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

This is the first issue this year and has three landmark papers. The first paper from Jordan deals with physical abuse among Syrian refugee women in Jordan. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of physical abuse and its association with some socio-demographic variables among Syrian refugee women in Jordan. A total of 182 Syrian refugee women visited the Maternal and Child Health Centers (MCHC) in Mafraq district had been participated in the current study during March 1, 2014 and June 1, 2014. The Arabic version of the NorVold Domestic Abuse Questionnaire (NORAQ) was used to collect data from the study participants. The results revealed that more than third of the participants (57, 31.3%) experienced physical abuse (before and after refuge). Twenty seven participants (14.8%) reported being physically abused during the last year. Husbands were the arbitrators in 38.6% of the physical abuse acts reported by the participants, followed by fathers (14%) and brothers (10%). The bivariate analysis revealed that educated women, older women, come from small size families (<6 members), and those who got married at or after 21 years old were less likely to report physical abuse. The regression model analysis showed that educational level of the physically abused women is the strongest contributing factor to predict their psychological suffering scale (Beta= -1.7, p < 0.05) followed by.marital status and household income (Beta= -1.3, and 0.94 p < 0.05) respectively. The authors concluded that the current study will pave the road to fill the gap in the literature in regard to physical abuse prevalence and the associated factors among Syrian refugee women in Jordan. However, further research will be needed to address this important issue.

A paper from Australia looked at the issue of Practices Nurses. The author stressed that Practice Nurses are a relatively new addition to general practice/family medicine and an innovation that is being implemented in most countries globally. They offer cost and time savings to clinics and sole general practices, through taking on some roles of general practitioners/family doctors, thus relieving them for more focused medical duties. Additionally they take on duties that benefit quality care of patients and duties that may benefit the practice financially (e.g. health promotion and monitoring, patient recall, disease prevention, office management, infection control, immunisation) and reduce incidence of adverse events. Practice Nurses have also been found to be a cost saving factor in national Health Budgets. Such Practice Nurses however need appropriate training and there are a range of qualifications for modern day practice nurses , some more general and some specific.

The third paper is part of a series of papers from Lebanon on The Future Home Health Care in the Middle East Region. The first part deal with International Perspective. The author stressed that Home health care has gained widespread acceptance recently in the developed and developing countries. This move is affected by the aging of the population, the improvement in medical technologies and the effort to improve quality and reduce cost. The home services vary from nursing care to the concept of hospital at home. The first part of this paper deals with a general view of home health care. It presents the American and Chinese models.