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This study examines the level of awareness about high blood pressure and the role of librarians in the dissemination of health information among residents in Lagos State, Nigeria.

The population comprised high blood pressure patients at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital in Lagos State, Nigeria. A sample of 900 patients was taken from the existing population of high blood pressure patients comprising male and female aged 15-55 years and above. Data for the study were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Few in-depth interviews were also conducted to enrich the data from the structured questionnaire. Some descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyze the data obtained from the structured questionnaire, while the data obtained from the in-depth interviews were subjected to content analysis.

The findings revealed that awareness about high blood pressure was generally low among the study population. It was also discovered that the librarians working in the medical and public libraries in Lagos State provided information services to members of the communities. However, the librarians affirmed that their role in the dissemination of information to the public was inadequate.

The study was limited to the high blood pressure patients at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, while the patients attending other hospitals in Lagos State were not included as a result of time factor and lack of funding for the research. The views of the excluded category of patients on the level of awareness of high blood pressure may vary.

Good health is the bedrock of human development, and awareness is the first step in the battle against the scourge of ill-health. Recognizing the need for increased level of awareness and the value of disseminating useful information are vital to patients in the management of high blood pressure.

Inequalities can have a cumulative effect that leads to the presentation and subsequent progression of mental health difficulties. The detrimental effects can be compounded in the healthcare environment if staff lack an awareness of patients’' inequalities, and therefore, educating staff is of particular importance. The development of awareness training requires a deep understanding of staff perceptions of patient inequalities in a secure mental health care setting and the impact that this can have on mental illness.

The study was carried out using a qualitative design, where staff were asked to complete a 22-question survey from which the output is analysed using thematic analysis. In total, 100 patient-facing staff members working in a secure mental health facility completed the survey.

The results highlight that staff employed in a secure mental health care setting have an understanding of patient inequalities and how these can impact on patients in both the short and longer terms. The results highlighted the importance of awareness by staff and how an increase can have a significant benefit on the quality of the care provided within secure mental health facilities.

There is an increasing awareness of the impact of inequalities on mental health and how this can influence a patient’s journey. This study involving staff employed in a secure care mental health facility highlights the role of staff awareness of inequalities and also underlines the importance of understanding the key role of staff awareness in mental ill health.

This paper seeks to assess the implementation of Ghana's Patients' Charter by investigating the level of awareness and knowledge of the Charter's content, some socio‐demographic factors that may influence awareness and knowledge of the Charter and how providers have discharged their responsibilities under the Charter.

A survey research approach, sampling respondents from providers and patients in four facilities from the Greater Accra region, was used. Simple frequencies and Chi‐square test were used for analysing responses.

Study findings show that the majority of patients (53.4 per cent) are not aware of the existence of the Charter of those that know about it, a sizeable minority (33.7 per cent) are not knowledgeable about its contents. Relative to patients, providers exhibit better awareness (61.8 per cent) and content knowledge (61.8 per cent) of the Patients' Charter, but on the whole are not yet carrying out their responsibilities under it. In terms of socio‐demographic factors influencing awareness and knowledge of content, only education was found to be a positive correlate of awareness and knowledge. The relationship between providers and patients is generally cordial and could be used as a platform for improving awareness and knowledge of the charter, which could be crucial for improving service delivery.

This is an initial exploratory research with a limited sample, which was biased towards the educated. Findings are, however, instructive and essential for more extensive and representative research in this area.

Since the Charter was launched in 2002, this study is the first of its kind and therefore provides important information for policy and further research.

Reducing waste in health care can result in savings that could be used to meet the projected shortfall in NHS funding or to meet the care needs of vulnerable groups. Patients and their families can contribute to the identification and reduction of waste. To do so their understanding of the costs of health care and treatment needs to be increased. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The approach formed part of the Close Partnering work stream of the NHS Future Focused Finance (FFF) programme. Included in this was a review of the literature relating to waste reduction, patient engagement and reference to experts in the field of public and patient engagement. Engagement of the patient voice in the NHS FFF programme to provide the patient perspective and engage in discussions with patients. Discussions with experts in patient and public involvement and clinicians were also undertaken.

