ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Listening is a primary communication skill essential for human learning and reported to be positively correlated with school achievement. It enables the healthcare professional to explore fully the ideas and concerns of the patient during a healthcare encounter. It is especially needed by healthcare students and professionals in light of the study showing that the typical physician will interrupt a patient after about 18-23 seconds. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to measure the listening skills of the undergraduate health sciences students in a Nigerian setting and to attempt to explain different levels of individual listening skills. METHODS: Selected undergraduate students in medicine; dentistry; nursing and physiotherapy who volunteered to complete a self-administered questionnaire were studied. The questionnaire contained seventeen items; ranked on a 5-point Likert scale on the various habits people adopt when listening to others and the students' three most recent academic test scores. RESULTS: The mean (SD) score for the seventeen items was 2.72 (1.14) out of 5. Seven items had mean scores greater than 3.00; eight items had mean scores between 2.00 and 3.00; and two items had mean less than 2.00. The students had a minimum score of 27 and a maximum score of 67 compared with a possible 17 and 85. The mean (SD) score for the listening scale by the students was 46.87 (7.33). Eighty percent of the respondents had good listening skills. There were no statistically significant associations between the listening skills scores of the students and several possible explanatory variables - age; gender; course being studied and test scores. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that neither males nor females are the better listeners. It showed impressively high levels of listening skills among the respondents. There was the absence of explanatory variables which were significant in explaining differences between individual listening skill scores
Subject(s)
Communication , StudentsABSTRACT
There is an understanding that greater availability of HIV treatment for the 40.3 million people currently infected with HIV is a humanitarian imperative that could prolong the lives of millions; restore economic productivity; and stabilise societies in some of the world's hardest-hit regions. The Nigerian government recognises that the country has the third highest burden of infection; with people living with HIV estimated to total 4.0 million; and so in 2002 commenced the implementation of one of Africa's largest antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programmes. A successful ARV programme requires that all components of a functional management system be put in place for effective and efficient functioning. This would include logistics; human resources; financial planning; and monitoring and evaluation systems; as well as sustainable institutional capacities. The Nigerian national ARV treatment training programme was conceived to meet the human resource needs in hospitals providing ARV therapy. This paper reports on the evaluation of the training programme. It examines knowledge and skills gained; and utilisation thereof. Recommendations are made for improved training effectiveness and for specific national policy on training; to meet the demand for scaling up therapy to the thousands who need ARV