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Background: In an era of hesitance to use vaccines, the importance of effective communication for increasing vaccine acceptance is well known. This study aimed to assess the impact of a three-day residential course concerning empathy and counselling abilities on patients’ ratings of the level of empathy of physicians and nurses working in vaccination centers. Methods: The empathy of healthcare providers was evaluated using the Adapted Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure. The survey involved 20 healthcare workers, doctors, and nurses in three immunization services of a Local Health Unit in South Italy. Before and after attending the course, all of them administered the questionnaire to 50 consecutive parents of vaccinated children. Statistical tests were used to assess the homogeneity of pre- and post -course samples, to measure the level of empathy perceived by parents in doctors and nurses in pre- and post-course evaluations, and to compare the average CARE Measure scores among groups. Results: Analysis of the questionnaires showed an increase of “excellent” scores and statistically significant differences between the pre- and post -course median values. Statistically significant differences between doctors and nurses were shown in almost all questions pre-course and in only four questions post-course. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that a residential course is effective at improving patient-rated empathy of doctors and nurses working in vaccination centers and could result in an increase of parents’ adherence to vaccination programs.

Background: Studies have been conducted on the content and quality of Web-based information for patients who are interested in smoking cessation advice and for health care practitioners regarding the content of e-learning programs about tobacco cessation. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no such information about the quality of Web-based learning resources regarding smoking cessation dedicated to oral health professionals. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the quality of the content of webpages providing information about smoking cessation for oral health care professionals. Methods: Websites were identified using Google and Health on Net (HON) search engines using the terms: smoking cessation OR quit smoking OR stop smoking OR 3As OR 5As OR tobacco counselling AND dentistry OR dental clinic OR dentist OR dental hygienist OR oral health professionals. The first 100 consecutive results of the 2 search engines were considered for the study. Quality assessment was rated using the DISCERN questionnaire, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks, and the HON seal. In addition, smoking cessation content on each site was assessed using an abbreviated version of the Smoke Treatment Scale (STS-C) and the Smoking Treatment Scale-Rating (STS-R). To assess legibility of the selected websites, the Flesch Reading Ease (FRES) and the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade Level (FKRGL) were used. Websites were also classified into multimedia and nonmultimedia and friendly and nonfriendly usability. Results: Of the first 200 sites selected (100 of Google and 100 of HON), only 11 met the inclusion criteria and mainly belonged to governmental institutions (n=8), with the others being prepared by Professional Associations (n=2) and nonprofit organizations (n=1). Only 3 were exclusively dedicated to smoking cessation. The average score obtained with the DISCERN was 3.0, and the average score in the FKRGL and FRES was 13.31 (standard deviation, SD 3.34) and 40.73 (SD 15.46), respectively. Of the 11 websites evaluated, none achieved all the four JAMA benchmarks. The mean score of STS-R among all the websites was 2.81 (SD 0.95) out of 5. A significant strong positive correlation was obtained between the DISCERN mean values and the STS-R (R=.89, P=.01). Conclusions: The mean quality of webpages with information for oral health care professionals about smoking cessation is low and displayed a high heterogeneity. These webpages are also difficult to read and often lack multimedia resources, which further limits their usefulness. [J Med Internet Res 2017;19(10):e349]

Background/Aim. Continuing Medical Education (CME), conceptualised as lifelong learning (LLL) aims at improving human resources and continuing professional development. Various documents of European institutions underline its key importance. This paper therefore tries to analyse the current status of CME and the main deficits in the delivery of LLL courses at medical faculties in Serbia with special consideration of the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade with detailed financial data available. Methods. Data of 2,265 medical courses submitted in 2011 and 2012 for accreditation were made available, thereof 403 courses submitted by 4 medical faculties in Serbia (Belgrade, Kragujevac, Nis, Novi Sad). A subset of more detailed information on 88 delivered courses with 5,600 participants has been provided by the Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade. All data were transferred into an Excel file and analysed with XLSTAT 2009. To reduce the complexity and possible redundancy we performed a principal component analysis (PCA). Correlated component regression (CCR) models were used to identify determinants of course participation. Results. During the 2-year period 12.9% of all courses were submitted on preclinical and 62.4% on clinical topics, 12.2% on public health, while 61.5% of all took place in Belgrade. The subset of the Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade comprised 3,471 participants registered with 51 courses accredited and delivered in 2011 and 2,129 participants with 37 courses accredited and delivered in 2012. The median number of participants per course for the entire period was 45; the median fee rates for participants were 5,000 dinars in 2011 and 8,000 in 2012, resulting together with donations in a total income for both years together of 16,126,495.00 dinar or almost 144,000.00 euro. This allowed for a median payment of approximately 90 eur per hour lectured in 2011 and 49 euro in 2012. The 2 factors, D1 (performance) and D2 (attractiveness), identified in the PCA for Medical Faculties in Serbia, explain 71.8% of the variance. Most relevant are the duration of the courses, credit points, and hours per credit point gained by lecturers and participants respectively. In the PCA for Belgrade D1 and D2 explain 40.7% of the total variance. The CCR on the number of participants reveals the highest positive impact from the number of lecturers per course and the expenditure on amenities, the highest negative impact from the total income collected per participant. Conclusion. The faculties of medicine in Serbia should reconsider the entire structure of their organisation of CME, especially to improve the quantity and quality of registration limit the course fee rates per hour and reduce administrative and other costs request lecturing in CME programmes as obligatory for academic promotion and organise a focussed marketing. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 175042]

SummaryHealthcare-associated infection (HCAI), patient safety, and the harmonization of related policies and programmes are the focus of increasing attention and activity in Europe. Infection control training for healthcare workers (HCWs) is a cornerstone of all patient safety and HCAI prevention and control programmes. In 2009 the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) commissioned an assessment of needs for training in infection control in Europe (TRICE), which showed a substantial increase in commitment to HCAI prevention. On the other hand, it also identified obstacles to the harmonization and promotion of training in infection control and hospital hygiene (IC/HH), mostly due to differences between countries in: (i) the required qualifications of HCWs, particularly nurses; (ii) the available resources; and (iii) the sustainability of IC/HH programmes. In 2013, ECDC published core competencies for infection control and hospital hygiene professionals in the European Union and a new project was launched [‘Implementation of a training strategy for infection control in the European Union’ (TRICE-IS)] that aimed to: define an agreed methodology and standards for the evaluation of IC/HH courses and training programmes; develop a flexible IC/HH taxonomy; and implement an easily accessible web tool in ‘Wiki’ format for IC/HH professionals. This paper reviews several aspects of the TRICE and the TRICE-IS projects.