The public and patients have little awareness of NHS finances and generally perceive efforts to reduce costs and achieve efficiencies as impacting on the quality of care. Engaging the public and patients in discussions about the costs of health care is challenging and existing methodologies for patient and public engagement may not be appropriate for what could be termed difficult conversations.

Increasing patient awareness of the costs of health care and treatment may result in patients and the public demanding greater involvement in decisions about health care expenditure and use of resources.

Difficult conversations with patients and the public about the costs of health and their role in reducing waste are rarely invited. This paper brings to the fore the issues and challenges that such discussions engender.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the contribution made from the estates services to the quality of the patient experience from the perspective of all estates staff ranging from front‐line staff to directors of estates and facilities. The work is exploratory in nature owing to no known earlier studies in this area.

A postal questionnaire is distributed to a non‐random self‐selecting group of National Health Service (NHS) estates staff – therefore those staff working in the areas of maintenance, engineering, building, gardening and general office estates management. A total of 920 questionnaires are distributed to the 46 NHS trusts. There are 202 responses, which is a return rate of 22 per cent.

It is clear that overall estates staff consider their job/service to be important to the patient experience, 94 per cent of respondents indicate they did. This is further confirmed by 82 per cent of estates line managers considering their job to be important to the patient experience. In terms of how estates feel they contribute to the patient experience, there is a range of responses, however the main reason highlighted is the recognition that the hospital could not function without the service being provided, i.e. the maintenance of essential services, water, power and the general infrastructure. Estates departments perhaps need on patient awareness of the services they provide and the importance of them in making the hospital function.

The results presented provide a useful insight into how estates departments in the NHS perceive their contribution to the patient experience. However, they are not without limitations. First, the sample size is relatively small; and second non‐random sampling techniques are used.

The findings suggest a number of avenues for future work. The most obvious would be to investigate the level of awareness from patients regarding estates services in the NHS.

The purpose of this paper is to survey Swedish healthcare leaders' patient safety awareness, the priority they give to safety issues and their views on suitable safety management strategies.

A total 623 leaders of a sample of 1,129 responded to a mail questionnaire (55 percent response rate). Descriptive statistics of the responses are presented as frequency distributions across respondent subgroups. Means were tested for similarity by a repetitive one‐way ANOVA procedure. Homogeneous response groups were sought by hierarchical cluster analysis.

Swedish healthcare leaders show relatively high safety awareness and how their organizations prioritize safety management. There is a marked polarization between leaders; half feel that the system works reasonably well, and that adequate funds are available to improve or maintain services. The other half thinks the system needs major change and calls for additional funding. A majority sees system errors as the main cause for adverse events; a substantial minority find human errors to be more important. Two‐thirds were willing to make safety performance information on organizations and specialties public, one third was restrictive.

Survey instruments used to explore leaders' patient safety views have not yet been rigorously tested against psychometric criteria. One hospital type was slightly over‐represented and three regions somewhat under‐represented in the respondent groups.

This is the first systematic attempt to explore the views of Swedish healthcare leaders on patient safety. It provides input to a national strategy to improve patient safety.

Relational dynamics between patients and staff in forensic settings can be complicated and demanding for both sides. Reflective practice groups (RPGs) bring clinicians together to reflect on these dynamics. To date, evaluation of RPGs has lacked quantitative focus and a suitable quantitative tool. Therefore, a self-report tool was designed. This paper aims to pilot The Relational Aspects of CarE (TRACE) scale with clinicians in a high-secure hospital and investigate its psychometric properties.

A multi-professional sample of 80 clinicians were recruited, completing TRACE and attitudes to personality disorder questionnaire (APDQ). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) determined factor structure and internal consistency of TRACE. A subset was selected to measure test–retest reliability. TRACE was cross-validated against the APDQ.

EFA found five factors underlying the 20 TRACE items: “awareness of common responses,” “discussing and normalising feelings;” “utilising feelings,” “wish to care” and “awareness of complicated affects.” This factor structure is complex, but items clustered logically to key areas originally used to generate items. Internal consistency (α = 0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.55–0.76) demonstrated borderline acceptability. TRACE demonstrated good test–retest reliability (intra-class correlation = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.78–0.98) and face validity. TRACE indicated a slight negative correlation with APDQ. A larger data set is needed to substantiate these preliminary findings.

