Medical Support Groups Research Articles

Exploring healthcare provider retention in a rural and frontier community in Northern Idaho

BackgroundA shortage of healthcare providers, particularly in primary care and mental health, exists in the predominately rural state of Idaho. There are also barriers to retaining healthcare providers to work in rural and remote communities. Limited research using U.S. samples has explored factors that may affect the retention of healthcare providers in rural areas. Additionally, due to differences between communities, it is important to conduct community-level investigations to better understand how these factors may affect retention in rural areas. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore factors affecting healthcare provider retention in a rural community in Northern Idaho.MethodsA modified version of the Nursing Community Apgar Questionnaire (NCAQ) was completed by 30 healthcare providers in a rural and frontier community in Northern Idaho to assess factors influencing healthcare provider retention. Factors were classified into classes including geographic, economic, scope of practice, medical support, and facility and community support classes. Retention factors were assessed on their perceived importance to retention as well as whether they were perceived as an advantage or challenge to retention based on Likert scales. A “Community Apgar” score was also created by combining the importance and advantage/challenge factors.ResultsOverall, items in the medical support group had the highest importance of any other class and included factors such as nursing workforce. Additionally, the facility and community support class, which included factors such as televideo support, was rated the highest advantage class and had the highest Apgar score, indicating it contained the factor that healthcare providers identified as the most important advantage (i.e., medical reference resources).ConclusionOur study identified multiple factors that healthcare providers deemed as important advantages or disadvantages to retaining healthcare providers in rural areas. Overall, facility and community support factors were found to have the highest advantage in the retention of rural providers. Rural healthcare organizations looking to increase healthcare provider retention should target retention efforts towards these factors. Additional research should also be conducted on other rural samples across the U.S. to make comparisons of findings.

Effectiveness of the Global Surgical and Medical Support Group (GSMSG) activities in Ukraine.

Targeting of healthcare infrastructures in Ukraine has served as a tactical warfare strategy. The goal of the Global Surgical and Medical Support Group (GSMSG) is to provide sustainable, high quality medical and surgical care in war zones. GSMSG deployed United States (US) Special Operations veterans and highly specialized licensed medical experts. Training of Ukrainian civilians was implemented. Over 20,000 Ukrainians trained and over 100 major surgeries performed with assistance of world experts. Specialized medical equipment was also provided. GSMSG lays the groundwork for effective, high quality, and sustainable surgical interventions into a nation in conflict.

Facebook medical support groups: the communication privacy management perspective

PurposeExploring the considerations that guide and influence members of Facebook medical support groups to disclose private information.Design/methodology/approachThe sample included 293 participants, aged 18–85 years, who answered an online survey, 155 members of Facebook medical support groups and 138 members of other Facebook groups.FindingsMembers of medical support groups attach greater importance to privacy policy, give greater value to privacy and reveal more private information, compared to members of other groups. Members of medical support groups tend to feel that they receive more support and feel that the privacy policy preserves their privacy much more. These feelings are associated with greater self-disclosure of groups' members.Originality/valueThe research insights will help medical support groups' members and admins to put into action the fundamental right to privacy and build a set of rules tailored to their individual and group needs.

Practice of medical care and rescue Amne Machin extreme cross-country challenge

To share the practice of medical care and rescue in the 2017-2019 Amne Machin extreme cross-country challenge. At the invitation of the Organizing Committee of Amne Machin extreme cross-country challenge of Maqin County of Qinghai Province. More than 150 medical personnel were sent to make the rescue plan and implement the medical security for three consecutive years. The support was divided into leading command group, expert consulting group, on-site medical support group, rear medical support group, and medical material support group. The on-site medical support group was equipped with the ambulance, corresponding emergency medical equipments and medicines to provide medical support at eight medical stations from the starting point to the endpoint and along the route between each station. There were no cardiac arrest and sudden death cases during the three competitions. A total of 56 patients (5 cases of combined injuries) were received, including 21 cases of mild altitude reaction, 8 cases of abrasions, 13 cases of muscle spasm and strain, 11 cases of hypoglycemia, and 3 cases of abdominal pain. All the injured were treated and observed in time. Each patient achieved a complete remission. To achieve the success of medical security of the highest average altitude cross-country race certified by International Trail Running Association (ITRA), we must formulate a scientific and perfect medical security work plan in the first place: pre competition physical examination, especially the application of sports cardiopulmonary function test, screen out athletes who may have medical accidents; during the competition, focus on monitoring and tracking the players who may have problems; each support point is closely connected with the support vehicle; do a good job of first aid training for all kinds of personnel, so that medical accidents can be found, aided, and transferred at the first time. The medical care and rescue of Amne Machin extreme cross-country challenge have played a good role in the security of the international plateau sports events, which provides a reference for the security of similar events.

