Background: Vaccine hesitancy poses serious challenges for achieving coverage for population immunity. It is necessary to achieve high COVID‐19 vaccination acceptance rates and medical students’ coverage as future health care providers. The study aimed to explore the level of COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy and determine the factors and barriers that may affect vaccination decision‐making.Methods: A cross‐sectional study was carried out among medical students in Tanta and Kafrelsheikh Universities, Egypt. Data collection was done via an online questionnaire during January 2021 from 2133 students.Results: The majority of the participant students (90.5%) perceived the importance of the COVID‐19 vaccine, 46% had vaccination hesitancy, and an equal percentage (6%) either definitely accepted or refused the vaccine. Most of the students had concerns regarding the vaccine's adverse effects (96.8%) and ineffectiveness (93.2%). The most confirmed barriers of COVID‐19 vaccination were deficient data regarding the vaccine's adverse effects (potential 74.17% and unknown 56.31%) and insufficient information regarding the vaccine itself (72.76%).Conclusion: The government, health authority decision‐makers, medical experts, and universities in Egypt need to work together and make efforts to reduce hesitancy and raise awareness about vaccinations, consequently improving the acceptance of COVID‐19 vaccines.

Sexual harassment against nurses is a major workplace problem causing adverse psychological effects and may affect the occupational performance of the nurses. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of this problem, and its characteristics and consequences among the nursing staff in Tanta University Hospitals, Gharbeia Governorate, Egypt. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 430 nurses at Tanta University Hospitals using a semistructured, self-administered questionnaire to collect the data concerning the exposure and characteristics of harassment situations. A representative sample of the nurses was taken randomly from the emergency, medical and surgical departments. Overall, 70.2% of the studied nurses were ever exposed to sexual harassment at the workplace; 43.7% of the harassed nurses were working in both day and night shifts. Staring in a suggestive manner emerged as the most common form of harassment, followed by hearing sexual words and comments or jokes (70.9, 58.6 and 57.3%, respectively). The relatives of the patients were the most common perpetrators, followed by the hospital staff other than the doctors (61.9, 45.4%, respectively). During the harassment situation, astonishment and shock were the most frequent responses in 65.2% of the harassed nurses, while after its occurrence 38.4% ignored the situation. About 95% of the harassed nurses were left with psychological effects, mostly in the form of disappointment and depression (76.5 and 67.9%, respectively). The prevalence of sexual harassment among nurses at the workplace was high with relation to certain occupational factors, and it led to marked psychological effects on the victims. Hence, protective legislations and measures should be taken by the hospital management for prevention of this problem in the future.

Evidence-based medicine help clinicians deal with information overload, to distribute healthcare resources more equitably, help reduce healthcare costs, and justify treatment choices to the public. This study aimed to assess evidence-based medicine (EBM) knowledge, practices and attitudes among physicians in Tanta University hospital, Tanta, Egypt. A cross-sectional study was used. Collection of data was by a self-administrated questionnaire distributed to 398 physicians in different specialties during 2017. Response rate was 93.6 %. More than half (61.3 %) of participants reported Pub Med as used in decision-making. Physicians with good knowledge of EBM represented 10.5 %, those with fair knowledge represented 54 %, and those with poor knowledge represented 35.5 %. Regarding attitudes towards EBM, 76.4 % of study participants welcomed the current promotion of EBM; 81.4 % thought that it useful to use research findings in daily management of patients; and 89.9 % thought that practicing EBM improved patient outcomes. More than half of participants (55.8 %) had attended courses related to EBM, but only 6.8 % had attended courses related to critical appraisal. The majority of participants (97 %) had access to the World Wide Web. Barriers reported by participants that interfere with EBM practice were patient overload (68.1 %), lack of time (60.1 %), colleagues' attitudes (47 %), lack of skills (46.7 %), and fear of criticism (44.5 %). Most participants in this study have a positive attitude towards EBM, have a fair knowledge of it, but poor practices. EBM should be integrated in the curriculum of both undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and EBM training courses provided to residents to ensure correct application of EBM in daily practice.

Background: A safe and effective vaccine is the ultimate key to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine acceptance is influenced by various factors, including perceptions about the vaccine’s safety and side effects. The side effects vary depending on the type of the vaccine, but they are mainly mild, local, temporary, and self-limiting.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Tanta University Hospitals, including 1246 healthcare workers who received either the first or the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, selected via a systematic random sampling technique using a self-administered structured validated questionnaire for data collection from November 2021 to January 2022. Qualitative data were presented as frequencies and percentages and analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests.Results: The prevalence of one or more side effects was 91.3%. Among participants, about two-thirds believed in vaccine safety and its necessity (65.4% and 63.6%, respectively). Significantly more participants (46.9%) were concerned about AstraZeneca thrombotic complications than other vaccine types. The top five side effects reported by participants were injection site pain (64.8%), sense of fatigue (57.1%), headache (49.9%), muscle pain (48.7%), and fever (46.5). Most of the side effects were significantly higher among participants vaccinated with AstraZeneca. Side effects impacted work capacity of 23.4%, which was significantly higher among participants who received AstraZeneca (33.6%).Conclusion: Participants had a good level of belief in vaccination safety and necessity. Healthcare workers who got the AstraZeneca vaccination reported more adverse effects than other vaccines. Injection site pain, fatigue, headache, muscle pains, and fever were the most frequently reported side effects. More research on vaccination safety is needed to understand the long-term adverse effects of vaccinations better, improve the public trust, and accelerate vaccine adoption.

Egypt is among the countries with the highest number of tobacco users in the Arab world. There is a scarcity of available data concerning the awareness and use of E-cigarettes in Egypt, particularly among young people. This study aimed to assess the students` perceptions and practices of E-smoking and highlight factors affecting it. A cross-sectional study among 368 students from four faculties. Data were collected via a predesigned questionnaire including socio-demographics, questions regarding knowledge, attitude, and practices related to E-smoking. Prevalence of E-smoking was 10.60%. Moderate to high knowledge regarding E-cigarettes with male predominance was shown. Participants reported multiple reasons for E- smoking; the most frequent was keeping with fashion (33.70%) followed by the influence of peers (27.70%). The majority had a positive attitude against E-cigarettes and reported that they might lead to different illnesses (78.30%). E-cigarette’s smokers reported side effects; cough (61.50%), headache (53.80%), dizziness (51.30%), and 48% reported dry mouth& throat. Only 4.90% of smokers ever tried to quit smoking E-cigarettes, and 41.0% seriously think about quitting. Concerning risk factors associated with E-cigarettes, the highest risk was being male (OR = 10.35), followed by having friends who use E-cigarettes (OR = 8.72) and family not opposing using E-cigarettes (OR = 4.88). The prevalence of E-smoking was 10.60%. The majority had a limited knowledge about E-cigarettes. Male sex, having a family member or a friend smoking E-cigarettes, and family not opposing smoking were the main predictors for E-smoking among studied participants.