Many international trends have created the need for quality assurance
in higher education. Accreditation is a quality assurance process by
which competency, authority, and credibility are certified. The goal
of accreditation is to ensure that the education provided by institutions
of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. As nurses
professionalize, the drive to be seen as competent and accountable
through accreditation has intensified. This paper examines the process
of accreditation.

Clinical training is an inseparable part of nursing education. Students’
clinical performance evaluation is harder with regards to theoretical
courses and it is important to be fair. Trainers should benefit from
different sources while making the clinical evaluation of students since
communication skills, professional attitudes, psychomotor and
technological competencies besides cognitive abilities of the students
are being evaluated in clinical courses. In this article, different sources
of data used for clinical evaluation and ways of clinical performance
evaluation of students are being explained.

World population growing older and the extension of the life time
which is expected at the birth time gave consideration to the
problems experienced during the senility time and the remedial
developments in order to solve these problems. Health prevention
and improvement of the life quality of the elders depends on
implementing the suggestions based on academic researches.
Changes in genita urinar system due to the menopause and the
aging of the women bring about the gynecological problems. During
this stage, nurses have a big responsibility for diagnosing, planning
care, practicing and evaluating gynaecological problems related to
aging.

Hospital’s emergency departments are open 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. The number of patients admitted to the emergency
departments is increasing day by day. Therefore patients are waiting
longer to be seen, care of patients with severe conditions is being
delayed, patients’ safety is at risk and observed mortality is increased.
Although there are a variety of solutions for the emergency
department crowding, all hospitals should determine their emergency
department crowding reasons to solve the problem. In addition, in
order to solve this problem low-cost but highly effective solutions
such as full capacity protocol, early discharge and coordinating
programs for elective surgery can be helpful in our country.

OBJECTIVE: This research is a descriptive study aimed to determine
the opinions of nurses towards clinical training nursing in the private
hospitals.
METHODS: The study was carried out on a total of 502 nurses: 469 were
nurses and 33 were clinical training nurses. Data were collected with
a questionnaire.
RESULTS: 48.6% of participants were between the ages of 21-25, 47.4%
were high school graduates, 45% have professional experience of 1-
5 years, and 46.6% of participants had been working for the institution
for less than one year. 99.2% of the participants found clinic training
nursing essential and 47.4 % expressed their most important role is
educator role. Participants considered the most important tasks of
clinical training nurses as follows: assessing effectiveness of training,
providing orientation of beginners, determining training need analysis
and reflecting research into practice. Participants agreed that clinical
training nursing has positive effects on the training of employees and
improvement of nursing services.
CONCLUSION: Participants’ ideas about the clinical training nursing
were positive. Improving the research participation and working
conditions of clinical training nurses were suggested.

OBJECTIVE: One of main public-health challenges of countries with
growing young population in the past decades is Hepatitis B infection.
For the prevention and combat Hepatitis B infection, it is definitely
crucial to hance the level of knowledge, awareness and attitudes of
young people.The aim of the study is to determine the level of knowledge and
attitudes of university students toward Hepatitis B.
METHODS: This descriptive study conducted on 626
university students about Hepatitis B. The data about level of knowledge
and attitudes toward Hepatitis B were gathered using a questionnaire.
RESULTS: The level of knowledge about Hepatitis B was moderate [x±sd:
23.53±10.11 (range: 0-41)]. A total of 39.5% of the students were
vaccinated against Hepatitis B. Nursing students, those vaccinated
against Hepatitis B, those taking precautions for Hepatitis B
contamination had higher scores of knowledge about Hepatitis B.
CONCLUSION: In order to increase the awareness and to promote
Hepatitis B vaccination, it is crucial to increase the students’ knowledge
about Hepatitis B through education and providing counseling sevices.

