In the dynamic world of healthcare, where people work together in multidisciplinary teams, psychological safety is necessary for effective teamwork. Psychological safety leads to more team learning...Show moreIn the dynamic world of healthcare, where people work together in multidisciplinary teams, psychological safety is necessary for effective teamwork. Psychological safety leads to more team learning, self-expression and personal engagement that in turn increases team effectivity. With those beneficial effects in mind, an important part (the first subquestion) of this study focused on the level of psychological safety of various actors at the department of Neurology/Neurosurgery/Neurocare in a large university hospital. Furthermore, this first subquestion served a larger goal. The hospital is about to implement changes in rules and regulations concerning the work activities of healthcare workers, in order to increase patient safety. According to the results of this study, the level of psychological safety was on an adequate level. The second subquestion addressed the prevalent communication styles among colleagues on the work floor of the abovementioned departments. The results suggested that healthcare workers use significantly more directive (dominant and contentious) communication styles compared to non-directive (attentive and friendly) communication styles. No difference was found between the communication styles of nurses and doctors. Since the way of communication may influence psychological safety, the third subquestion focused on the relationship of communication styles and psychological safety. No association was found between those two concepts. However, we found some indications in our very small sample size that nurses with non-directive communication styles may be vulnerable to experiencing a lower level of psychological safety. Because of Covid-19 regulations, the sample size was limited, so the findings are not generalisable. However, this study does serve as a proof-of-concept of a study that can be conducted in the future. In a subsequent similar study, the same method with some modifications can be used to get more generalisable findings and insights into the relationship between communication styles and psychological safety.Show less
Background: Questionnaires for anxiety disorders come in different lengths, scales and with varying interpretation guidelines. This may hamper therapist-patient communication when discussing the...Show moreBackground: Questionnaires for anxiety disorders come in different lengths, scales and with varying interpretation guidelines. This may hamper therapist-patient communication when discussing the score and the interpretation of where a patient can be placed on a severity scale. Expressing scores on a standardized common metric can facilitate the communication between therapist and patient. This thesis aims for a method that enables an easier interpretation of scores and in addition produces scores with a normal distribution. Method: Using the data of four anxiety questionnaires, namely the Brief Scale for Anxiety (BSA), the PADUA Inventory Revised (PI-R), the Panic Appraisal Inventory (POL/PAI) and the Impact of Events Scale Revised (IES-R), theta-based T-scores were calculated with the Item-Response Theory and deployed as a basis for crosswalk tables to look up T-scores from raw scores. Based on these crosswalk tables, transformation formulas were established to calculate T-scores. To validate these, calculated T-scores were compared to theta-based T-scores. Results: Most of the calculated T-scores had a normal distribution and the correlations between both methods to arrive at the T-scores were significant, the highest correlation was found for the BSA and the IES-R. Discussion: Due to a significant correlation and a large sample size a new method to arrive at a common metric was established by linking every raw score on a T-score metric. This provides a way to facilitate the interpretation and discussion of outcome scores. Further, with this new method disorder severity can be calculated and looked up due to tangible cut-off scores.Show less
End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a growing healthcare problem. It has high morbidity and mortality rates, impairs health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and results in severe fatigue. Illness...Show moreEnd-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a growing healthcare problem. It has high morbidity and mortality rates, impairs health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and results in severe fatigue. Illness perceptions such as acceptance and self-management have been studied regarding their impact on HRQOL and fatigue. The objective was to study the effect of self-management on the relationship between illness cognitions and health-related quality of life and fatigue. Hypothesized was that a higher level of self-management would mediate the relations between acceptance and physical HRQOL, mental HRQOL and fatigue. Three hypotheses were studied among a sample containing 39 Dutch dialysis patients. These participants answered several online questionnaires, such as the RAND Short Form36, Partner in Health scale, Illness Cognitions Questionnaire and Checklist Individual Strength. The results show that selfmanagement was not a significant mediator for the relations between acceptance and physical HRQOL, mental HRQOL and fatigue. The results also show that acceptance was associated with self-management and mental HRQOL. Furthermore, acceptance and self-management were found to be corelated with physical and mental HRQOL. The sample size was small, and the scores on the acceptance and self-management measurements were relatively high, which caused ceiling effects. This made it difficult to interpret the results. However, involving acceptance and self-management in interventions for ESRD patients in order to alleviate HRQOL could be beneficial for the patients. Therapies such as cognitive behavior therapy and acceptance commitment therapy use such aspects and can be used in care for ESRD patients.Show less
Alopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease affecting the hair follicles resulting in irregular hair loss. The severity and unpredictability of the condition could lead to feelings of...Show moreAlopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease affecting the hair follicles resulting in irregular hair loss. The severity and unpredictability of the condition could lead to feelings of helplessness and lack of control, resulting in a decreasing quality of life. Until now no disease-specific psychological interventions exist for patients with AA. Therefore this study looked into potential contributing factors that could be implemented to improve the disease-specific quality of life of patients with AA. A questionnaire on demographic and disease-related factors was sent to Dutch Alopecia Association members. A total of 271 participants were placed in one of four subgroups based on their combination of high vs low objective and subjective AA severity; all subgroups contained ≥ 37 participants. Results showed that diseasespecific quality of life was highest in patients with a mild subjective AA condition, regardless the objective severity of the condition. Potential contributing factors related to a lower disease-specific quality of life for patients with AA were more stigmatization, fear of negative evaluation, and helplessness, and less acceptance; no major differences in contributing factors between the subgroups were found. This study signifies the importance of subjective over objective disease severity related to disease-specific quality of life in patients with AA. More research is needed on the causal relationship between disease-specific quality of life and these factors. Nevertheless, the results of this study suggest that subjective severity of AA, stigmatization, helplessness, fear of negative evaluation, and acceptance could be considered as potential contributing factors to disease-specific quality of life.Show less
Background: Brua is an Afro-Caribbean set of spiritual beliefs found on the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), which are part of the Dutch Antilles. Psychiatric patients from these islands...Show moreBackground: Brua is an Afro-Caribbean set of spiritual beliefs found on the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), which are part of the Dutch Antilles. Psychiatric patients from these islands may believe that their mental health is influenced by Brua-related practices. It is therefore important that mental health professionals are knowledgeable of Brua, but it is not yet known to what extent they are. Goal: This study investigated the knowledge of Brua among psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatrists in training in The Netherlands. Methods: All psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatrists in training in the service of Parnassia Psychiatric Institute were contacted to fill out a tailor-made survey on knowledge of Brua. Sufficient knowledge of Brua was defined as a score of 6 or higher out of 10. Three potential predictors of knowledge of Brua were investigated, namely work experience, ethnicity, and inquiry into religious beliefs in the clinical practice. Results: Out of the 152 participants, 13.2% scored a sufficient score on knowledge of Brua. Work experience did not predict total score on the survey. There were too few participants of non-Caucasian ethnicities to investigate the relationship between ethnicity and knowledge of Brua. Practitioners who often inquired into religious beliefs in the clinical practice did not score higher than practitioners who sometimes inquired into religious beliefs. Conclusion: Knowledge of Brua among psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatrists in training in The Netherlands is limited. Informational or educational campaigns on how to assess the role of Brua in clinical practice are recommended.Show less
This study aimed to explore the relationship between indecisiveness, fear of negative evaluation and self-concept clarity in adolescence. Differences in indecisiveness levels between early (11 to...Show moreThis study aimed to explore the relationship between indecisiveness, fear of negative evaluation and self-concept clarity in adolescence. Differences in indecisiveness levels between early (11 to 14 years old) and late (18 to 21 years old) adolescents were explored as well. A sample of 160 healthy adolescents (74 males and 86 females) participated in the study. Most of the participants were Dutch-born and their ages ranged from 11 to 21 years old. Variables of interest were measured through self-reported questionnaires filled at home. The analyses showed evidence of a positive correlation between indecisiveness and both fear of negative evaluation and self-concept clarity. However, no differences were found in the indecisiveness levels between early and late adolescents. Likewise, an additional explorative analysis showed no interaction effects between FNE and SCC on indecisiveness. Although indecisiveness in adolescence is a complex -and hard to predict- phenomenon, this study added valuable information on this topic. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed, together with suggestions for future research.Show less
