Department of Environmental Health Sciences
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- ItemDevelopment and Validation of the Soft Skills Questionnaire for Nurses(SAGE Publications Inc., 2023) Aridi, Mona; Ahmad, Manal; Ghach, Wissam; Charifeh, Samiha; Alwan, NisreenIntroduction: Skills challenge has been given great attention for its impact on employees’ performance. Various approaches have been put forward to design professional development programs that help in preparing nurses to work in the field and ongoing training programs to keep them up to each new method and technique at the interpersonal improvement level. Objective: To develop and validate a questionnaire that tests the communication and management skills, emotional intelligence, and confidentiality of nurses in Lebanon. Methods: The questionnaire, consisting of 25 statements, was generated and developed by experts in the field of nursing, soft skills, and questionnaire development. The items of the questionnaire were assessed using face, content, and construct validity and data validation was examined through psychometric properties at the final stage of the validation. Internal consistency and reliability were assessed through Cronbach alpha ((Formula presented.)). Further analyses were carried out to decide on the number of factors to be extracted using Oblimin Rotation method. All statistical tests were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 20.0). Results: Nineteen items of the 25-item scale had an I-CVI of 1.00 and the remaining six items had an I-CVI of 0.87. The S-CVI/UA was 0.76 and the S-CVI/Ave was 0.97, which meant that the items were good for the underlying construct. For the psychometric measures, the results were quite accepted and satisfactory. The Kaiser–Meyer–Oklin measure of sampling adequacy and the significance for the Bartlett's test for the whole questionnaire were quite acceptable with 0.680 and 0.000, respectively. Furthermore, the Cronbach alpha (α) value was 0.824 indicating a high internal consistency between the items of the questionnaire. While obtaining exploratory factor analysis for each section, results showed that Oblimin Rotation method should be applied to the last section in which three items were eliminated to maintain a simple factor structure. Conclusion: This study shows that the 25-item Soft Skills Questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating the level of communication of nurses, their emotional intelligence, confidentiality, and management. © The Author(s) 2023.
- ItemKnowledge about, acceptance of and willingness to use over-the-counter COVID-19 self-testing kits(Oxford University Press, 2022-11-01) Jairoun, Ammar Abdulrahman; Al-Hemyari, Sabaa Saleh; Abdulla, Naseem Mohammed; Al Ani, Mena; Habeb, Mustafa; Shahwan, Moyad; Jaber, Ammar Ali Saleh; El-Dahiyat, Faris; Jairoun, Maimona
- ItemThe experience of ER nurses in Lebanese hospitals, during the Covid-19 outbreak: a qualitative study(Cambridge University Press, 2023-01-04) Chaiban, Cedric Georges; Maamari, Olivia; Issa, Sahar; Kosremelli Asmar, MichèleOBJECTIVE: The increasing number of Covid-19 cases, as well as the overwhelming workload, constitute a serious occupational health threat to Emergency Room (ER) nurses working on the frontlines. In Lebanon, where unstable socio-economic conditions reign, the Covid-19 outbreak was added to the plethora of daily challenges faced by the healthcare workers. The study's objective is to explore how Lebanese ER nurses perceived their duty on the frontlines amid the Covid-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study has a descriptive exploratory qualitative design. Fifteen Lebanese ER nurses working directly with Covid-19 patients were recruited from three university hospitals in Beirut. Interviews were held for data collection until data saturation. Subsequent analysis was done via coding of the transcribed verbatim. RESULTS: The findings showed significant gaps related to preparedness, support and governmental action. Similarly, the frontliners faced serious challenges that increased their stress levels both physically and mentally. Furthermore, some participants were subject to stigma and had to face irresponsible behaviors during triage. Participants emphasized the need to guarantee a safe environment at work, to provide Covid-19 patients with the needed care. CONCLUSIONS: ER nurses struggled during this pandemic while working on the frontlines. They described their experience as not satisfying, with high levels of stress, danger and challenges. © 2023 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.
- ItemExploring the challenges for medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates during the Covid-19 pandemic era: a stakeholder perspective(2022) Okasha, Ahmad A.; Haq, Farooq; Medhekar, Anita; Yasin, NaveedPurpose: This paper explores medical tourism development challenges in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pre- and during Covid-19. Medical tourism is becoming a dynamic, rapid growth area and an engine of economic development. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews were conducted with medical tourism professionals. Fourteen medical tourism stakeholders were interviewed from 1 January to 31 January 2020. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied on medical tourism challenges before and during the pandemic. Findings: The major themes indicated concerns for medical tourism in the UAE and they included higher medical services costs and a shortage of highly qualified medical expertise. The emerging themes related to the challenges of coping with Covid-19 and strategies to attract medical tourists. Originality/value: This study contributes towards (1) the theory of medical tourism, (2) the related limited prior published work on this topic relating to the UAE and (3) the importance of medical tourism in today’s tourism industry. Additionally, there are theoretical and practical implications for medical tourism stakeholders in terms of attracting inbound medical tourists to the UAE from other countries during the Covid-19 crisis and in the post-pandemic situation. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
- ItemEco-anxiety: A Q method analysis towards eco-anxiety attitudes in the United Arab Emirates(Routledge, 2022) Takshe, Aseel A.; Hashi, Zahra; Mohammed, Marwa; Astari, AnnisaHumans are witnessing extreme events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, wildfires, and emergence of novel diseases causing unprecedented changes to our planet. These rapid changes coupled with a transparent world that enjoys access to information mean that today’s population is more aware and attentive about the progress of climate change. The purpose of this study is to discover attitudes towards new gained consciousness and the term Eco-anxiety. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines eco-anxiety as a ‘chronic fear of environmental doom’. To investigate this phenomenon, we use Q-methodology to analyse discourses on the topic. Thirty-nine people from four different stakeholder groups were surveyed. Five distinct discourses were generated covering the connection between environmental awareness and psychological well-being, coming to terms with emotional response to climate change, importance of climate change, awareness about eco-anxiety leading to a more positive outlook, and disbelief that eco-anxiety and climate change can affect mental well-being. © 2022 GAPS.