OBJECTIVE: This study is designed in order to observe the change
in the coping levels with stress of nursing students. The study is a
descriptive, cohort study.
METHODS: Population of the study is composed of 1st
year students (N=100) enrolled to the nursing program of a private
university in Istanbul. Data is accumulated through face-to-face
interview after receiving a written consent from the subjects. The data
stage is accumulated in the first week of students at the university and
at the end of the 1st year. Student identification forms and “Coping
with Stress Scale (CSS)” is used Numerical and percentile distribution,
arithmetic mean, “t” test and correlation analysis are used in the analysis
of the data. Cronbach Alpha coefficient is found as 0.84 of CSS. A
confidence level of 95% and a statistical significance level of p<0.05
are utilized in the evaluation of results.
RESULTS: It was determined that 10% of the students are male and the
mean age of the students was 19.69±1.20. That students coming out
of the town were 59% and that 60% of those were living at houses.
The scores mean in CSS was 156.99±15.98 (114-191) in the first
application, 160.26±13.81(125-195) in the second application and
159.86±15.30 (127-231) in the third application. Statistically significant
difference was determined between the first and second applications
mean scores of the CSS (p<0.05). In sub-groups “Actively coping with
stress” and “Positive Re-interpretation” and “Seeking Social Support
(emotional)” and “Approaching with Humor” statistically significant
difference was determined between the first and second applications
(p<0.05). There was not statistically significant difference between the
second and third applications mean scores of the CSS.
CONCLUSION: It can be said that nursing students, who experience
stress at most in getting into a university and relocating, are in a good
condition in coping with stress and that their coping levels have
improved compared to earlier times.

OBJECTIVE: This research was conducted in the health ministry hospitals for
defining the problem solving tendencies of manager nurses in job
environment, as a descriptive.
METHODS: The population of research has been composed by the manager
nurses working in the Hospitals of Ministry of Health (18 hospitals),
which have 100 beds or over and don’t deal out health service is
focused on special area. The sample of the research has 104 manager
nurses who work medical and surgical clinics of 5 hospitals that have
been chosen by haphazard sampling method from the population.
Questionnaires have been reached to the nurses who work in the
hospitals those were in sample group by researchers, after Istanbul
Health Authority authorized in writing for implementing of the
questionnaires in those hospitals. As a tool of data collection “Conflict
-Resolving Tendency Scale” was used. The data were analysed by
means of frequency distribution, percentage distribution and Mann-
Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis tests.
RESULTS: It has been found that 71.9% of the manager nurses had
somestimes conflicts with their sub nursing staff, 57.9% of them had
conflicts with tehir managers, 71.9% of them had conflicts with other
profesionals and 33.3% of them had conflicts with their colleagues.
CONCLUSION: It has been defined that the manager nurses mostly had
used coercing, reconciliation and supporting methods to solve conflicts,
so that manager nurses’ tendencies towards conflict resolving was on
a positive way.

OBJECTIVE: Diabetes is a life-long condition which has a severe
impact on both the patient and society in general because of its chronic
nature and complications as well as its economic burden on the health
system. Management of diabetes requires the collaboration of multiple
specialty areas in medicine and nursing. The aim of this small exploratory
study is to assess factors affecting quality of life in a diabetes outpatient
clinic sample in Istanbul, to identify patient needs for better management
of diabetes.
METHODS: We used a survey questionnaire and the validated Turkish
version of the SF 36 Quality of Life Questionnaire to determine
predictors of health related quality of life in all diabetes patients that
gave consent to participate in the study within a four week time period
(N=50).
RESULTS: Non-parametric analysis of the data (Kruskal-Wallis tests)
revealed that low education was associated with reduced of physical
and social function scores, while low income was associated with lower
general mental health scores in the subjects (p=.008). Diabetes diagnosis
of 6-10 years and >10 years and type 1 diabetes was associated with
reduced general health perception scores (p=.044). Diabetes related
multiple complications were associated with role limitations due to
emotional problems (p=.016), the presence of foot ulcers was associated
with reduced physical function scores (p=.013). Subjects that did not
maintain regular doctor’s visits (N=15) had significantly lower scores
on physical function, general health and social function dimensions
of SF-36 than those who did (p>.05).
CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that socio-demographic variables,
including low income and education as well as diabetes related
complications, duration of illness >10 years, type 1 diabetes and not
maintaining regular doctor’s visits have a negative impact on quality
of life in a sample of diabetes outpatients in Istanbul.