The aim of the study was to investigate the physician and nursing perceptions regarding communication and collaboration as well as the factors that may influence these activities. A self-administered questionnaire survey was sent to a random sample of 93 physicians and 197 nurses based in two large public hospitals in Athens, Greece. Descriptive statistics, t-test and chi square test were performed with the SPSS 19.0 statistical package. Years of experience, the size of the clinic, the university degree and the postgraduate studies were found to be significant factors according to nurses' view (p < 0.05). For the physicians, age, sex, years of experience and the size of clinic affected the communication and collaboration with the nursing staff significantly (p < 0.05). In summary, these findings suggest that nurses and physicians do not share the same views concerning the effectiveness of their communication and nurses' role in the decision-making process of the patients' care. The most important barrier for the establishment of good relations between these professions, according to the physicians, was that they did not recognize the nurses' professional role. The study also indicated that the absence of interprofessional collaboration may result in a higher possibility of errors and omissions in patients' care. Therefore, in everyday practice, both nurses and physicians should acknowledge the importance of their effective communication and they should develop and implement interprofessional teamwork interventions to improve collaboration. Moreover, nurses have to constantly consolidate their role in the decision process and patients' care, especially in countries with limited interprofessional collaboration culture. In addition, factors that improve physicians' attitudes toward collaboration and effective communication should be further explored.

Purpose: This review aims to outline a systematic approach for the assessment of quality of life in children and adolescents with CHD and to cite its main determinants.Methods: A systematic critical literature search in PubMed, Scopus, and Cinahl databases resulted in 954 papers published after 2000. After the quality assessment, 32 original articles met the inclusion criteria.Results: Methodological quality of the included studies varied greatly, showing a moderate quality. Impaired quality of life was associated with more severe cardiac lesions. Children with CHD, after cardiac surgery, reported diminished quality of life concerning physical, psycho-social, emotional, and school functioning. The majority of clinical studies showed significant differences among children and their parents’ responses regarding their quality of life, with a tendency of children to report greater quality of life scores than their parents. According to our analysis, concerning children with CHD, the most cited determinants of their quality of life were as follows: (a) parental support; (b) lower socio-economic status; (c) limitations due to physical impairment; (d) sense of coherence; as well as (e) the level of child’s everyday anxiety and depression. These findings suggest that differences in quality of life issues may exist across lesion severities.Conclusion: Quality of life in children with CHD should be assessed according to age; severity; therapeutic approach; acceptance of the disease; and personality features. Effective management and early recognition of significant impairments in quality of life could impact clinical outcomes in children with CHD.

Nurses are responsible for the well-being and quality of life of many people, and therefore must meet high standards of technical and ethical competence. The most common form of ethical guidance is a code of ethics/professional practice; however, little research on how codes are viewed or used in practice has been undertaken. This study, carried out in six European countries, explored nurses’ opinions of the content and function of codes and their use in nursing practice. A total of 49 focus groups involving 311 nurses were held. Purposive sampling ensured a mix of participants from a range of specialisms. Qualitative analysis enabled emerging themes to be identified on both national and comparative bases. Most participants had a poor understanding of their codes. They were unfamiliar with the content and believed they have little practical value because of extensive barriers to their effective use. In many countries nursing codes appear to be ‘paper tigers’ with little or no impact; changes are needed in the way they are developed and written, introduced in nurse education, and reinforced/implemented in clinical practice.

Introduction: Greece is a country with limited spread of SARS-CoV-2 and cumulative infection attack rate of 0.12% (95% CI 0.06–0.26). Health care workers (HCWs) are a well-recognized risk group for COVID-19. The study aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in a nosocomial setting and assess potential risk factors.Methods: HCWs from two hospitals participated in the study. Hospital-1 was a tertiary university affiliated center, involved in the care of COVID-19 patients while hospital-2 was a tertiary specialized cardiac surgery center not involved in the care of these patients. A validated, CE, rapid, IgM/IgG antibody point-of-care test was used. Comparative performance with a reference globally available assay was assessed.Results: 1,495 individuals consented to participate (response rate 77%). The anti-SARS-CoV-2 weighted prevalence was 1.26% (95% CI 0.43, 3.26) overall and 0.53% (95% CI 0.06, 2.78) and 2.70% (95% CI 0.57, 9.19) in hospital-1 and hospital-2, respectively although the study was underpowered to detect statistically significant differences. The overall, hospital-1, and hospital-2 seroprevalence was 10, 4 and 22 times higher than the estimated infection attack rate in general population, respectively. Suboptimal use of personal protective equipment was noted in both hospitals.Conclusions: These data have implications for the preparedness of a second wave of COVID-19 epidemic, given the low burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection rate, in concordance with national projections.

The aim of this study was to explore the complications related to Hickman-Broviac central venous catheters (Hickman-Broviac CVCs) in children with cancer, their incidence, and possible associations of complications and premature removal of CVCs with a number of risk factors. During the study period (1 Jan 2000–31 Dec 2003), 223 CVCs were inserted in 198 children (117 boys, 81 girls) at a mean age of 5.73 years (95% CI 5.19–6.27, SE 0.275). In total, 76 (38.4%) children suffered from solid tumors and 122 (61.6%) from leukemia. The mean follow-up after CVC insertion was 232.5 days (95% CI 214.9–250.2, SE 8.94) for a total of 51,839 catheter-days. A complication occurred in 20.8% of them and in 9.6% the complication led to the removal of the catheter. The most frequent complications were infection (63.9%), obstruction (26.2%), accidental failure (8.2%), and rupture (1.6%). An overall incidence of 1.17 (0.38 and 0.79 for mechanical complication and infection, respectively) per 1000 catheter days for the development of a complication was recorded. Additionally, the study revealed more nonelective removals in cases of leukemia compared to those of solid tumors. Systemic use of CVC does not appear to increase significantly the number of complications, and thus CVC remains an effective and safe tool for the management of childhood malignancies.