Organisational Culture of Hospitals to Predict Turnover Intentions of Professional Nurses

The objective of this study was to determine if organisational culture predicts turnover intentions of professional nurses. A predictive model with organisational culture and various proposed mediating variables; namely knowledge sharing; organisational commitment; organisational citisenship behaviour and job satisfaction; as well as variousdemographic variables was developed to determine turnover intentions through applying General Linear Modelling. A correlational design with questionnaires was used. A sample of professional nurses (N = 530) in private and provincial hospitals was obtained. The results indicate that organisational culture has a significantly negative correlation withturnover intentions. Organisational culture also interacted with job satisfaction; knowledge sharing; and the white professional nurses' category to decrease turnover intentions and with Organisational Citisen Behaviours to increase turnover intentions in a final predictive model. It is therefore recommended that nursing employers seriously embarkon strategies to improve the organisational culture to retain their talent

Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in schoolchildren of a tropical community

Information about Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in tropical countries is scarce. This study reports the prevalence of anti-M. pneumoniae antibodies among schoolchildren from the tropical community of Palmares, Costa Rica. The serum samples were collected in July 1983 from 2021 children who represented 99 per cent of the county's schoolchildren. Immunofluorescense (IFA) and in some cases ELISA serological methods were applied. IFA seropositivity was high (53 per cent ) and ranged from 22 per cent to 79 per cent depending on the district. Marked differences in the prevalence of antibodies in children attending schools of neighboring communities, suggest that the school may be epidemiologically important as a focus to spread mycoplasma infections among children. The presence of a low percentage of antibodies (IgG,IgM and IgA) against the 168 kd- M.pneumoniae antigen suggested that there were few cases of active or recent infections

El papel del mycoplasma pneumonial en las exacerbaciones de asma bronquial y enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica del adulto / The role of mycoplasma pneumonial in bronchial asthma exacerbation and in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults

En el presente trabajo se evalua el papel de mycoplasma pneumoniae en reactivaciones de asma bronquial y enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva cronica. Para esto se determinaron los niveles de anticuerpos contra M. Pneumoniae en el zuero de las fases aguda y convaleciente de 28 individuos con reactivacion del cuadro respiratorio. Como controles se analizaron zueros de bancos de sangre del mismo periodo y de años previos al estudio. No se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los pacientes y los controles del mismo año; sin embargo, la seroposidad en los años previos al estudio fue significativamente inferior, lo que sugiere que en 1987 ocurrio un pico epidemico de infecciones por M. pneumoniae