Factors that influence Greeks' decision to register as potential bone marrow donors.

Hemopoietic stem cells can be used from bone marrow or blood or umbilical cord blood of matched siblings or appropriately matched unrelated volunteers. Today, large bone marrow registries have been established to help identify volunteer unrelated bone marrow donors for patients lacking a family donor. Despite there being almost 10 million registered potential bone marrow donors (PBMD) worldwide, only 50% of white patients have a suitable bone marrow match. Growth in the number of PBMD increases the likelihood of finding a compatible donor for a patient. The attitudes and knowledge of 250 registered PBMD and 315 not registered PBMD toward bone marrow donation, tissues and organs donation, and blood donation were surveyed, using a questionnaire with 27 items. Multivariate logistic regression identified gender (females more often than males), regular blood donation, having a relative or a friend who has already been registered as PBMD, having a relative or a friend who needs bone marrow transplantation, family discussion about tissue and organ donation, knowledge about bone marrow transplantation, information about bone marrow transplantation, and trust in health professionals were independent predictive factors influencing people's decision to register as PBMD. Knowledge of these factors is important to target recruitment efforts.

[Public health nursing in Greece]. / Il nursing nella sanità pubblica in Grecia.

Nursing is considered, as the main profession that covers the need for primary health care services, in cooperation with physicians and other health and social care professions. In Greece, public or community health nursing as a concept exists since the beginning of professional nursing in the seconf half og the 19 century. There are three professions in Greece that are mainly involved in the provision of community nursing services. These are general nurses, health visitors, and midwives. General nurses are educated at degree level in the university or polytechnics. Health visitors and midwives are separate professions, also educated at degree level in polytechnics. Although all general nurses are prepared to work at any level of health care provision, they are not considered adequately educated to perform their full role in the community, with just their existing knowledge and experience. It is therefore essencial that further education or specialization is needed, in order that they could practice independently or as members of the primary health care teams effectively, and be able to respond to public health needs of the population

Psychosomatic nursing assessment of psychiatric patients.

This article presents the results of a research study on 547 mental patients testing a form of nursing assessment of mental patients in psychiatric and in general hospitals, as a means to assess their nursing needs and as a basis for planning, implementation and evaluation of their personalized holistic nursing care. The study showed that more depressive than schizophrenic patients went to the general hospital for help. The reverse was observed in the psychiatric hospital. The psychological nursing needs of the patients were significantly correlated with their somatic nursing needs. The psychological as well as the somatic nursing needs of the patients were significantly correlated with sex, age, somatic health state and mental health state in general, and not with their concrete psychiatric diagnosis. It is concluded that the psychiatric nursing assessment should be oriented towards the investigation of the patient's psychosomatic nursing needs rather than be based on his medical diagnosis.