A. Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF, AFCHSE (Editor) A. Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF, AFCHSE (Editor) Abyad Medical Center & Middle East Longevity Institute Azmi Street, Abdo Center, 2nd Floor PO BOX 618, Tripoli LEBANON Tel & Fax: 961 6 443684/5/6 Email: aabyad@cyberia.net.lb Web: www.amc-lb.com

In this first issue of the journal this year a landmark paper dealt with medication errors in emergency departments where another issue that was addressed is physical inactivity.

Al- Harbi M.F.A did a descriptive cross-sectional study to describe the perception of nurses and examine its relationship with the profile characteristics. 200 registered nurses were conveniently selected from the two of the major tertiary healthcare facilities in Riyadh which were equipped with pediatric emergency department. This study highlights the significant role nurses play in the medication administration process. It has been found out that the 3 top rank factors contributing to medication errors were interruptions during medication pass (M= 2.32), shortage of nursing staff (M= 2.13), and caring for high acuity patients (M= 2.11). Whereas, hostile work environment (M= 1.56) as the least among all factors. Moreover, all four types of medication technologies: barcode medication administration (M= 1.79), computerized physician order entry (M= 1.9), automated medication dispensing (M= 2.28), and smart infusion pumps (M= 2.34) were perceived as very helpful in reducing medication errors. The authors concluded that based on the findings of the current study, a multidisciplinary approach with the administration and research, is needed to solve the problems of medication errors in the pediatric departments.

Mehmet Rami Helvaci, M.R et al; attempt to understand possible effects of physical inactivity and an excessive eating habit on excess weight. The authors took consecutive patients between the ages of 35 and 70 years to be able to see possible consequences of excess weight on health and to avoid debility induced weight loss in elder individuals. The study included 270 cases (145 females) with normal weight, 270 cases with overweight, and 270 cases with obesity. Female ratio was 53.7% in the three groups. Mean ages were 47.1, 46.3, and 48.9 years in the three groups, respectively (p>0.05 for both). The authors concluded that parallelto its severity, excess weight is associated with greater prevalences of HT, DM, and dyslipidemia. As a pleasure point in life, smoking may also show the weakness of volition to control eating in cases with excess weight. But excess weight may actually be a consequence of physical inactivity instead of an excessive eating habit because prevalence of smoking were similar in the normal weight, overweight, and obesity groups in the present study.

We also offer some CNE on problems of pain control in care of terminal cancer patients as confronted by Palliative Care Nurses.