METHODS: A mixed method design was used. Fourth-year medical students participated in a consultation/liaison psychiatry service to two government-operated primary care clinics. Each student attended two half-day consultations to the clinics during the psychiatry clinical clerkship. Students joined in discussions with primary care clinicians, performed supervised clinical assessments, and administered a depression screening instrument. The learning experience was evaluated through four focus groups, each with 9-10 participants, held throughout the academic year. An end-of-year, anonymous, online questionnaire survey was administered to the entire class. Thematic analysis of focus group transcripts was performed and quantitative statistics were calculated (Stata version 13).
RESULTS: Focus group themes included the following: (a) active learning opportunities in primary care psychiatry consultation had perceived added educational value, (b) students benefited from contact with patients with previously undiagnosed common mental disorders, and (c) students' primary care experience raised their awareness of societal and professional responsibilities. Of the class of 113 students, 93 (82%) responded to the questionnaire. The survey responses reflected the qualitative themes, with 79 respondents (85%) stating that the learning experience met or exceeded their expectations.
CONCLUSIONS: Academic psychiatry has been criticized for its overreliance on secondary care settings in undergraduate clinical teaching. Our findings suggest that supervised clinical placements in primary care are feasible and provide added educational value as a routine component of the undergraduate psychiatry clinical clerkship.
METHODS: This was a qualitative study using focus group discussions in three villages in rural Bangladesh. The 45 participants were mothers and fathers with children under five, the parents of children who had drowned and community leaders.
RESULTS: The majority of the participants (71%) were male. The focus groups revealed that most drowning's occurred between 11am and 2pm and that risk factors included the following: children not being able to swim, ditches that were not filled in, lack of medical facilities, parents who were not aware of childhood drowning and lack of information through the media about how to prevent of childhood drowning. Suggestions included using a mobile-based short messaging service or voice calls to parents, especially mothers, could increase awareness and reduce the risk of childhood drowning.
CONCLUSION: A safety education programme could be effective in increasing knowledge and changing attitudes, which could prevent drowning among children in Bangladesh.
Methods: A total of 568 adolescents were participated in quantitative surveys, and of these participating adolescents, 6 were further invited to join focus group interviews.
Findings: Quantitative findings supported the mediating role of communication disturbance in the relationships between phone obsession and familial connectedness, school connectedness, and self-connectedness, but not for friendship connectedness. Qualitative findings further elucidated the detrimental effect of phone obsession on their sense of belonging from the perspectives of adolescents.
Conclusion: This study reaffirms that phubbing behaviour is predictive of social disconnectedness. Therefore, preventive and treatment interventions should be developed to avoid and control a potential risk of social disconnectedness epidemics attribute to phubbing.
METHODS: A qualitative study design in which 15 healthcare workers from nurses (4), pharmacists (3), medical technologies (4) and medical doctors (4) participated: two focus group of three to four participants each and eight in-depth interviews. The thematic sessions were identified, including occupational health and safety policy implementations, hazards experiences, barriers, and strategies for quality improvement for OSH. Focus groups and interviews using transcript-based analysis were identified relating to emerging themes on the challenges they had experienced while accessing provisions of OSH in their workplace.
RESULTS: Majority of the participants revealed the existence of policy on Occupational Health and Safety (provisions, guidelines and regulations on OHS from the government) and mentioned that there were limited OHS officers to supervise the healthcare workers in their workplace. Some have limited accessibility to the requirements of the implementation of OHS (free facemasks, gloves, disinfectants, machines, OSH staff, etc.) among healthcare workers, while the workload of the staff in the implementation of OHS in the workplace gradually increased. The results indicated that the respondents were knowledgeable in the implementation of OHS in the workplace, and that there was no existing ASEAN framework on the protection and promotion of the rights of healthcare workers in their workplace. Facilities need to improve health assessment, and to ensure constant evaluation of the existing laws for healthcare workers (quality assurance of existing policies) in their working areas. Direct access to OSH officers, occupational hazards education, emergency contact etc. must be improved. Adherence must be strengthened to fully comply with the OHS standards.
CONCLUSION: The researchers inferred that issues and concerns regarding compliance on provisions of occupational health and safety among health care workers must be properly addressed through immediate monitoring and reevaluation of personnel in terms of their knowledge and practices in OHS. Barriers and challenges have been identified in the study that can lead to improved compliance among healthcare workers in regards to OHS.
DESIGN: This is a qualitative study conducted among children with asthma and their parents. We used purposive sampling and conducted focus groups and interviews using a semi-structured topic guide in the participants' preferred language. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, entered into NVivo and analysed using a grounded theory approach.
SETTINGS: We identified children aged 7-12 years with parent-reported, physician-diagnosed asthma from seven suburban primary schools in Malaysia. Focus groups and interviews were conducted either at schools or a health centre.
RESULTS: Ninety-nine participants (46 caregivers, 53 children) contributed to 24 focus groups and 6 individual interviews. Children mirrored their parents' management of asthma but, in parallel, learnt and gained confidence to independently self-manage asthma from their own experiences and self-experimentation. Increasing independence was more apparent in children aged 10 years and above. Cultural norms and beliefs influenced children's independence to self-manage asthma either directly or indirectly through their social network. External influences, for example, support from school and healthcare, also played a role in the transition.
CONCLUSION: Children learnt the skills to self-manage asthma as early as 7 years old with growing independence from the age of 10 years. Healthcare professionals should use child-centred approach and involve schools to facilitate asthma self-management and support a smooth transition to independent self-management.
TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Malaysian National Medical Research Register (NMRR-15-1242-26898).
DESIGN: A qualitative and quantitative research study.
METHODS: This study involved fourth-year medical undergraduates during their clinical posting in ophthalmology. One PAL session was conducted in each of the 4-week clinical postings. Peer tutors were selected during the first week and were briefed on PAL. Premultiple and postmultiple choice questions were distributed to PLs before and after each PAL session. One focus group discussion was conducted with PLs to explore their perception. Peer tutors were requested to give feedback in the form of structured Likert scale statements with 2 open-ended questions.
RESULTS: A total of 104 students, 6 PTs and 98 PLs, participated in this study. Both tutor and learner groups expressed positive attitudes toward PAL. Peer learners preferred having PAL in a clinical setting. There were some issues related with PAL that emerged from both groups. Success in PAL depends on the teaching ability of PTs.
CONCLUSIONS: Students have positive perceptions toward PAL. Most of the students believed PAL was beneficial to them.