KAP study of health personnel about the philosophy of PHC in urban health centres in Alexandria

The main objective of the national health policy is to provide 100% coverage of the urban population in Egypt by the year 2000 with access and coverage by PHC services of adequate quality and high standard. PHC concept started in Alexandria in 1974 when Dr. A. Serry, former Director of Health Services proposed a five year plan [1976-1980] for integrated health services. Today four community health centres are operating in the city namely Wady Al-Kamar HC founded in 1976, Bacos HC [1976], A1-Mandarah HC [1978] and Al-Kabbary HC [1981]. The aim of the work is to study K.A.P. of health teams about primary health care, its philosophy and the constraints facing them in providing these services. The results show that the concept of PHC is not clear in the minds of administrators and operators in the studied centres. Coordination with medical collegues, the High Institute of Public Health and nursing schools have many advantages. They will raise the quality of services and upgrade the centre for training and research. Community participation is importat to maintain and promote the health centres

Perception of nursing staff about their role: a key variable potentially affects the quality of patient care

There are numerous variables thought to potentially affect the quality of patient care. Among these are the nursing staff perceptions and attitudes and the supervisory staff perceptions and attitude. Thus this study was carried out with the aim of determining the perception of head nurses versus that of staff nurses toward the work, the role and functions of staff nurses in order to disclose areas of strength and weakness in the quality of nursing care provided. Data were collected through the use of special questionnaire interview modified from the one developed by Hausaman [1976]. The questionnaire was designed to determine the perception of head nurses and staff nurses regarding the degree of the staff nurses performance of nursing process activities versus administrative and clerical and non-clerical activities. And the prefered degree of performance of nursing process activities versus operational and non-clinical activities in an ideal situation. A total of 104 nursing personnel, 14 head nurses and 90 staff nurses working in 14 units that compose the surgical department at the Alexandria Main University Hospital, constituted the sample of this study. The results of the study revealed the following: 1- There was no significant difference between head nurses and staff nurses opinion as regard the activities that nurses should do in ideal situation. But, there was significant difference regarding their opinions toward the activities that they actually do in their present job. 2- Most of the sample members agreed that in their present jobs they are often asked to do activities which are non nursing while the genuine nursing activities included within the nursing process are overlooked or not done