The Buddhist Tzu Chi Silent Mentor Program promotes the donation of one's body to science as a selfless act by appealing to the Buddhist ethics of compassion and self-sacrifice. Together, faculty, families, and donors help medical students to learn the technical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological aspects of medicine. Students assigned to each "Silent Mentor" visit the family to learn about the donor's life. They see photos and hear family members' stories. Afterwards, students write a brief biography of the donor which is posted on the program website, in the medical school, and on the dissection table. In this paper, we: (1) summarize the Silent Mentor Program; (2) describe findings from an assessment of medical students who recently completed a new version of the program in Malaysia; and (3) explore how healthcare settings could benefit from this innovative program.
The Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor Bahru started managing patients who lost their eyeballs with ocular prosthesis in 2013. Unfortunately, there was an increasing trend of failed ocular prosthesis from 2013-2015. The failure rate went from 28.6% in 2013 to 40% in 2014 and increased to 44.4% in 2015. Failed ocular prosthesis not only leads to dissatisfied patients but also an increase in cost due to redoing of prosthesis. The objective of this project was to reduce the incidence rate of failed ocular prosthesis. A failed case is when the prosthesis does not pass the issue stage and has to be redone from the beginning. The standard failure rate is 0%, as the average number of cases per year is only about 10 cases. We determined the contributing factors of failed ocular prosthesis by analysing retrospective data from patients’ dental and lab records. This was followed by a self-administered questionnaire on reasons for failed cases which was distributed among the dentists and lab technicians in our department. The contributing factors that were identified included insufficient knowledge or skill of dentist and lab technicians in the construction of the ocular prosthesis, as well as improper screening of new cases which was the main factor of all the failed cases. The strategies for change included improving the process of care by creating a checklist for proper screening of new patients, mentoring of new staff, and continuous training on construction of ocular prosthesis, Fabricated Iris Mould innovation technique and early referral for insertion of eye conformer. The interventions that were implemented reduced the failure rate to 20% in 2016 followed by 0% in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Ongoing efforts are being done to replicate this project in other Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery clinics in Johor.
Background: Mentoring of new staff nurses is frequently performed. Internationally researches have reported that this exercise helped the new staff to retain information better, adopt a professional conduct, and be more satisfied with their jobs. Mentoring programmes are usually conducted to encourage cooperation as well as socialisation among the new registered nurses (RNs) in specific units or organisations. Aim: This research aims to evaluate the outcome of mentorship programs based on six specific criteria and nurses' willingness to stay in the profession in hospital settings. Method: A comparative cross-sectional study designed via convenience sampling was conducted in nine hospitals using the self-administered mentorship for nurses (MNMSN) questionnaire. Findings:Atotal of 593 respondents were recruited, mostly female (87.6%), under 25 years old (84.7%), from Malay (71%) and highest nursing education of diploma level (99.2%). The predisposing factors that influence performance for pre- and post-program are 'patients assessment' (mean=4.763, S.D=0.52 and mean=4.733, S.D=0.536); 'clinical decision' (mean=4.722, S.D=0.527 and mean=4.73, S.D=0.54); 'cultural competencies' (mean=4.42, S.D=0.443 as well as mean=4.354, S.D=0.442); and 'professionalism' (mean=4.764, S.D=0.533 and mean=4.698, S.D=0.563) respectively. Each predisposing factor showed a significant correlation (strong and moderately positive). Overall result for 'willingness to stay' is significant [F, (5,585)=556.308, p