Women healthcare professionals' experiences and needs regarding the COVID-19 pandemic from a gender perspective.

BACKGROUND: Accounting for 70% of healthcare workers worldwide, and 56% in Turkey, women continue to be the frontline fighters in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Their needs may be overlooked as a result of their growing responsibilities both in their professional and private lives. This descriptive study aimed at identifying the gendered needs and experiences of women healthcare workers in Turkey throughout the pandemic. METHOD: This study consists of 1082 healthcare professionals' responses of various positions across several provinces and facilities, collected through a web-based survey of 50 questions. RESULTS: Almost all participants (94%) expressed feeling anxious over the pandemic regardless of their working units. Four out of ten (38%) respondents noted working for 41 h or more on average weekly, and most of the participants who worked for long hours were assigned in COVID-19 units. Non-clinical personnel reported less difficulty in work/life balance. 64% of the respondents reported not having gone through any training on COVID-19, and eight out of ten (81%) said they had information needs. Research findings suggest that 92% of participants' needs remained unmet. While 74% of the respondents pointed out not having an income that is worthwhile, 72% referred to the need for psychosocial support, 58% need for support in domestic work and 37% support for child care as their primary needs. CONCLUSION: Results of the research highlighted the gendered needs of women healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and disseminate protective and preventive health policies and practices through a gender responsive approach.

Investigating the aftermath of the Türkiye 2023 earthquake: exploring post-disaster uncertainty among Syrian migrants using social network analysis with public health approach.

Objectives: On February 6th, 2023, a doublet earthquake struck Türkiye, impacting more than 15 million people including migrants, and resulting in over 50,000 deaths. The Syrian migrants experience multiple uncertainties in their daily lives which are further compounded by multifaceted challenges of the post-disaster environment. Social media was used intensively and with impunity in this environment and thereby provides a window into the explicit and implicit dynamics of daily life after a disaster. We aimed to explore how a post-disaster environment potentially generates new uncertainties or exacerbating pre-existing ones for migrants through social media analysis with an indirect perspective, in the context of 2023-Earthquake in Türkiye and Syrian migrants. Methods: Social network analysis was used to analyze Twitter-data with the hashtags 'Syrian' and 'earthquake' during a 10-day period beginning on March 22nd, 2023. We calculated network metrics, including degree-values and betweenness-centrality and clustered the network to understand groups. We analyzed a combination of 27 tweets with summative content analysis using a text analysis tool, to identify the most frequently used words. We identified the main points of each tweet and assessed these as possible contributors to post-disaster uncertainty among migrants by using inductive reasoning. Results: There were 1918 Twitter users, 274 tweets, 124 replies and 1726 mentions. Discussions about Syrian migrants and earthquakes were established across various groups (ngroups(edges > 15) = 16). Certain users had a greater influence on the overall network. The nine most frequently used words were included under uncertainty-related category (nmost_frequently_used_words = 20); 'aid, vote, house, citizen, Afghan, illegal, children, border, and leave'. Nine main points were identified as possible post-disaster uncertainties among migrants. Conclusion: The post-disaster environment has the potential to exacerbate existing uncertainties, such as being an undocumented migrant, concerns about deportation and housing, being or having a child, inequality of rights between being a citizen and non-citizen, being in minority within minority, political climate of the host nation and access to education or to generate new ones such equitable distribution of aid, which can lead to poor health outcomes. Recognizing the possible post-disaster uncertainties among migrants and addressing probable underlying factors might help to build more resilient and healthy communities.

"They taught us not only our rights as women, but also how to live." Gender-based violence and empowerment experiences of Syrian women in Turkey and the role of women and girls safe spaces: A qualitative study.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a women rights violation, particularly during humanitarian crises. Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) were opened within a project, where refugee women work and receive gender-sensitive services. The researchers aim to reveal the GBV exposure and empowerment experiences of Syrian refugee women in Ankara and WGSS' role. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 health mediators working at WGSS. The findings obtained through thematic analysis revealed four main themes: changing forms of GBV during migration, learning women's rights as a means of resistance to GBV, experiences of women's working lives and empowerment, and changing gender roles.

The adaptation of Turkish health literacy scale for literate Syrian adult refugees living in Turkey: a reliability-validity study.

