Introduction: Islamic prayers involve certain physical movements and positions. These positions may be
difficult to achieve in Muslim patients who suffer from any illness that limit their physical movements.
Therefore, Islam introduced the concept of Rukhsah or exemptions. The objective of this study was to
assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare workers related to performing prayers during
illness. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 121 healthcare workers in
Hospital Langkawi, between 22nd to 24th April 2014. Simple random sampling method was used to select the
participants among healthcare workers in Hospital Langkawi to attend a workshop on Rukhsah Ibadah. The
participants were given a set of questionnaire to answer and all the data were collected just before the talk
began. Results: The majority of the participants 108 (89.3%) were female and more than half of them 74
(61.2%) were staff nurses. The mean age for the participants was 32.4 (SD: 9.42) years. About 73 (60.3%) of
the participants have good knowledge, 62 (51.2%) have good attitude and 73 (60.3%) have good practice
towards religious obligations and Rukhsah. Bivariate analysis shows no correlation between age and
knowledge, attitude and practice score. There was also no correlation seen between knowledge, attitude
and practice score. Conclusion: Almost half of the participants have good knowledge, attitude and practice
on performing prayers during illness. By conducting proper training and coaching, it is hoped that their level
of understanding towards Rukhsah can be improved.
Ebola virus disease (EVD), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), rabies and Nipah infections were examples of diseases that were related to bats and shook the world with a series of outbreak and epidemic. Through the understanding of bats as potential public health risk, awareness had become vital to prevent another outbreak. This pilot study was done to evaluate the appropriateness of the questionnaires and to determine preliminary data on knowledge, attitude and practices of bats-related infections. Residents of a village were recruited by randomly choosing houses from a list obtained from the local head village. Knowledge, attitude and practice were assessed using a 56-items questionnaire. The study recruited 100 respondents. The questionnaire’s Cronbach Alpha score was 0.817. Majority of the respondents were found to have good knowledge (71%), attitude (99%) and practice (64%) relating to bat-related infection. There was a weak positive correlation between knowledge and practice towards bat-related infections among residents of the study population. Majority (80%) of respondents did not aware that bats can cause rabies, and 84% did not know about rabies vaccination. The result of this pilot study provides a limited but valuable insight into bat-related infection. Overall, respondents had good knowledge, attitude and practice scores towards bats-related infection. However, more awareness is needed to key areas lacking such as in educating awareness about rabies in bats.
Introduction: The Medical Faculty of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) aims to produce good Muslim
doctors (GMD) who are able to practise medicine that is integrated with Islamic values. Islamic courses and
Medical Ethics are integrated into the curriculum in its effort to provide adequate Islamic knowledge and
nurturing professionalism as a process of personal and professional development (PPD) within the framework
of Islamic teaching. The objective of the study was to evaluate the perception of graduates and students of
characteristics of a GMD. Method: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the participants. The
respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement on the statements that represent
the characteristics of a GMD. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out using SPSS version 18.0. The
mean, median and inter quartile ranges of the characteristics were determined and differences between the
groups were analysed using Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Results showed significant difference between
gender for the item “Conscious of professional ethics” (p=0.021). Significant differences were seen in the
median scores between the graduates and the final year students in four out of six items for personal
characteristic. Conclusion: Islamic input in the medical curriculum and the teaching of professionalism has
an impact on graduate perception of characteristics of a GMD. Further improvement in the teaching of
professionalism among undergraduates is necessary in order to promote greater impact on the understanding
and internalization of characteristics of a GMD. The Islamic input in the medical curriculum can thus be
regarded as the blueprint for PPD of medical undergraduates to become a GMD.