ABSTRACT
Background and Aims: The qualification course aims to encourage different health care professionals (HCP) to develop attitudes and educational actions in dealing with people who have diabetes, their families, and caregivers. Since 2008, more than 2000 HCP have been qualified. The activities during the course are workshops and case discussions through debates and awareness. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three editions of the qualification were made virtually. Method(s): This case report explores how changed the qualification course Educating Educators, through the explanation of how to apply diabetes education in health services, and teaching processes to the development and implementation of an educational project in diabetes. Result(s): As of the COVID-19 pandemic, the course, which was 50% practical and 50% expository and fully face-to-face, couldn't longer be held in this format. With this continuous demand to qualify HCP in diabetes education, the course during the pandemic had participants of the 39th, 40th, and 41st editions held in a fully online format. The digital model changed the four days of the course in face-to-face modality to two days in two weeks in a virtual way, with a break between the meetings for mentoring and discussion in small groups, some orientations to turn possible the conclusion of elaboration their projects. Conclusion(s): This new model of education appeared can be used to achieving people that don't can participate in face-to-face meetings. Also, the virtual model can provide a constant conversation between tutors and participants to improve their projects.
ABSTRACT
Geographical marginality in general and also in terms of its relationship with tourism and sustainability is a relatively new conceptual framework for research. Tourism is a complex phenomenon, which, among other things, leads to both the development of tourist destinations and to specific problems of overtourism. Tourist flows have an uneven distribution on the planet: some tourist destinations are so popular that they bear the consequences of overtourism, while other tourist destinations are marginal and marginalised in the architecture of world tourism, sometimes despite their tourist potential. Tourism is seen as an opportunity to promote development by all countries, but the COVID-19 pandemic has upset the tourism-based competitiveness of countries. This paper will classify the countries of the world as main or marginal tourist destinations according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) data available until 2019, and analyse how the pandemic has contributed to accentuating the marginalisation of some countries and tourist destinations in 2020. The pandemic has increased the development gaps associated with the tourism sector in the countries of the world, including the capacity to build a post-pandemic tourism recovery strategy, causing further marginalisation. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: In Portugal, in 2020, 5415 new lung cancer patients were diagnosed and 4797 deaths were caused by lung cancer. Lung cancer ranks third in terms of cancer incidence and is the leading cause of cancer mortality. Early diagnosis, complete and fast patient assessment and staging, multidisciplinary approach, access to personalized medicine, new treatment options and research are essential to improve survival and quality of life. Access to clinical trials is critical for this improvement.The aim of this study is to assess the techniques available to the diagnostic work-up, treatments, the waiting time and the needs perceived by physicians. Methods: The Portuguese Lung Cancer Study Group launched a survey in order to study the diagnostic approach and treatment of lung cancer patients in Portugal. An online survey with 47 questions was sent to all Portuguese hospitals that treat lung cancer, referring to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic experience. Results: Responses from 31 Portuguese hospitals were collected, between May and September 2020. Availability to bronchoscopy, image-guided transthoracic needle biopsy (TNB), endobronchial ultrasound- transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TNBA), PET/CT, molecular biology testing is presented in table I. In 58% (n=18) the molecular biology test was performed as a "reflex test". About 68% (n=21) of hospitals used next generation sequencing. Two hospitals (7%) reported not having access to liquid biopsies.Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery was the main surgical technique (61%;n=19). The waiting time for the first radiation oncology consultation was less than 15 days in 71% (n=26). About 61% (n=19) of hospitals had clinical trials. A wide majority of doctors (77%) would like to have more clinical trials. In 71% (n=22) of the hospitals, it was possible to refer patients to Palliative Care receiving systemic anticancer therapy. [Formula presented] Conclusions: Despite the limitations of the methods, this study allowed us to deepen our knowledge about the work-up technologies and treatments available for lung cancer patients in Portugal. It has also identified future opportunities, such as increasing accessibility to some diagnostic tools and clinical trials. Keywords: Diagnosis and treatment approach, Lung Cancer in Portugal, Health Services Research - Portugal
ABSTRACT
Guinea, like many other African countries, has been facing an unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak, since March 2020. In April 2020, Guinean National agency for health security recorded 1351 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 313 recoveries and 07 deaths. To address this health crisis, some drastic measures were implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Those measures might potentially cause some psychological problems among Guineans. Thus, we conducted this study to assess the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 in the Guinean population. We carried out an online cross-sectional survey among internet users in Guinea. A free e-survey platform was used, and questionnaires were sent to internet users. The study ran from May 1 through May 10 2020. Participation in the study was voluntary. Data collection was based on sociodemographic information and self-reported questionnaires: Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) for stress evaluation, Penn state worry questionnaire (PSWQ), and an adapted Social Psychological Measurements of COVID-19. A total of 280 participants took part in the study;responses from 5 participants were deleted because of incompleteness. The average age of participants was 28.9 [95% CI: 28.1;29.6]. Most of participants were male 65.5% [95% CI: 59.5%;71.1%]. Unemployed participants stood for 48.7% [95% CI: 42.7%;54.8%]. IES-R scale for stress evaluation yielded the following findings: 19.6% (mild), 5.23% (moderate) and 9.15% (severe);82.8% and 17.2% of participants had respectively reported low and moderate worry. No significant statistical association was found between sociodemographic variables and traumatic events (IES-R and PSWQ). However, 82% of our participants had to cope with the negative impacts of COVID-19. Although there were few cases of traumatic events, negative impacts of COVID-19 on study participants deserve to be underlined. So, further investigations are necessary to identify and disentangle specific psychosocial problems in different Guinean socio-cultural contexts.