introduction: increasing numbers of chronic patients who need permanent support and staff members who are exposed to daily psychological stress highlight the need for hospitals which consider health promotion programs as a key service. health promotion program was introduced by the world health organization (who) in 1990 and has ever since been implemented by many countries throughout the world...

Over the 30 years of conflict, Northern Ireland escaped the worst excess of illegal drug trafficking and usage. However, the recent 'peace dividend' has brought with it an unprecedented rise in the availability and use of illicit drugs. With this, new problems and pressures have been brought to bear on the health service. The literature would suggest that drug users are loathed and feared by he...

We present a progress report on a pilot peer-mentoring programme for staff at a tertiary institution. Ako Ako is a Maori methodology of learning that acknowledges that both partners share the power base of teaching and learning. Peer mentoring replicates this methodology and requires a paradigm shift from traditional mentoring where one is deemed to have higher levels of knowledge and skills. I...

PURPOSE Since 2001, many military families have experienced multiple and extended deployments. Little is known about the effect of parental deployment on the well-being of children, and few, if any, studies to date have engaged school staff to understand whether and how parental deployments affect the behavioral, social, and emotional outcomes of youth in the school setting. METHODS Focus gro...

It is believed that surgery on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients is dangerous and should be avoided due to the possibility of postoperative infection of the patients or HIV occupational transmission to the medical staff. We discuss here the preparations and measures needed to conduct surgery safely on HIV-positive patients, based on our experience. We performed sex reassignme...

BACKGROUND Despite the worthy intentions of international health partnerships between high-income countries and countries with developing economies, the tangible benefits are rarely evaluated, limiting the assessment of the achievements of such collaborations. METHODS The present study used longitudinal qualitative methods to examine the individual and organisational benefits of a partnership...