The attitude of chronically ill patients and personnel of Siriraj Hospital to a recreational therapy service.

ABSTRACT

A study of the attitudes of 507 patients with chronic illnesses and 961 personnel working with these patients towards a recreational activity service was performed using a questionnaire. Most of them agreed that the hospital should arrange recreational activity for patients with chronic illnesses in addition to physical treatment (95.6, 99.0 percent of patient and personnel groups respectively). Both groups evaluated the benefit of recreational activity with a score of 7.93 ฑ 2.09 and 8.71 ฑ 1.42. Activities ranked first were reading books, watching television or a video, gardening and singing/listening to music. Concerning health professionals willingness to join these activities, 80% of the nurse group (registered nurses and practical nurses) were willing to do so whereas only 51.4 percent of the doctor group were available due to different working styles. Most of the personnel accepted that the recreational therapist should be the one who arranges this service. Both groups agreed that a recreational activity service should be free of charge (45.2-51.4 percent). From the results of this study, we can conclude that patients and personnel appreciate a recreational activity service for chronically ill patients, so we should develop and distribute this service to patients in order to improve their quality of life and the quality of our service.