"WHAT WE CANNOT SPEAK ABOUT WE MUST TWEET": TRUST AMONG ISRAELI TWITTER USERS WITH DEPRESSION

Research on self-revealing online environments in general and on internet-based medical support groups in particular has demonstrated that participants in such environments customarily assume others to be worthy of intimacy that is indeed reciprocated, resulting in a generalized climate of mutual trust that nevertheless meets significant challenges in actual online practice. While most previous studies have examined this phenomenon in the context of blogs, forums, and social media groups explicitly devoted to specific _physical_ illnesses, in this study we focus on a "naturally" developing, unstructured, a-hierarchical "community"-of-sorts that is based on a shared _mental_ disorder – Israeli Twitter users with depression. In-depth interviews with these users demonstrate how the unique affordances of Twitter in Israel – and especially its lack of popularity and its construction as the "anti-Facebook" – have enabled it to become a discursive space in which non-hegemonic voices are more prominent.
 While Twitter users with depression were cautious in developing trust, once trust was inferred it became a central facet of their perception of Twitter and its supportive role. Users conceived of Twitter as a sanctuary and echo chamber in which people with depression can present their authentic selves to an empathetic, non-judgmental community of similar outcasts. At the same time, the community's expectations for profound authenticity paradoxically led some users to avoid tweeting about positive experiences. In addition, Twitter's marginal status allowed users to link their sense of _psychological_ reclusiveness to their sense of _political_ isolation in a climate in which leftist views are increasingly ostracized.

Phenotypic Observations by the CSID Dietary and Medical Support Group

Phenotypic Observations by the CSID Dietary and Medical Support Group

Chest injuries associated with earthquakes: an analysis of injuries sustained during the 2008 Wen-Chuan earthquake in China

The goal of this study was to analyze the patterns, therapeutic modalities, and short-term outcomes of patients with chest injuries in the aftermath of the Wen-Chuan earthquake, which occurred on May 12, 2008 and registered 8.0 on the Richter scale. Of the 1522 patients who were referred to the West China Hospital of Sichuan University from May 12 to May 27, 169 patients (11.1%) had suffered major chest injuries. The type of injury, the presence of infection, Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS 2005), New Injury Severity Score (NISS), treatment, and short-term outcome were all documented for each case. Isolated chest injuries were diagnosed in 129 patients (76.3%), while multiple injuries with a major chest trauma were diagnosed in 40 patients (23.7%). The mean AIS and the median NISS of the hospitalized patients with chest injuries were 2.5 and 13, respectively. The mortality rate was 3.0% (5 patients). Most of the chest injuries were classified as minor to moderate trauma; however, coexistent multiple injuries and subsequent infection should be carefully considered in medical response strategies. Coordinated efforts among emergency medical support groups and prior training in earthquake preparedness and rescue in earthquake-prone areas are therefore necessary for efficient evacuation and treatment of catastrophic casualties.

Empathic communities: balancing emotional and factual communication

The Web empowers a diverse population of users and this is reflected in both the demography and interests of today’s on-line communities. Many of these communities provide an essential social function by enabling people with medical or personal problems to discuss their concerns with others. Physicians can provide the facts, but other patients can tell you what it really feels like and what to expect next, in a way that only someone with personal experience can. A study of the messages from an on-line medical support group shows that empathy is an essential ingredient in participants’ discussions. Better tools are needed to empower patients to help themselves by finding information and contacting other patients in bulletin board communities. Suggestions about the nature of these tools are discussed. In particular, supporting a balance between empathic and factual communication is stressed.

The use of a medical support group on a medical/psychiatric unit.

(1988). The use of a Medical Support Group on a Medical/Psychiatric Unit. Issues in Mental Health Nursing: Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 353-362.

Health and national liberation in the People's Republic of Mozambique.

Findings and impressions of a member of a British medical support group who toured the health services in newly independent Mozambique in September 1975. The medical facilities of a base camp serving soldiers and the surrounding civilian population included a consulting room and pharmacy with dirt floors and mud and wattle walls, with rudimentary but serviceable equipment and supplies. Health education after the revolution is conducted by Frelimo cadres operating in agricultural collectives. Useful health statistics about the bulk of the population are almost totally lacking, and medical facilities left by the Portuguese are meager and concentrated in the largest towns and cities, with no provision at all for the majority of the population. The Frelimo government's health plans call for an organized rural health service consisting of health posts and maternity and child care units, health centers and rural hospitals, with provincial hospitals to be improved. The Ministry of Health has already undertaken some mass preventive programs.