Early indications suggested TRACE was valid and reliable, suitable to measure the effectiveness of reflective practice.

The TRACE was a distinctive measure that filled a methodological gap in the literature.

This paper considers some implications of recent developments relating to patient safety for understandings of trust in health care contexts.

Conceptual analysis focusing on patients' trust in health care providers and health care providers' trust in patients.

Growing awareness of the scale of the problem of iatrogenic harm has prompted concerns that patients' trust in health care providers may be threatened and/or become inappropriate or dysfunctional. In principle, however, patients' trust may be both well placed and compatible with current understandings of safety problems and efforts to address these. Contemporary understandings of patient safety suggest that, to be deemed trustworthy, health care providers should make vigorous efforts to improve patient safety, be honest about safety issues, enable patients to contribute effectively to their own safety, and provide appropriate care and support after safety incidents. Patients who trust health care providers need not be ignorant of patient safety problems and may be vigilant in the course of their care. Iatrogenic harms do not necessarily reflect breeches of trust (not all such harms are yet preventable), and patients who are harmed might in some circumstances appropriately forgive and resume trusting. Health care providers may feel vulnerable to patients in several respects. From their perspective, trustworthy patients will act competently to optimise the outcomes of their health care efforts and to preserve health care providers' good reputations where those are justified. Providers' trust in patients may strengthen patients' trust in them and facilitate safety improvement work.

Shows how, in principle, trust can be compatible with current understandings of patient safety issues and may enhance efforts to improve patient safety.

The Iranian patients’ rights charter defines patient rights as a reflection of fundamental human rights in the field of medicine and incorporates all elements of patient rights accepted in international texts. The purpose of this paper is to study the way in which diabetes patients’ rights are being exercised in everyday hospital practice in Birjand, Iran.

A cross-sectional study design was used in 2014. The sample size was estimated 150 patients, out of which 108 diabetes patients completed questionnaire. The questionnaire of diabetes patients’ perspectives on the patients’ rights was used to collect data. The questionnaire consists of 22 questions. Data entry and analysis were carried out using SPSS software (version 22). Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated with all survey items and total scores, as well as demographic data.

The response rate was 72 percent. Overall, the mean score percentage of diabetes patients’ perspectives on the patients’ rights was 74.04± 8.4. Furthermore, statistical significant differences were found among diabetes patients in relation to patients’ perspectives on the patients’ rights according to highest level of education (F=16.52, p=0.002), their habitat(t=3.49, p=0.001), age groups (F=18.70, p=0.0001) and the duration of the disease (F=5.16, p=0.007). The results showed that no statistically significant differences were observed among diabetes patients in relation to diabetes patients’ perspectives on the patients’ rights according to their gender (F=1.57, p=0.12) and marital status (F=1.56, p=0.09).

Clinicians can provide care based on patients’ rights, and their knowledge of patients’ rights needs to be evaluated. Educational courses, leaflets, booklets and posters can be helpful in this regard. In addition, professional organizations and the Ministry of Health need to be more sensitive to this issue.

This paper proposes a Web-based patient portal based on the electronic medical record. Such a portal can allow patients to manage their own health care, reduce health-care visits and significantly improve the quality of their health care.

A patient portal prototype and an accompanying online survey were distributed to assess the adoption readiness among a group of people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results from 470 survey participants demonstrated an enhanced awareness of this technology, and support the study hypotheses indicating that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors are important when considering the implementation of a patient portal in the UAE.

This study adds value to the few research studies undertaken in the Middle East discussing online health information technology and its adoption and usage among the population at large. The extended technology acceptance model, which contains two additional constructs, had not been previously validated in terms of a patient portal in the UAE, according to the author’s knowledge, adding more value. The UAE’s health-care system must use the benefits from the available IT infrastructure to provide a user-friendly online portal to encourage patients to manage their health care and health information.