Introduction Low back pain can be influenced by demographic, lifestyle and co-morbid factors. No studies have been done on the relationship between these factors and low back pain in hospital employees in South Africa. The aim of this study was to determine which of these factors was present and how they influenced low back pain in staff employed at a district hospital in South Africa. Methods The study used a self-administered questionnaire on staff employed at the hospital. Results Results indicated that the point prevalence for low back pain was 47%. Most of the employees were female nurses aged between 26 and 40 years with BMI values higher than normal. The majority of the employees participated in exercises although this was mainly for 1 to 2 times a week. Among the demographic factors, only female gender was associated with increased risk of low back pain (OR 1,67 CI 1,04 ; 2,69) while for the lifestyle factors, participation in group exercises was a protective factor against low back pain (OR 1,66 CI 1,02 ; 2,70). Perceived stress all the time increased the risk of low back pain (OR 3,47 CI 1,46 ; 8,23). None of the isolated co-morbid diseases were associated with the presence of low back pain. Conclusion The prevalence of low back pain among Tshwane district hospital employees is high. Female gender and a high level of perceived stress increase the risk of low back pain while participation in group exercise reduces the risk of low back pain.

The Abstract of Thesis Title¡GThe study of the relationship among hospital employees, emotion labor load and customer-oriented behavior. School¡GNational SUN YAT-SEN University Department¡GInstitute of Human Resource Management Academic year¡G91 Author¡GHsiu-Ching Tai Adviser¡GDr. Bih-Shiaw Jaw Dr. Liang-Chih Huang Abstract At the world competition period, business must pay more attention to customer oriented service and customer satisfaction as the company core ability to face the challenges. Customer-oriented behavior is the necessary condition for business to exist in the world and it becomes the business management trend. Medical treatment in Taiwan will make a revolution in the 21st century by the medical policy changes. This situation makes the hospital management become harder and face more challenges. Medical service industry doesn¡¦t only have normal trait like the common service industry, but also have many specific traits. However, the hospital is a working environment with high emotional labor load. If hospital employees can not deal with their emotions appropriately, it will cause emotional exhaustion and influences customer-oriented behaviors. In order to understand if the emotional exhaustion is a mediator between the emotional labor load and the customer-oriented behavior, also, if the emotional management affects the emotion labor load, emotion exhaustion and customer-oriented behavior is the research purpose. The samples are 503 employees of two hospitals at Kaohsiung, but the valid questionnaires are 399. After SPSS for Windows 8.0 statistic analyzing, the results are summarized as following: 1. The hospital employees with different characters will lead to variance emotional labor load, emotional exhaustion, emotional management and customer-oriented behaviors. 2. There is a relationship between the emotional labor load, emotional exhaustion and customer-oriented behaviors. 3. The relationship between the emotional labor load and customer-oriented behavior has prediction. 4. The emotional exhaustion has intermediary effect between emotional labor load and customer-oriented behavior. 5. The emotional management of emotional empathy, emotional expression and awareness have mediator effects between the emotional labor load and emotional exhaustion. Therefore, the high emotional labor load of hospital employees can be eliminated by emotional expression and awareness, and the emotional exhaustion can be decreased. Then, this situation will influence the customer-oriented behavior. Also, management use human resource management proposal to reinforce employees¡¦ emotional manage skills. IT will help employees decrease the emotional labor load, emotional exhaustion, and improve customer-oriented behavior. Key Words: hospital employees, emotional labor load, emotional exhaustion, emotional management, customer-oriented behavior.

A new hospital in United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to adopt health information technology (HIT) and become fully digitalized once operational. The hospital has identified a need to assess basic computer literacy of new employees prior to offering them training on various HIT applications. Lack of research in identifying an accurate assessment method for basic computer literacy among health care professionals led to this explanatory correlational research study, which compared self-assessment scores and a simulated actual computer skills test to find an appropriate tool for assessing computer literacy. The theoretical framework of the study was based on constructivist learning theory and self-efficacy theory. Two sets of data from 182 hospital employees were collected and analyzed. A t test revealed that scores of self-assessment were significantly higher than they were on the actual test, which indicated that hospital employees tend to score higher on self-assessment when compared to actual skills test. A Pearson product moment correlation revealed a statistically weak correlation between the scores, which implied that self-assessment scores were not a reliable indicator of how an individual would perform on the actual test. An actual skill test was found to be the more reliable tool to assess basic computer skills when compared to self-assessment test. The findings of the study also identified areas where employees at the local hospital lacked basic computer skills, which led to the development of the project to fill these gaps by providing training on basic computer skills prior to them getting trained on various HIT applications. The findings of the study will be useful for hospitals in UAE who are in the process of adopting HIT and for health information educators to design appropriate training curricula based on assessment of basic computer literacy.

The aim of this study was to examine and compare job demand and resource perception of hospital employees in Iceland and Sweden as well as their self-efficacy and intention to quit. These variables have high predictability for attitudes and behavior. Since the two countries were impacted differently by the global financial crisis of 2008, it is interesting to investigate whether these factors differ between them. A cross-sectional data was collected in public hospitals among specialized and unspecialized healthcare employees who responded to a self-administrated questionnaire. Quantitative methodology was used to analyze the differences between the groups. A MANOVA revealed no significant differences in resource perception, self-efficacy and intention to quit. However, unexpectedly, perception of job demands was significantly higher in Sweden. The literature behind this comparison sheds a light on how work conditions and employee well-being can be improved by managing resources and demands. It yields insight into how improvements can be wrought in such a complex system as healthcare in times of financial restrictions. On a practical level, this study emphasizes the importance of fair demands and good resources as a key to well-being because balanced levels of these factors enable employees to respond effectively to their work environment, be more satisfied, motivated, have high self-efficacy and be less likely to quit their jobs. Finally, areas were identified where future research is needed.

A new hospital in United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to adopt health information technology (HIT) and become fully digitalized once operational. The hospital has identified a need to assess basic computer literacy of new employees prior to offering them training on various HIT applications. Lack of research in identifying an accurate assessment method for basic computer literacy among health care professionals led to this explanatory correlational research study, which compared self-assessment scores and a simulated actual computer skills test to find an appropriate tool for assessing computer literacy. The theoretical framework of the study was based on constructivist learning theory and self-efficacy theory. Two sets of data from 182 hospital employees were collected and analyzed. A t test revealed that scores of self-assessment were significantly higher than they were on the actual test, which indicated that hospital employees tend to score higher on self-assessment when compared to actual skills test. A Pearson product moment correlation revealed a statistically weak correlation between the scores, which implied that self-assessment scores were not a reliable indicator of how an individual would perform on the actual test. An actual skill test was found to be the more reliable tool to assess basic computer skills when compared to self-assessment test. The findings of the study also identified areas where employees at the local hospital lacked basic computer skills, which led to the development of the project to fill these gaps by providing training on basic computer skills prior to them getting trained on various HIT applications. The findings of the study will be useful for hospitals in UAE who are in the process of adopting HIT and for health information educators to design appropriate training curricula based on assessment of basic computer literacy.