<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This paper focuses on volunteer tourism, which is approached as a new phenomenon in a Romanian minority region, i.e. Szeklerland. Volunteer tourism has developed very fast in last decades at international level and mostly in the developed societies. As an alternative tourism form, it is very popular among the youth and gap-year students. Volunteer tourism is a kind of international volunteering which offers opportunity for someone to volunteer and travel at the same time in a foreign country. Volunteer tourism makes possible the meeting and collaboration between local community and international volunteers. As a new phenomenon in the case of Szeklerland, volunteer tourism was started here by a foreign person, originated from England, who has established himself in Miercurea Ciuc, Harghita County, Romania. In this region, this event was regarded as a strange action; here, local volunteering is also a new phenomenon. The communist rule had a negative effect on the developing of volunteer culture in Eastern Europe. Therefore, in the 21st century in Romania, volunteering is still a rare phenomenon. On the other hand, the presence of foreign volunteers in Szeklerland is an unusual phenomenon. Volunteer tourists are those who meet with locals and thereby are more close to the local people to whom these people speak in foreign languages, have foreign looks and cultures. Due to their lack of English language skills, local people and organizations do not know how to connect with them. So, international volunteering or volunteer tourism is that phenomenon which allows to meet different foreign cultures, where the common ground could be a commonly spoken language, i.e. the English.</abstract>

International Volunteers as Strangers in Szeklerland

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The professional staff in human service institutions are often required to spend considerable time in intense involvement with other people. Frequently, the staff–client interaction is centered around the client’s current problems (psychological, social, and/or physical) and is therefore charged with feelings of anger, embarrassment, fear, or despair. Solutions for these problems are not always obvious and easily obtained, thus adding ambiguity and frustration to the situation. For the helping professional who works continuously with people under such circumstances, the chronic stress can be emotionally draining and poses the risk of burnout. Extensive literature highlighted that healthcare professionals’ work is relentlessly overloaded, emotionally overwhelming, escalating their private life, and thus favoring burnout development. In the present research, there was found a significant difference (p &lt; 0.001) between the burnout level (Maslach HSS) of staff working in state hospitals and staff working in private hospitals. None of the other differences were significant: age (p = 0.155), gender (p = 0.083), work experience (p = 0.480), and job (p = 0.015).</abstract>

Evaluating the Level of Burnout among Healthcare Professionals

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">One of the most dynamically evolving sectors of our days is eHealth. More and more applications, software, devices, etc. are launched that make healthcare segments accessible not only for professionals but for laics, too. This study examines to what extent the adult Hungarian population of Mureş County is ready to become eHealth participative, i.e. an active agent of its own healthcare attendance, in order to make use of the advantages offered by modern technologies that provide information and help understand our diseases, their prevention, and health maintenance. The probability of eHealth usage is approximated by the frequency of Internet usage. Social determinants of info-communication tool usage are assessed, controlling for covariates. Age has the strongest impact upon the frequency of Internet usage. The younger is the respondent, the more likely he/she is to be a frequent user, and, apart from this, only the educational level determines Internet use, higher education implying more frequent usage.</abstract>

Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

Receptivity to eHealth Services in the Hungarian Population of Mureş County, Romania

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Health-related attitudes can be modified and supported most effectively at young ages. Young generations require more interpersonal and interactive pedagogical methods in programs engaged in health promotion, as well. The aim of the authors was to get an insight into a relatively novel pedagogical method, called peer education. This multilateral activity is focusing the procedure on attitudes, experience, and motivation of youngsters in connection with health promotion programs and community service work. In this article, the authors describe 1) the theory, origin, and principal influences of peer education compared to traditional teaching methods and 2) the new, efficiency-oriented and science-based methodology of health education program.</abstract>

Government Office of the Capital City Budapest

Health Education – Responsibility – Changing Attitude. A New Pedagogical and Methodological Concept of Peer Education

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Following a discussion about ethics and social work, in this article, we will present the main results of three researches conducted in the past few years on the Hungarian child protection system. These studies highlight the professional gaps, the prejudiced beliefs related to the primary (children) and secondary (parents) client systems of child protection, the value crisis in professional mentalities, and the crisis of the profession in general. We argue that a change in mentalities and professional treatment in the operational practice requires a thorough reconsideration of the ethical dimensions of child protection to the extent of developing and introducing their own code of ethics. As the helping profession is actively involved in the transformation of the welfare state, in parallel with restructuring welfare conditions, we should reconsider how the scarce methodological framework for practice at the national level can cope with problems and how it can emancipate the clients and serve their well-being. The research results indicate that the direction of development is to create an activating and mobilizing helper system that can preserve the core values of the profession as well as adapt to social changes and reflect on the expectations of the public policy thereof.</abstract>

National Office for Rehabilitation and Social Affairs

The Ethical Dimension of Professional Integrity in the Hungarian Child Protection System

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Efficiency and cost effectiveness of human resources implied in social services in general and in child protections services specifically is a taboo subject in Romanian social policy. On the following pages, I will make a general analysis of human resources included in the Romanian social services sector, starting from the topic of territorial coverage with professionalized social workers. After a regional- and county-level analysis of this, linked to the social and economic situation of the regions, I look at the specific field of child protection to see if there exists any cost effectiveness in the volume of human resources implied in these services. In the final part of my study, I will make considerations about the quality of the personnel within child protection services.</abstract>

Human Resources in Romanian Child Protection Social Services. A Regional Analysis

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><italic>Deborah Lupton: Digital Health. Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives</italic> London–New York: Routledge, 2018</abstract>

Deborah Lupton: Digital Health. Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

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Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Social Analysis

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