Management by missions in the healthcare sector / La dirección por misiones en el sector sanitario

This article discusses the importance of the mission statement in the healthcare sector. It's also argued that only formal declaration of the mission it's insufficient to the appropriate professional coordination of doctors, nurses and managers. It's proposed a systematic approach to facilitate the introduction of the mission within the systems of the organization, what is called «Management by missions.» It promotes horizontal and vertical integration between doctors, nurses and managers. Criteria that ensure this integration are specified (AU)

En este artículo se aborda la importancia de la declaración de la misión en instituciones del sector sanitario; también se constata la insuficiencia de esta declaración formal para la adecuada coordinación profesional de médicos, enfermeros y gestores. Se propone un abordaje sistemático que facilite la introducción de la misión en los sistemas de la organización, lo que se denomina «Dirección por misiones». Se explicita como esto promueve la integración horizontal y vertical entre médicos, enfermeros y gestores. Se especifican los criterios que garantizan esa integración (AU)

Addressing discrepancies: personal experience of a cardiac mission programme in Africa.

The worldwide incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is increasing, reflecting a combination of ongoing infective diseases and a rapid rise in traditional 'western' risk factors. It is estimated that in the next 20 years that CVD be the leading cause of death in developing nations. There are high incidences of rheumatic heart disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies, uncorrected congenital heart disease and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated disease in many low-income countries. Such high levels combined with a lack of diagnostic tests and therapeutic options means mortality and morbidity rates are high. A number of charities and organizations have tried to address the discrepancy of cardiac care within developing areas although the needs remain great. However there is no one global cardiac organization that coordinates such humanitarian work. The challenges of missionary work include the need for appropriate facilities, financial constraints of clinical consumables, and lack of education of local healthcare staff, making the move away from the mission model difficult. The strategy for delivery of care in developing countries should be long term educational and technical support, so that local case volumes increase. However it must be realized that there are many different levels of local services within developing nations with different health and educational needs, including some countries with very high facilities and skills levels, yet high case loads. This paper highlights the personal experience of our organization and the types of diseases encountered in developing countries.

Stopping the ouch of injury: injury prevention for faith community nurses.

Faith Community Nurses (FCNs) work in congregations to promote health within and beyond the faith community. The FCN is in an ideal situation to promote injury prevention, but many FCNs lack the resources to facilitate injury-prevention programs. Our community teaching hospital's trauma services department undertook a project to increase awareness among FCNs of their role in promoting injury-prevention strategies by developing an injury-prevention resource library and hosting a train-the-trainer workshop for FCNs. This endeavor was very successful and helped forge an ongoing collaborative relationship between faith communities and trauma services.

Service-learning: education with a missions focus.

Many nursing students today want to be involved in mission projects to serve others, study abroad, and/or develop cultural competence. This article describes the service-learning model applied to a study-abroad clinical experience with a mission focus that follows best-practice guidelines for healthcare missions.

Pattern and outcome of antenatal care among women attending a Catholic mission hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Antenatal care (ANC) services have the aim of monitoring the course of pregnancy, in order to promote favourable outcomes. In spite of the fact that its components have been found to improve pregnancy outcomes, maternal/infant morbidity and mortality still remain public health problems in most developing countries including Nigeria. These unacceptable health indicators form the basis of this study. The records of 581 women who attended ANC at the Catholic Hospital between October 2005 and September 2006 were accessed. The data collected with the aid of a checklist were processed using statistical package of social sciences (SPSS). The age range of the participants was 17-45; with the mean age of 30.3 (SD = 4.8). Three hundred and forty-seven (59.7%), sixty-nine (29.1%) of the women had tertiary and secondary education respectively. A total of 325 (55.9%) were nulliparous. Only 44 (7.6%) of the women began ANC at the first trimester. Out of 159 abortions recorded among the women, 72 (45%) were self-induced prior to marriage. Findings showed apparent low rate of first trimester booking, irregular antenatal clinic visits and initiation of ANC at the appearance of symptoms of illness among the women studied. Therefore the study recommends hospitals to adopt the WHO modified ANC with fewer visits to improve better compliance and coverage, provision of family life education especially on the benefits of early ANC booking and family planning services through available media.