Impact of Political Violence on Health: The Case of Academics for Peace in Turkey.

This study examines the profound impact of political violence and repression on the mental and physical health of Academics for Peace (AfP) in Turkey. The research combines quantitative and qualitative data to explore the interplay between violence, stigmatization, and health outcomes among the affected academics. This study particularly focuses on the aftermath of the State of Emergency in Turkey in 2016, which led to the dismissal of thousands of academics. We employ the World Health Organization's definition of violence to understand the broad nature of violent acts, encompassing power dynamics and systemic repression. The findings highlight the extensive physical and mental health consequences faced by AfP due to political violence. The prevalence of diagnosed mental illness among respondents is notably high, indicating that exposure to trauma, threats, and repression leads to severe mental distress. Anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and musculoskeletal diseases are among the common health issues reported. The research underscores how political violence disrupts psychosocial pillars including safety and security, bonds and networks, justice, roles and identities, and existential meaning, and explores how these disruptions contribute to communal mental health deterioration. It also identifies the impact on well-being of economic losses, uncertainties, and isolation from social and academic networks.

Burnout and health behaviors in health professionals from seven European countries.

OBJECTIVES: Within an underlying health-impairing process, work stressors exhaust employees' mental and physical resources and lead to exhaustion/burnout and to health problems, with health-impairing behaviors being one of the potential mechanisms, linking burnout to ill health. The study aims to explore the associations between burnout and fast food consumption, exercise, alcohol consumption and painkiller use in a multinational sample of 2623 doctors, nurses and residents from Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia, adopting a cross-national approach. METHODS: Data are part of the international cross-sectional quantitative ORCAB survey. The measures included the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Health Behaviors Questionnaire. RESULTS: Burnout was significantly positively associated with higher fast food consumption, infrequent exercise, higher alcohol consumption and more frequent painkiller use in the full sample, and these associations remained significant after the inclusion of individual differences factors and country of residence. Cross-national comparisons showed significant differences in burnout and health behaviors, and some differences in the statistical significance and magnitude (but not the direction) of the associations between them. Health professionals from Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria reported the most unfavorable experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Burnout and risk health behaviors among health professionals are important both in the context of health professionals' health and well-being and as factors contributing to medical errors and inadequate patient safety. Organizational interventions should incorporate early identification of such behaviors together with programs promoting health and aimed at the reduction of burnout and work-related stress.

Organizational stressors, work-family interface and the role of gender in the hospital: experiences from Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: In the framework of the EU project 'Improving quality and safety in the hospital: The link between organizational culture, burnout and quality of care', focus groups (FGs) were conducted to explore hospital environment stressors and their relationship with health care professional (HP) well-being and quality of care. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and FGs were used. Three mixed FGs with 23 health care workers, two FGs with 12 nurses, and another one with nine physicians were conducted. Thematic analyses were performed. Data were coded into main themes and subthemes. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the discussions: (1) Organizational stressors associated with working conditions concerning the nature of the job, workload and working schedule, unclear role definition, lack of time for personal development, interpersonal relationships at work, changes in health policy, (2) work-family spillover and (3) the gendered nature of health care work and of patients' expectations, and the gendered character of the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: Health care professionals are faced with numerous challenges that create stress affecting their daily life. Job stressors related to working conditions, the negative and positive spillover of work-family interference and the gendered nature of health care work emerged as important issues for Turkish HPs. STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION: What is already known on this subject? In Turkey, gender has rarely been considered in the healthcare studies. Rapid changes in health reforms are making healthcare professionals more vulnerable to stress. The deteriation in the health system impacts women more than men, as higher ratios work in outsourced services. What does this study add? Despite signifcant changes in attitudes towards women, nurses are treated as "mothers" of the clinics. Women as health workers are particularly exposed to multiple stressors, that are rooted in ideals about gender. Understanding the way healthcare is organized along gendered lines is a precusor to any real organizational change.

Knowledge, attitude and safe behaviour of nurses handling cytotoxic anticancer drugs in Ege University Hospital.

Many antineoplastic drugs are known to be carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic to humans. There is thus a potential risk due to occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs (CDs). Nurses and pharmacists are the main groups that are exposed to these drugs in the ambulatory care and hospital settings. An analytic cross sectional study was here carried out in order to evaluate the level of knowledge of nurses on the health effects and the routes of exposure to CDs, to clarify the protective measures while handling these agents and to determine the influence of this knowledge on clinical attitudes, behaviour and actual usage of safety measures. The level of knowledge of the nurses concerning antineoplastics was not satisfactory. Findings for nurses' safety behaviour and usage of recommended health safety measures showed that, notwithstanding the rules and regulations pertaining to CDs, nurses did not comply with them fully. In service training is a very effective tool to increase the level of knowledge. This study also revealed the necessity for improvement of the working environment and the availability of appropriate protective equipment.