RESUMO
Background Establishing evidence-based medicine (EBM) is important for pharmaceutical care services to be effective and for adding value to patient care. Increasing examples are illustrating that health professionals hold positive attitudes toward EBM. Nevertheless, their knowledge and skills are relatively insufficient. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of research educational intervention on knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and pharmacy practices towards evidence-based medicine among junior pharmacists. Methods A one group pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was conducted on postgraduate junior pharmacy staff working or training at one of the three randomly selected tertiary care settings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This study consisted of two phases. During the first phase, a structured questionnaire assessing the knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of the participants regarding EBM, as well as basic biostatistics, epidemiology and the utilization of EBM, was administered. The second phase was scheduled to begin four weeks after the distribution of the educational materials, whereby the same questionnaire was redistributed among the same participants. Results Sixty-seven pharmacists participated in this study. The overall percentage mean score of correct responses of the study participants' knowledge was 37.0% in the pre-test compared to 44.4% in the post-test. The percentage mean score of correct responses for biostatistics and epidemiology and study design sections significantly increased after the study intervention (p < 0.001), (p = 0.02), respectively. Regarding the study participants' attitudes towards EBM, only one item, "Willingness to support the promotion of EBM implementation," was statistically significantly higher in the post-test (61, 93.8%) participants compared to participants (53, 80.3%) in the pre-test, while "Possessing sufficient skills to implement EBM principles" was the only statistically significant item for the study participants' perceptions towards EBM in the pre-test compared to the post-test, (82.1%, 92.4%), respectively. Moreover, our results showed that 74.6% of the respondents were practicing EBM before the study intervention versus 81.5% after the intervention. Conclusion The results of this study reveal that comprehensive educational intervention might improve the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of EBM among pharmacists and encourage them to incorporate this into their everyday clinical practice.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: The aim of this work is to examine the efficacy of using computer-based training program (Rannan) as an intervention approach to enhance sound detection and discrimination in Arabic-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs). RESEARCH DESIGN: A prospective study comparing performance between two groups of children. Participants were divided into two equal groups that were matched in age and programming strategies. Group I received the traditional clinic-based therapy and group II received the same traditional therapy approach in addition to a computer-based program. STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 26 children with CIs in the age range of 3-6.5 yr were recruited from King Abdulaziz University Hospital. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Listening Progress Profile and Infant-Toddler Meaningful Integration Scale were used preoperatively, and to compare performance between the two groups at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-mo after device-fitting. Data were subjected to mixed analysis of variance. RESULTS: Both assessment tools (Listening Progress Profile and Infant-Toddler Meaningful Integration Scale) revealed that group II scored higher than group I. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that using computer-based training in addition to the traditional rehabilitation therapy can serve as a facilitative tool to enhance the benefit achieved from CI.
