Navigating health challenges: the interplay between occupation-imposed movement restrictions, healthcare access, and community resilience.

BACKGROUND: Transportation plays a significant role in health, community resilience, and access to basic needs such as healthcare, social services, education, and job opportunities. Health and community resilience are, however, impacted by a multitude of complex and unequal factors, such as transportation restrictions exacerbated by the Israeli occupation. The goal of the research was to examine the intricate relationships that exist in Palestine between movement restrictions imposed by occupation, health outcomes, and community resilience. METHOD: A self-structured questionnaire, devised based on expert conversations and previous literature, was used in this descriptive, quantitative study to explore health and resilience outcomes. Age, gender, marital status, place of residence, and means of transportation were among the various factors that were utilized to describe the socio-demographics of the study sample (n = 202). The researchers employed stepwise multiple regression and descriptive statistics for the data analysis. RESULTS: Study findings indicated that transportation restrictions have significant direct and indirect health consequences. A significant direct effect is observed, signifying a negative correlation between restrictions and health; increased transportation restrictions are consistently correlated with a decline in health. The study emphasized how place of residence affects health outcomes, with higher scores for campers and people living in green line areas. It also underscores that public means of transportation are found to be better for health outcomes than private cars. CONCLUSION: This study emphasized that roadblocks, checkpoints, and military incursions make it difficult for Palestinians to receive medical care, which has a detrimental impact on their health and well-being. It also underscores the need for significant reforms in Palestinian health and transportation systems to enhance infrastructure and healthcare access. The Palestinian Authority should invest in public transportation and community resilience programs to address transportation-related health issues, especially in villages, due to frequent settler attacks.

Perspectives of Palestinian Healthcare Workers on Factors Affecting the Families' Acceptance of News of Death: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction In a healthcare setting, communication is essential for every aspect of care. The ability to break bad news to patients and families is one of the most crucial talents in a medical professional's communication toolkit. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the family's acceptance of death news in Palestinian medical facilities. Methods A survey was constructed and distributed to participants through Palestinian medical social media groups. Palestinian medical health professionals who had reported at least one death (N=136) were included. Associations and correlations were calculated. P-values of < 0.05 were considered significant. Results We found that death is more likely to be accepted by the family if it's reported by an experienced staff member (p-value= 0.031) or a member who was involved in the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) of the deceased person (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 19.335, p-value = 0.046). The medical ward staff is also more likely to achieve family acceptance (AOR = 6.857, p-value= 0.020). However, no evidence was found to support the claim that adhering to the SPIKES model increases the likelihood of family acceptance of death news (p-value= 0.102). Death of young people and unexpected death are less likely to be accepted (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion Families are less likely to accept unexpected death or the death of young members. Thus, reporting such deaths (mostly in the emergency department) should be done with greater care. We suggest letting experienced staff members or those who were involved in CPR report the death news in such situations.

Zoom dysmorphia in e-teaching: shifting the value from attributes to appearance.

The current study is motivated by Tory Higgins's self-discrepancy theory and the objectification theory. It aimed to investigate university staff members' perspectives towards zoom dysmorphia while involved in e-teaching during the Covid-19 Pandemic in terms of its popularity, causes, and instructors' experiences with the healing or eliminating mechanisms. Put simply, the researchers meant to identify the impact of the pandemic on body image and the long-term repercussions of e-teaching on instructors' quality. A descriptive online questionnaire was compiled to explore the way (630) university staff members having academic and academic/administrative positions evaluate, perceive, and handle zoom dysmorphia while teaching online. The study results showed several associations between the variables studied. Gender was significant because females proved to have more features of dysmorphia; faculty members who serve in scientific faculties also proved to expect more features of dysmorphia as they tended not to turn on their cameras. The study results also showed that sufferers of zoom dysmorphia warranted that their appearances occasionally made them feel insecure and occupationally unstable. Therefore, they tried different healing mechanisms to eliminate or, at least, reduce its traits. The study concluded that the prevalence of zoom dysmorphia may result in shifting the value from good, effective attributes (e.g., professionalism, adaptability, collaboration, empathy, and patience) of instructors to merely outside physical appearances. The researchers recommend that educators should elicit the presence of zoom dysmorphia at an early stage. They should prepare courses to improve instructors' self-confidence, and provide them with proper technical experience.

