporting errors.

Web-Based Intervention to Improve Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Patients’ Shock-Related Anxiety and Quality of Life: A Randomized Controlled Trial:

In spite of its effectiveness, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients face psychological problems such as shock-related anxiety due to device shocks. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a web-based intervention program for ICD patients would reduce shock-related anxiety and improve quality of life compared with usual care. This was a randomized controlled trial study including a total of 76 patients. Data were collected using Turkish versions of the Florida Shock Anxiety Scale and Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) at 0 (baseline), 3, and 6 months. Following intervention, there was a significant decrease in shock anxiety levels of patients and a statistically significant increase in social functioning, role-physical, mental health, vitality, and bodily pain subdimensions of SF-36. While no statistically significant difference was found between groups in terms of summary scores of SF-36, our results suggest that web-based interventions can be useful for ICD patients.

Effect of Support Group Intervention Applied to the Caregivers of Individuals With Heart Failure on Caregiver Outcomes.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of support group intervention applied to the caregivers of individuals with heart failure on caregiver outcomes. Quasi-experimental research was conducted with 69 caregivers as control (n = 35) and intervention (n = 34) groups in the cardiology outpatient clinic of a university hospital. The intervention group participated in support group meetings structured according to the Neuman Systems Model, and the data were collected from both the intervention and control groups before the intervention and 3 and 6 months later. Caregivers in the intervention group had significantly lower burden scores compared with the control group in all subdimensions except objective personal care, in terms of the group × time interaction in a statistical way (P < .05). Caregivers in the intervention and control groups had similar scores of depression symptoms (P > .05). The burden of caregivers in the intervention group showed a statistically significant decrease compared with the preintervention in all dimensions at 3 months. Thus, it is suggested to extend the support group interventions for caregivers of patients with heart failure and conduct these interventions in a longer period.