A Classical Wooden Vaginal Speculum Mentioned in Old Medical Manuscripts.

The subject of this paper is the story of an ancient medical instrument. This instrument is a wooden vaginal speculum used in classical and Islamic medicine. Its drawings can be found in Abulcasis al-Zahrawi's and Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu's illustrated books of surgery.

Attitudes of prehospital emergency care professionals toward refusal of treatment: A regional survey in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION: Prehospital emergency medicine is a specific field of emergency medicine. The basic approach of prehospital emergency medicine is to provide patients with medical intervention at the scene of the incident. This special environment causes health professionals to encounter various problems. One of the most important problems in this field is ethics, in particular questions involving refusal of treatment and the processes associated with it. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to identify emergency health professionals' views regarding refusal of treatment. METHODS: This study was conducted with 356 health professionals who were on active duty in prehospital emergency health services. The data were collected through a form which included 10 statements. The participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statements given by rating them between 0 and 10. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Before conducting the research, permission was received from the local ethics committee. Participants were given written information about the purpose of the study. Participants were assured that their participation was voluntary. RESULTS: The healthcare professionals with fewer years of experience in the profession and female participants adopted an attitude of giving priority to providing care. Young participants, in general, respected patient autonomy. However, paradoxically, when it comes to emergency medical cases, they expressed an opinion closer to paternalism. CONCLUSIONS: This study has found that prehospital emergency health professionals generally respect the patient's right to refuse treatment; however, they do not prioritize this right when there is a life-threatening situation or when the person does not have decision-making capacity. In these cases, prehospital emergency health professionals tended to adopt a more paternalistic approach.

Ethical problems in geriatrics: views of Turkish primary healthcare professionals.

AIM: Primary healthcare professionals frequently encounter ethical issues in the care of older adults. These issues might particularly appear in the context of "age discrimination", "respect for autonomy", "respect for privacy" and "decision-making competency". The aims of this study were to determine the frequency rates of various geriatric ethical problems and to evaluate the importance given to these problems in primary healthcare. METHODS: In order to evaluate the opinions, a questionnaire tool was formulated. The participants were asked to review the list of geriatric ethical issues, to state the frequency of encountering them and to identify the importance ratings for each issue. The sample consisted of 86 primary healthcare professionals (50 physicians and 36 nurses) aged between 24 and 50 years. RESULTS: Based on the results, the most frequently encountered ethical issues were on "decision-making competency" and these issues respectively were "decision-making with relatives instead of elder patients", "not informing elders due to the lack of tolerance" and "not informing elders due to the lack of comprehending". The most important geriatric ethical issues were "ignoring respect for privacy", "ignoring patient's complaints" and "rejecting detailed examination or treatment because of age". CONCLUSION: Overall, the results show that the nurses and physicians in primary healthcare frequently encounter geriatric ethical problems related to the decision-making process, which is a common issue for Turkey as a paternalistic society. The findings show that primary healthcare professionals are sensitive to geriatric ethical issues; however, this sensitivity does not prevent the emergence of these issues.

Hamdi Suat-Hulusi Behçet: an affective trainee - tutor relationship from Turkish medical history.

This article is about the trainee - tutor relationship between two eminent figures of Turkish medical history, namely Hamdi Suat Aknar (1873-1936) and Hulusi Behçet (1889-1948). Hamdi Suat Aknar was the pioneer of modern pathology in Turkey. Alongside his scientific achievements, he took educational activities seriously and exerted a great effort to train his students as proficient clinicians and physicians with good command of histology and histopathology. Hulusi Behçet met Hamdi Suat Aknar when he was a medical student and did not lose his contact with him ever since, even after becoming an internationally well-known scientist. Hulusi Behçet mentioned his tutor with gratitude at every opportunity and wrote a necrology full of sincerity after his death.

A case study from the perspective of medical ethics: refusal of treatment in an ambulance.

This paper will examine a sample case encountered by ambulance staff in the context of the basic principles of medical ethics. An accident takes place on an intercity highway. Ambulance staff pick up the injured driver and medical intervention is initiated. The driver suffers from a severe stomach ache, which is also affecting his back. Evaluating the patient, the ambulance doctor suspects that he might be experiencing internal bleeding. For this reason, venous access, in the doctor's opinion, should be achieved and the patient should be quickly started on an intravenous serum. The patient, however, who has so far kept his silence, objects to the administration of the serum. The day this is taking place is within the month of Ramadan and the patient is fasting. The patient states that he is fasting and that his fast will be broken and his religious practice disrupted in the event that the serum is administered. The ambulance doctor informs him that his condition is life-threatening and that the serum must be administered immediately. The patient now takes a more vehement stand. 'If I am to die, I want to die while I am fasting. Today is Friday and I have always wanted to die on such a holy day,' he says. The ambulance physician has little time to decide. How should the patient be treated? Which type of behaviour will create the least erosion of his values?