Ayşenur Duman Dilbaz

Background: In the complex context of Intensive Care Units (ICUs), healthcare professionals coordinate care under considerable time pressure, uncertainty, and emotional strain. Effective interprofessional communication is essential for safe, high-quality patient care and is influenced by the communication attitudes of team members. This study aimed to explore the communication attitudes of healthcare professionals working in ICUs.Methods: This qualitative study involved 40 healthcare professionals, including resident physicians, nurses, and anaesthesia technicians. Data were collected in March 2023 through brief individual scenario-based simulation encounters followed by profession-specific focus group interviews. Focus group interview data and observation notes from the simulation sessions were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.Results: Six themes were identified: hierarchical structure, duties and responsibilities, role of the patient, team dynamics, coping mechanisms, and limitations of ICU simulation. Communication attitudes were strongly shaped by authority gradients, role ambiguity, and local team norms, often constraining open dialogue and collaborative decision-making. Participants also described emotional strain and a tendency to manage communication challenges through avoidance or hierarchical escalation rather than direct engagement.Conclusion: Communication in ICUs is shaped not only by individual skills but also by attitudes embedded within organisational structures, professional relationships, and workplace cultures. By foregrounding communication attitudes rather than behaviours alone, this study provides insight into how communication practices are learned, reinforced, and negotiated in critical care settings. Context-sensitive communication education, particularly in-situ simulation that reflects authentic team configurations, may support more reflective interprofessional learning and contribute to safer, more collaborative ICU practice.

A “communicator” is one of the competencies identified by a competent physician. As a nontechnical skill, effective communication needs to be d

Aim: To explore the role of focus group interviews as a qualitative tool in undergraduate medical education program evaluation, highlighting their capacity to capture complex and nuanced stakeholder experiences beyond traditional evaluation methods.Materials and Methods: Documents related to program evaluation activities conducted between 2021 and 2024 at Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine were analyzed. The data sources included program evaluation committee reports and transcripts of focus group interviews conducted with medical students from various year levels (Years I–VI) and faculty members. A retrospective qualitative document analysis was carried out using a contextual qualitative analysis framework. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key themes emerging from the focus groups, which were then compared with the findings from official evaluation reports.Results: Across three academic years, a total of 18 focus group interviews were conducted, involving 112 participants (84 students and 28 faculty members). Four key themes emerged from the focus group İNTERVİEWS: (1) misalignment between theoretical and clinical training, (2) role ambiguity among educators, (3) infrastructure and resource deficiencies, and (4) excessive faculty workload. Students emphasized the need for structured orientation programs and improved faculty-student interaction. Faculty members noted difficulties related to unclear role expectations, low motivation, and lack of curricular standardization. Compared to standard evaluation reports, focus group data provided richer insights into motivational barriers, environmental limitations, and institutional challenges.Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that focus group interviews significantly enhance traditional program evaluation methods by offering a deeper understanding of the educational experience. Systematic integration of such interviews into evaluation processes may lead to a more comprehensive understanding of student and faculty perspectives and support more effective curriculum reforms. Future research should explore the long-term impact of this approach on educational planning, quality improvement, and institutional decision-making.

Introduction: It is essential to increase the rates of early diagnosis in cancer control, and the diagnostic process needs to be improved to achieve this goal. Previous studies showed that in countries where there is a gatekeeping system, there might be a delay in cancer diagnosis. Our aim is to examine the process of cancer diagnosis in a healthcare system without gatekeeping. Method: A quantitative descriptive study has been conducted in various outpatient clinics of Pendik Training and Research Hospital, between 1 February and 31 May 2019, with individuals aged over 18 and diagnosed with cancer in the last six months. The data was collected through a questionnaire filled in by face-to-face interview method. Patient’s socio-economic characteristics, their symptoms at the time of the diagnosis and the diagnosis process were questioned. Result: The median diagnostic interval was 30 days (min–max 1–365), and the median patient interval was 60 (1–600) days. Patients pointed out that the diagnostic tests, especially the pathology reporting process, caused the diagnostic interval to be prolonged. Of the patients, 84% (n 135) stated that they did not consider their symptoms as a sign of serious illness. The patient interval was shortest with symptoms of haematuria and haematochezia and longest with dysuria and change in bladder habit. Discussion: The study examined the diagnosis process in our health system, where patients can apply for health services at any stage. The results showed that there were no superior outcomes to those observed in primary care-led health systems. Patients reported that waiting times for medical tests led to prolongation of the diagnosis time. Cancer awareness of patients should also be increased to shorten patient admission times.

There are limited studies reporting the opinions of residents from three main sciences which are surgical, internal medicine and basic medical sciences in Turkey. So, we need to reveal more opinions of residents on their trainings during pandemic to manage the trainings well during emerging situations in the future. It is aimed to reveal the opinions of residents from all main sciences on their training in medicine given at Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic process. The study was designed as qualitative phenomenological study,and includes focus group interviews. It was conducted between April 2021- March 2022. Gender, department and duration of residency were taken into account in order to ensure diversity in the determination of the participants. Interviews were conducted online through the Zoom. Content analyses was done by researchers. In our study, five focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 38 residents. The five themes that emerged are as follows: changes in education; health care delivery climate; scientific activities; emotions/feelings; structural problems, in education programs. It is necessary to design the frequency, duration and content intensity of online training activities. Scientific research and thesis studies have been adversely affected by the pandemic. However, the online scientific meetings provided during the pandemic were seen as important education opportunities. ‘Feeling of decreased emotional resillience’ is a new emerged emotional problem. The positive developments in the attitudes and behaviors of the society towards the health professionals during the pandemic contributed positively to the emotions of the residents.

It is aimed to reveal the concepts and values on undergraduate medical education within the clinical students’ reflective writings, and to reveal what the students’ suggestions are to improve medical education in their reflective writings. This is a qualitative study, and the reflective writings of the 5th year students were examined. Qualitative document analysis method was used to evaluate and interpret the data to reveal meaning, gain understanding and develop empirical knowledge. As a result of the content analysis of 192 reflective writings obtained from the students, 8 themes were extracted. Themes covering many important concepts such as self-regulated learning, professional concerns, health literacy, problems related to professional ethical values, effective communication challenges, emotional challenges, limitations in clinical training have emerged. Subjects revealed from reflective writings give medical educators important clues about which topics should be developed in medical education. We think that analyzing reflective writings at regular intervals in the evaluation processes of integrated reflection training programs will provide important data to medical educators on development of undergraduate medical education. Therefore, students’ reflective writing can be an important tool for the development of the curriculum.