Evaluation of research writing workshop

The aim of this paper is to report on the results of questionnaire completed by candidates who attended a workshop on research writing designed for medical professionals. Highlights of topics discussed during the workshop will also be outlined. Questionnaire. A workshop on research and medical writing was conducted on Thursday 31st October 2002. Candidates requested to evaluate each subject topic in the programme of the workshop as excellent, good or no comment, and to add any observations or suggestions. They were also requested to state the benefit of the workshop and whether they would recommend it to other colleagues. Twenty-one candidates attended the workshop. Seventeen candidates completed the questionnaire, they preferred to run the workshop over two days and to allow medical students and nursing staff to attend. Fourteen candidates found it very useful and would recommend it to other colleagues. Eighty-one percent candidates completed the questionnaire and 82% of these found it very useful to recommend it to other colleagues. The result of this study would have great impact on the modification of future workshop. After all, customers or target group should be satisfied

Vocie overuse and abuse among professional voice users

To determine the incidence of pathological conditions resulting from voice abuse or overuse in professional voice users. Design: Prospective study from 1978 to 1999. Setting: Outpatient clinic. Subjects: 123 Muslim Preachers and 7 Singers. One hundred and nineteen presented with hoarseness of voice, pain while singing or speaking and difficulty to go up to higher notes. During the study period one hundred and thirty professional voice users were seen. Females 38, males 92. All had been subjected to upper endoscopy and flexible per nasal endoscopy. Some of them had more than one pathology. One hundred and fifteen pathological conditions were seen either directly or indirectly related to voice abuse or overuse by the professional voice users [injected vocal cords 49, haemorrhage of the vocal cords 27, nodule of vocal cords 19, reflux laryngitis and pharyngitis 8, laryngeal polyps 5, severe tension 4, mogiphonia 2, pachydermia 1]. Other pathological entities seen in this group which are unrelated to voice abuse or overuse are: tonsillitis 7, vasomotor rhinitis 7, allergic rhinitis 4, sinusitis 4, superior laryngeal nerve paralysis 2, cancer phobia 2, left vocal cord carcinoma 1, myasthenia gravis 1, miscellaneous 18. The majority of preachers and singers [59%] in this study group suffered from injected vocal cords, haemorrhage, and vocal cord nodule due to voice abuse and overuse, because most of them have not received any formal training and many of them sing or deliver their speech outside their own capability. Many of these preachers do smoke but do not consume alcohol, the singers however, in this group consume alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine and even some use drugs. Reflux laryngitis was more common among singers than preachers because of the previous factors and late night meals