Family Members’ Satisfaction Levels : Impact Of An Intensive Care Unit Information Leaflet With Verbal Information Compared To Conventional Verbal Information

@#Introduction: Patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) experience intense physical stress. Family members of these patients also experience stress during the admission. Therefore, it is an important task of the ICU staff to provide the family members with appropriate and clear information. There are many methods to do this. This study aimed to compare the impact of two methods of information sharing on the satisfaction levels among families of ICU patients. The novel method being introduced and investigated was a locally designed information leaflet in combination with verbal explanation. This new method was compared with the traditional method of verbal explanation only. Methods: This was a randomized controlled study, conducted at the ICU of Teluk Intan Hospital. A total of 60 participants were enrolled, with 30 participants each in the intervention and control group. The Malay version of the Validated Critical Care Family Satisfaction Survey (CCFSS) was used to measure family satisfaction with the care received during their ICU admission. Results: The intervention group reported significantly higher level of satisfaction in all of the components (Assurance, Proximity, Information, Support and Comfort). Upon further examination of the results of the intervention group, the scores in the Assurance, Proximity and Comfort component were significantly higher compared to the scores in the Information and Support component. Conclusion: Integrating an information leaflet with the traditional verbal method of delivering information has proven to provide a significant difference in satisfaction levels to the family members of patients who were admitted to the ICU.

Doctors’ knowledge and attitudes on pain assessment and management in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

@#Introduction: Doctors play an important role to assess and manage pain. Failing to do so properly, pain will affect the quality of life and increase the length of hospital stay for patients. In Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, pain assessment and management programs have been conducted on a regular basis. However, there has been no studies to assess the effectiveness of these programs. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge and attitude on pain assessment and management among medical officers at QEH. A universal sampling technique was used, to represent medical officers from major clinical departments. The Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP) questionnaire was used for this study. Results: A total of 278 questionnaires were distributed to medical officers. The study sample consisted of 125 females (44.9%), and 153 males (55.1%). The age group of the participants ranged from 25 to 41 years old. A 116 respondents scored less than 60% on the knowledge of pain (41.7%). These findings show there was a deficit in their knowledge and attitude about pain. There was also a difference of scores between genders, where the male doctors performed better than the female doctors. There was a difference between scores among doctors from different departments. The highest mean score was from the department of Anaesthesia (80.2%). There was also a difference regarding pain knowledge based on the years of working as a doctor, where the highest passing rate was from doctors working for more than five years. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that there is a lack of knowledge and attitude on pain assessment and management among QEH medical officers who responded to this study. This will support the plan on a more aggressive and continuous education programme to improve pain assessment and management among doctors in QEH.

Improving the self-confidence level of medical undergraduates during emergencies using high fidelity simulation

Introduction: Medical practice involves routinely making critical decisions regarding patient care and management. Many factors influence the decision-making process, and self-confidence has been found to be an important factor in effective decision-making. With the proper transfer of knowledge during their undergraduate studies, selfconfidence levels can be improved. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of High Fidelity Simulation as a component of medical education to improve the confidence levels of medical undergraduates during emergencies. Methodology: Study participants included a total of 60 final year medical undergraduates during their rotation in Medical Senior Posting. They participated in a simulation exercise using a high fidelity simulator, and their confidence level measured using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The results found that the confidence levels of ‘Assessment of an Emergency Patient’, ‘Diagnosing Arrhythmias’, ‘Emergency Airway Management’, ‘Performing Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation’, ‘Using the Defibrillator’ and ‘Using Emergency Drugs’ showed a statistically significant increase in confidence levels after the simulation exercise. The mean confidence levels also rose from 2.85 to 3.83 (p<0.05). Conclusion: We recommend further use of High Fidelity Simulation in medical education to improve the confidence levels of medical undergraduates.