Ensuring job satisfaction through adequate staffing levels, providing incentives and maintaining a collegial environment require both strategic planning and institutional policies at the higher administrative level. Creation of a non-punitive and learning environment, promoting open communication and fostering continuous education should be fundamental aspects of hospital management. A policy of mixing experienced nurses with inexperienced nurses should be considered.

ObjectivesTo measure and establish a baseline assessment of the patient safety culture in the Palestinian hospitals.DesignA cross-sectional descriptive study using the Arabic version of the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (Short Form 2006).ParticipantsA total of 339 nurses and physicians returned the questionnaire out of 370 achieving a response rate of 91.6%.SettingFour public general hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.MethodsNurses and physicians were randomly selected using a proportionate random sampling. Data analysis performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 20, and p value less than 0.05 was statistically significant.Main outcomes measuresCurrent status of patient safety culture among healthcare providers and percentage of positive attitudes.ResultsMale to female ratio was 2.16:1, and mean age was 36.5 ± 9.4 years. The mean score of Arabic Safety Attitude Questionnaire across the six dimensions on 100-point scale ranged between 68.5 for Job Satisfaction and 48.5 for Working Condition. The percentage of respondents holding a positive attitude was 34.5% for Teamwork Climate, 28.4% for Safety Climate, 40.7% for Stress Recognition, 48.8% for Job Satisfaction, 11.3% for Working Conditions and 42.8% for Perception of Management. Healthcare workers holding positive attitudes had better collaboration with co-workers than those without positive attitudes.ConclusionFindings are useful to formulate a policy on patient safety culture and targeted a specific safety culture dimension to improve the safety of patients and improve the clinical outcomes within healthcare organisations.

Background: Hypertension is one of the most prevalent long-term diseases seen in many countries, including Palestine. Patients with poorly controlled blood pressure are more likely to develop several complications. Therefore; it is imperative to control their blood pressure by improving their adherence to the treatment regimen. Aim: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of using a mobile phone app on the level of adherence to treatment regimens among hypertensive patients in the Gaza Strip. Methods and results: This study used an experimental design with a pre and post-intervention assessment. Using the Hill–Bone compliance to high blood pressure therapy scale, 191 participants completed the study: 94 in the control group and 97 in the intervention group. The intervention group used a phone app which reminds participants to take their medication, reminding them about their follow-up appointments and sending educational information about hypertension management. After 3 months of intervention, the level of adherence to treatment was reassessed. Results showed that participants in both groups showed a significant improvement in adherence levels, with higher improvements in the intervention group in the total score as well as all three domain scores: adherence to medication, diet and keeping appointments. Conclusion: The use of a mobile phone app resulted in improvements in adherence to hypertension treatment. Thus, this study confirms the potential effectiveness of mobile technology in improving treatment adherence in hypertension and an opportunity to reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. However, wider adoption has to be accompanied by ongoing evaluation and integration in public health systems.

The findings showed that health care providers suffered from severe posttraumatic symptoms after exposure to prolonged war stress. This level of trauma among health care providers warrants intervention programs to reduce stress and trauma among Gaza health care providers after the war.

BackgroundWar-related injury is a major public health concern, and a leading cause of mortality, morbidity, and disability globally, particularly in low and middle-income countries such as Palestine. Little is known about the burden of war-related injury in the Palestinian context. The objective of this study was to characterize the incidence and pattern of injuries, associated with war in Gaza Strip, from July 8 to August 26, 2014.MethodsThis was a descriptive study based on an injury registry at hospital facilities in the Gaza Strip. A total of 420 victims records from 2014 Gaza war injuries were randomly selected, proportionate to the size of the study population estimated across five Gaza governorates. Simple descriptive statistics were calculated to explore the frequency and percentage distribution of study variables and injury data. A chi-square test (X2) was used. The significance level was derived at p < 0.05. The data were analyzed by IBM SPSS software, version 23.ResultsMales (75.5%) have experienced more war-related injuries than females (24.5%), constituting a male: female ratio of 3.1:1. Almost half (49.5%) of the injured victims were of the age group 20–39, followed by children and adolescents (< 20 years), accounting for 31.4%. More than half of victims were single (53.6%), 44.3% were married and the rest were widowed or divorced. The overall number of injuries was 6.4 per 1000 population, though it varied among regions. North Gaza reported the highest number of injuries (9.0) and Rafah the lowest (4.7) per 1000 population. Blast and explosion were found to be the most common causes of war injuries (72.9%). The highest proportion of injuries were reported in the upper body. Multiple body shrapnel wounds and burns (39.3%) were most frequent. Other types of injuries were multiple organ injury (24.3%), fractures (13.6%), internal organ injury and bleeding (9.8%), amputation (4.5%), abrasions/lacerations and contusions (4.8%), vision or hearing loss or both (1.9%) and respiratory problems (1.9%). The highest percentage of injuries were classified as mild (46.9%), and the rest ranged from moderate-to-severe. Almost 26% of individuals had sustained disability, and most of them had physical/motor impairment.ConclusionWar-related injuries constitute a major problem to public health discipline and clinical medicine as well. A better surveillance system using ICD codes, and development of a comprehensive electronic data network are necessary to make future research easier and more timely.