Smart phones and medical students: Pleasant distraction or dangerous addiction?

Smart phones are central to communication in the current century. We administered a survey to determine the impact of excessive smart phone use on academic performance, interpersonal relationships and mental health in medical students. During the study, 700 medical students from King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan, were administered a questionnaire which recorded information about demographics, academic performance, interpersonal relationships and psychological problems. Out of 630 respondents, 255(40.5%) were males and 375(59.5%) were females with a mean age of 21.1}1.8 years. Results showed smart phone use during class lectures was associated with significant reduction in academic performance and problems with interpersonal relationships. Medical students bullied via smart phones were likely to bully others. Excessive use of smart phones was associated with students preferring to communicate emotions through texting rather than verbal communication. Various psychological problems were found prevalent in excessive users of smart phones.

Burnout and quality of life in nurses of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship of burnout and quality of life among nurses of different departments at a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: The observational, cross-sectional study was conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore, from November 2013 to May2014, and comprised nurses recruited by convenience sampling. Maslach Burnout Inventory was used to assess burnout and World Health Organisation Quality of life instrument's BREF version was used to assess quality of life of the subjects. Data was analysed using SPSS 16. RESULTS: Of the 106 nurses with a mean age of 35.5±7 years, 83(79%) were experiencing severe burnout and a low quality of life. Nurses of Surgery and Obstetrics/Gynaecology departments who worked longer hours on the night shift scored higher on burnout and lower on quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Burnout in nurses was very common because of increasing workload and can negatively affect their quality of life leading to compromised patient care.

Urdu translation of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression: Results of a validation study.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a standardized validated version of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) in Urdu. METHODS: After translation of the HAM-D into the Urdu language following standard guidelines, the final Urdu version (HAM-D-U) was administered to 160 depressed outpatients. Inter-item correlation was assessed by calculating Cronbach alpha. Correlation between HAM-D-U scores at baseline and after a 2-week interval was evaluated for test-retest reliability. Moreover, scores of two clinicians on HAM-D-U were compared for inter-rater reliability. For establishing concurrent validity, scores of HAM-D-U and BDI-U were compared by using Spearman correlation coefficient. The study was conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore, from May to December 2014. RESULTS: The Cronbach alpha for HAM-D-U was 0.71. Composite scores for HAM-D-U at baseline and after a 2-week interval were also highly correlated with each other (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.83, p-value < 0.01) indicating good test-retest reliability. Composite scores for HAM-D-U and BDI-U were positively correlated with each other (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.85, p < 0.01) indicating good concurrent validity. Scores of two clinicians for HAM-D-U were also positively correlated (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.82, p-value < 0.01) indicated good inter-rater reliability. CONCLUSION: The HAM-D-U is a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of Depression. It shows good inter-rater and test-retest reliability. The HAM-D-U can be a tool either for clinical management or research.