BACKGROUND: Turkey hosts the world's largest refugee population of whom 3.5 million are Syrians and this population has been continuously growing since the year 2011. This situation causes various problems, mainly while receiving health-care services. In planning the migrant health-care services, for the policy makers of host countries, health literacy level of migrants is an important measure. Determination of health literacy level of Syrian refugees in Turkey would be supportive for planning some interventions to increase health-care service utilization, as well as health education and health communication programs. An "original health literacy scale" for 18-60 years of age Turkish literate adults (Hacettepe University Health Literacy Scale-HLS) was developed to be used as a reference scale in 2018. Since it would be useful to compare the health literacy levels of Turkish adults with Syrian adult refugees living in Turkey with an originally developed scale, in this study, it was aimed to adapt the HLS-Short Form for Syrian refugees. METHODS: This methodological study was carried out between the years 2019-2020 in three provinces of Turkey where the majority of Syrians reside. The data was collected by pre-trained, Arabic speaking 12 interviewers and three supervisors via a questionnaire on household basis. At first, the original Scale and questionnaire were translated into Arabic and back translated into the original language. The questionnaire and the Scale were pre-tested among 30 Syrian refugees in Ankara province. A total of 1254 refugees were participated into the main part of the study; 47 health-worker participants were excluded from the validity-reliability analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. Cronbach's alpha and Spearman-Brown coefficients were calculated. RESULTS: Of the participants, 52.9% was male; 26.1% had secondary education level or less; almost half of them had moderate economic level; 27.5% could not speak Turkish. The Cronbach's Alpha was 0.75, Spearman-Brown Coefficient was 0.76; RMSEA = 0.073, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92 and GFI = 0.95 for the Scale. The Cronbach's Alpha was 0.76, Spearman-Brown Coefficient was 0.77; RMSEA = 0.085, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.91 and GFI = 0.95 for self-efficacy part. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the adapted HLS would be a reliable instrument to evaluate the health-literacy level of Syrian refugees living in Turkey and could allow for a comparison of the host country's health literacy level to that of the refugees using the same scale.

COVID-19 barriers and response strategies for refugees and undocumented migrants in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION: With more than 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, the pandemic is continuing to severely challenge health systems around the world. Countries with high numbers of refugees face an additional burden on COVID-19 preventive and curative services made available and accessible to refugees. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees globally, with a total of 4 million in 2020. Over 98% of refugees in Turkey reside in urban areas in large, crowded cities such as Istanbul, Gaziantep, and Hatay posing severe challenges for all health responses, including COVID-19. This study provides insights and analysis on the current situation for refugees, migrants under temporary protection and undocumented migrants in Turkey by focusing on the right to health and access to health care under pandemic conditions. Its main aim is to discuss the challenges and opportunities for COVID-19 responses relating to refugees, migrants under temporary protection and undocumented migrants in Turkey. METHODS: This is a non- systematic and exploratory literature review from academic and grey sources. We reviewed published documents, meeting summaries, media reports/news and policy briefs in Turkish and English on the COVID-19 response in Turkey. RESULTS: Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has taken various steps to provide health care for all residents. However, several challenges arise when providing health care to refugees, migrants under temporary protection and other undocumented migrants including language barrier in accessing reliable information and access to health services for existing chronic conditions. CONCLUSION: While refugees, migrants under temporary protection and undocumented migrants have been granted access to services for COVID-19 related health problems, social and cultural barriers remain beyond the current legislation. Solidarity and whole-of-society inclusive approaches should always be the guiding principles in the COVID-19 response.

Cooperative learning: a new application of problem-based learning in mental health training.

Interaction in problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials is not necessarily cooperative, which may account for variation in learning outcomes. Therefore, a cooperative assessment structure was introduced in a PBL course and the difference examined between this method and individual, lecture-based learning in mental health training. Experimental student groups gained more knowledge between pre- and post-test than did control groups, and the experimental students who scored low on the pre-test made the greatest gains. Groups that reported greater cooperation tended to have higher achievement scores. Experimental students felt that cooperation helped them learn but it also took more time and was sometimes chaotic.

A faculty development program evaluation: from needs assessment to long-term effects, of the teaching skills improvement program.

BACKGROUND: We evaluated whether the faculty development program, the Teaching Skills Improvement Program, met medical educators' needs at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey. In a 1997 needs assessment survey, large proportions of 178 medical educators assessed their knowledge of educational issues and teaching skills as good or excellent. Nonetheless, 86% of the respondents stated they would like to participate in a future training program focused on the content indicated in the survey. DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION: In 1998, 83 faculty members took part in the program and expressed a high degree of satisfaction with its content and organization, as well as the course trainers' teaching. Most of the participants got high scores on a test of knowledge related to the course content and performed proficiently in a microteaching session. CONCLUSION: Six months to a year later, large proportions of the participants reported using many of the training techniques in their teaching program.

Assessment of knowledge and skills in primary health care services: senior medical students' self-evaluation.

BACKGROUND: The responsibility of medical schools is to educate physicians who are able to provide integrated health care services including curative and preventive components to individuals and the community. They should acquire the necessary knowledge and skills for management of health services with a scientific background and necessary skills to conduct research and be able to make plans to improve the health level of the community. PURPOSE: This study aims to examine last-year students in Hacettepe University Medical School and how they assess their knowledge and skills in providing primary health care services. METHODS: The study includes all last-year students in the 2000 to 2001 academic years; 80.4% of the students (n = 313) participated in the survey. The last-year students assessed their own knowledge and skills by using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (very good). RESULTS: According to the scoring of the scale, it is found that their level of knowledge is 2.82, and the level of skill is 2.44 for all primary health care services, between low (2) and intermediate (3). A small sample of available students was interviewed regarding these low ratings of their knowledge and skills. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the study clearly indicate that the curriculum of the medical school does not satisfy the expectations that the newly graduated physicians have the sufficient knowledge and skills necessary for the primary health care services; the graduates have to work just after their graduation from medical school in the health system of Turkey.