Safety in laboratories: Indian scenario

Health and safety in clinical laboratories is becoming an increasingly important subject as a result of emergency of highly infectious diseases such as Hepatitis and HIV. A cross sectional study was carried out to study the safety measures being adopted in clinical laboratories of India. Heads of laboratories of teaching hospitals of India were subjected to a standardized, pretested questionnaire. Response rate was 44.8%. Only 60% of laboratories had person in-charge of safety in laboratory. Seventy three percent of laboratories had safety education program regarding hazards. In 91% of laboratories staff is using protective clothing while working in laboratories. Hazardous material regulations are followed in 78% of laboratories. Regular health check ups are carried among laboratory staff in 43.4% of laboratories. Safety manual is available in 56.5% of laboratories. 73.9% of laboratories are equipped with fire extinguishers. Fume cupboards are provided in 34.7% off laboratories and they are regularly checked in 87.5% of these laboratories. In 78.26% of laboratories suitable measures are taken to minimize formation of aerosols. In 95.6% of laboratories waste is disposed off as per bio-medical waste management handling rules. Laboratory of one private medical college was accredited with NABL and safety parameters were better in that laboratory. Installing safety engineered devices apparently contributes to significant decrease in injuries in laboratories; laboratory safety has to be a part of overall quality assurance programme in hospitals. Accreditation has to be made necessary for all laboratories

Elaboração da versão em português do Psychotherapy Process Q-Set / Development of a Portuguese version of the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set

INTRODUÇÃO: No Brasil, a pesquisa em psicoterapia encontra-se em desenvolvimento inicial; ainda não há estudos sistemáticos do processo terapêutico, e poucas são as medidas disponíveis para os pesquisadores interessados nesse campo. OBJETIVO: Elaborar a versão em português do Psychotherapy Process Q-Set. MÉTODO: A elaboração da versão em português do Psychotherapy Process Q-Set envolveu quatro etapas: tradução, retrotradução, avaliação da equivalência semântica e discussão, entre os autores, dos resultados. Para a aplicação do instrumento, cinco avaliadores foram treinados. Durante o treinamento, registros no diário de campo eram feitos para identificar dificuldades na execução da tarefa e subsidiar dados complementares. Após, o Psychotherapy Process Q-Set foi aplicado em sete sessões de uma psicoterapia psicodinâmica breve para examinar a concordância entre os juízes. RESULTADOS: A versão em português do Psychotherapy Process Q-Set apresentou boa equivalência semântica com a original. A avaliação da fidedignidade interavaliadores teve resultado satisfatório. Ressalta-se que a aplicação do Psychotherapy Process Q-Set requer estudo, tempo e reflexão. A discussão com os avaliadores apontou a necessidade de uma revisão do manual de aplicação no que diz respeito às vinhetas ilustrativas. Isto deverá ser realizado, futuramente, para minimizar as discrepâncias observadas no entendimento de alguns conceitos e para melhor adequá-las à realidade brasileira. CONCLUSÃO: O estudo disponibiliza a versão em português do Psychotherapy Process Q-Set, um instrumento versátil, que pode ser utilizado em diferentes contextos para descrever, quantitativamente e em termos clinicamente significativos, o processo terapêutico das diferentes psicoterapias.

INTRODUCTION: In Brazil, psychotherapy research is in its early development; there are no systematic studies of the therapeutic process, and there are few available measurement instruments for researchers interested in this field. OBJECTIVE: To develop a Portuguese version of the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set. METHOD: The development of a Portuguese version of the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set involved four stages: translation, back translation, evaluation of semantic equivalence and discussion of the results by the authors. Five raters were trained to apply the instrument. During the training, a field diary was used to record difficulties identified in task execution and to subsidize complementary data. Thereafter, the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set was applied to seven sessions of a short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy to examine agreement between referees. RESULTS: The Portuguese version of the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set presented good semantic equivalence with the original. The assessment of interrater reliability had a satisfactory result. It is worth stressing that applying the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set requires study, time and reflection. The discussion with raters pointed to the need of reviewing the application manual concerning the clinical examples. This will be performed in the near future to minimize the discrepancies observed in the understanding of some concepts and to better adjust them to the Brazilian reality. CONCLUSION: This study provides a Portuguese version of the Psychotherapy Process Q-Set, a versatile instrument that can be used in different contexts to quantitatively describe the therapeutic process of different psychotherapies in clinically significant terms.