Language of Medical Instruction in Palestine: A Mixed Method Approach of Students' Perceptions.

This mixed method study explores medical students' perceptions and attitudes regarding the language(s) of medical instruction in two Palestinian universities. The researcher aimed to identify the way medical students look at the language of medical education as well as the merits and drawbacks of the language(s) used in medical instruction. A 25-item descriptive, online questionnaire was built to explore the way university students evaluate and perceive the medium of medical instruction at the Faculty of Medicine. To complement and inform the quantitative findings, fifty-five students from each university were randomly selected, and their responses to an open question about the merits and drawbacks of the language(s) were analyzed using MAXQDA. Of the too many medical students enrolled in the two universities, 604 completed and returned the survey, and 55 students were selected to interpret their open responses qualitatively. The study findings suggest that the students are divided into two camps concerning what the language of medical instruction should be; some prefer Arabic, their mother tongue, while the others showed no reservations about using the medical academic vocabulary in English. Some statistically significant differences were found when some demographic variables, i.e., gender, specific major, and year of study, interact. Finally, study respondents highlighted several issues which the researcher sorted into advantages and disadvantages for each language. There is a considerable discrepancy in the choice of the language of medical instruction at the Faculty of Medicine. Each language has its pros and cons; consequently, a mixture of a mother and a foreign language (e.g., English) could be a suitable compromise in a country like Palestine.

Medical faculty members' perception of smartphones as an educational tool.

BACKGROUND: The rapid adoption of modern technology has changed many aspects of our life and communication; it has the power to influence and change the way we teach, learn and practice different types of professions mainly teaching and health care providing. Smartphone applications are increasingly becoming popular and widespread. Generally, these applications are likely to play a significant role in supporting education, in general, and medical education, in particular. This study aims at investigating how medical faculty members are using smartphones in medical education and practice, and how they perceive them as an educational tool at university level. METHODS: The researchers have distributed an online questionnaire - including three parts: a demographic part with five variables; a 15-item part of various applications of the smartphones; and a 14-item part measuring attitudes towards using these smartphones - among medical faculty members at two Palestinian universities. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Medical faculty members working at two Palestinian universities. Data have been collected from 30 participants out of 72 representing a response rate of 41.6%. RESULTS: The average skills score with smartphones usage is (3.18) which tells that faculty members use smartphones to support their teaching practices. In general, faculty members are positive towards smartphones as a prospective teaching tool since the average attitude towards using smartphones is (3.60). The study results show no significant differences among faculty members based on the five demographic variables, i.e. university, title, department affiliation, gender, and years of experience. CONCLUSION: It seems that the majority of faculty members believe that smartphones would be a significant instrument as well as addition to their teaching practices.

Students' attitudes towards EFL university writing: A case study at An-Najah National University, Palestine.

Writing has always been seen as the most troublesome and challenging area of language learning for all students without exception especially if it is to be done in a foreign language. Most of these students fail to meet the expectations of instructors both communicatively and linguistically. Those students are, in fact of varied backgrounds, different learning methodologies, varied levels of language skills and experience, let alone different insights, attitudes and conceptions about the writing skill. Consequently, it is significant to exhibit what these students think of writing and how they approach it. This study was meant to serve a two-fold purpose. Firstly, it aimed at examining what the Palestinian EFL students' attitudes towards writing in general are; and secondly, whether the Palestinian EFL students feel any difference between expressing ideas while writing in English and Arabic. The participant of this study were (102) EFL students enrolled in four writing courses offered by the English Department in the Faculty of Humanities at An-Najah National University in the Spring Semester 2016/2017. A 28-item questionnaire modified from Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Questionnaire and an open-ended question to help respondents freely express their attitudes towards writing were used to answer the questions. The study findings showed that students had positive attitudes toward writing, the various writing courses offered by the university, the textbooks and teaching methods used, and their writing skills and strategies.