Medical ethics, duties & medical negligence awareness among the practitioners in a teaching medical college, hospital-A survey.

There is Growing public awareness regarding the ethical conduct of medical practitioners, and complaints against physicians appear to be escalating. The changing doctor-patient relationship and commercialization of modern medical practice has affected the practice of medicine. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of, and attitudes to, medical ethics among doctors in the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bhubaneswar, Orissa. A self-administered structured questionnaire was distributed to all doctors; a total 120 numbers of practitioners of various clinical departments participated. 90% of the total participants were well aware about medico legal cases. All the participants advocated for an ethical practice but 12% of them practice as per the demand of the situation.68% of the participants expressed that dichotomy should not be a part of medical practice. Only 52% of the respondents are aware of the MCI code of medical ethics 2002 and 57% knows the role of ethical committee in their institute. Majority, 88% of them expressed that 15 days duty in the department of Forensic Medicine should be mandatory during internship to handle the medico legal cases properly.

A atuação da equipe de enfermagem na assistência ao recém-nascido de risco em um hospital de ensino / Nursing team performance in the assistance of a high-risk neonate in ateaching hospital

O recém-nascido de risco apresenta alta taxa de morbidade e mortalidade em decorrência de distúrbios oucircunstâncias superpostas ao curso normal de eventos associados com o nascimento e ajustamento àexistência extra-uterina. Para a sua recuperação, há a necessidade dos padrões mínimos de assistência pelaequipe de enfermagem. Esta pesquisa descritiva teve como objetivo caracterizar a assistência de enfermagemao recém-nascido de risco, de acordo com os cuidados realizados, os fatores que favorecem a melhoria daassistência e a presença da família para a recuperação do bebê, a partir das opiniões de enfermeiros eauxiliares de enfermagem de unidades de terapia intensiva e semi-intensiva neonatal, de um hospital escola,na cidade de São José do Rio Preto. Fizeram parte do estudo 22 funcionários que atuam nas unidades e queconsentiram em participar. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista com um questionário semi-estruturado. Os resultados apontaram que a maioria (96%) dos funcionários sabe definir RN de risco; aidentificação mais comum é pela prematuridade (30%); a complicação mais freqüente é a infecção (38%);realizam, na assistência, os cuidados de conforto (69%); nas dificuldades para a assistência, relataram a faltade recursos humanos (12%); como facilitador o trabalho em equipe(19%); há diferença na evolução do RNcom a mãe presente (77%); as ações praticadas são a orientação da rotina da unidade e sobre o RN (36%);relataram a importância do toque da mãe (21%) e colocar o RN junto a mãe (17%). Identificou-se a necessidadede um melhor dimensionamento da equipe de enfermagem e um serviço de educação continuada, que irãocontribuir para uma assistência de melhor qualidade.

High-risk neonates present higher risks of morbidity and mortality than the average. This happens due todisorders or circumstances superposed to the normal course of events in association to birth, and to theadaptation to extrauterine life. For the recovery of high-risk neonates, some minimal patterns of assistanceare required from the nursing staff. This research aims at to characterize the assistance of nursing to the high-risk neonate, according to the care performed, the influencing circumstances that favor the improvement ofthe assistance, and the presence of the family for baby’s recovery. This was achieved through the opinionsof nurses and nursing assistants from intensive care units and semi-intensive neonatal facility of a teachinghospital in the city of São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. Twenty-two nursing practitioners, working atthe facility accepted to take part in the study. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire.Most nursing practitioners (96) know how to define high-risk neonate. The most common identification is byprematurity (30) followed by infection, the most common complication (38). While assisting the infant, thepractitioners provided them with comfort care (69). The lack of human resources was reported (12), whendealing with assistance difficulties. Team work was pointed as a facilitator (19); practitioners noted a differencein the development of the high-risk neonate when the mother was present (77); the actions performed areorientation of the routine unit and regarding the high-risk neonate (36); practitioners reported the importanceof the touch (21), and to keep the high-risk neonate with the mother (17). Through this study, we couldidentify the requirement of a better outlook of the nursing staff, and of a continued education service, thatshould contribute with a more qualified assistance.