Attitude variations among health professionals regarding rights of sick children in Assiut and Alexandria

The present study was conducted to identify attitude variations among health professionals regarding rights of sick children in Assiut and Alexandria. The sample consisted of 141 staff nurses, 35 nursing supervisors, and 28 physicians working in the prediatric departments in Assiut University Hospital and in the medical and outpatient departments affiliated to El-Shatby Children's Hospital in Alexandria. A questionnaire sheet including rights of sick children was used to identify attitudes of the participants. It involved 22 items divided into 4 parts, mainly rights for information disclosure, right for consideration, acceptance and respectful care, rights for privacy and confidentiality, and rights for decision making. Likert scale consisting of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree, was used to analyze these items. Data were collected over a period of 6 months starting from the first of July to the end of December 2003. The results of the present study indicated that 74.3% of nursing supervisors followed by 57.1% of physicians and 43.3% of staff nurses had positive attitudes towards rights of the sick child. The total mean score was 91.321 +/- 10.144 and 82.619 +/- 7.801 among staff nurses, 95.200 +/- 8.265 and 93.600 +/- 10.625 among nursing supervisors, and 94.500 +/- 8.959 and 85.250 +/- 10.763 among physicians working in Assiut and Alexandria respectively. Attitudes of nurses and physicians working in Assiut were more positive than attitudes of those working in Alexandria. The opposite was observed among nursing supervisors working in Alexandria. Therefore, it is recommended that sick children's rights should be emphasized in the curriculum of all nursing and medical schools/faculties. Sick children's bill of rights should be available in all health agencies serving children to be referred to whenever needed

Role of urethral wall components in the continence mechanism

An experimental model is used to test the role of the components of the urethral wall and its elasticity in the continence mechanism. The model consists of [1] a modified plastic syringe with three openings; one on each end and the third on its upper surface [2] a condom, a double condom and a double condom with K - Y jelly in between acting as a urethra