Yoxas/statistical_literacy huggingface dataset:
Healthcare professionals have an important role in advocating for the adoption of a brain-healthy lifestyle for optimal multiple sclerosis (MS) care. Nonetheless, studies to date have mainly focussed on the consumer perspective. Herein, we aimed to explore the current practices of how healthcare professionals support protective, lifestyle-related behaviour changes to optimise brain health among people living with MS (plwMS), and their perspectives of professional roles. Australian healthcare professionals were recruited via study advertisements, purposive and snowball sampling, to participate in an online, semi-structured and audio-recorded interview. Clinicians were eligible if they had a minimum of a tertiary Bachelor's degree and 12-months experience working with plwMS, access to the Internet and sufficient time to participant. An inductive, data-driven form of reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken before thematic categorisation of the quotes from transcripts. Data analysis was guided by the methods of Braun and Clark and the study's underpinnings drew on the constructs of the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Six physicians, 10 MS nurses, 18 allied health professionals, one exercise therapist and one alternative therapist were interviewed. Three primary themes encompassing the perceived role of healthcare professionals in supporting a brain-healthy lifestyle were identified: (1) the empowering role, (2) collaborative role and (3) communicative role. External factors/forces including time constraints, professional expertise, training and skill set, power dynamics, consumer readiness, health literacy, self-efficacy and motivation are at play, and affect how/when healthcare professionals may support behaviour change to optimise lifelong brain health for plwMS. Healthcare professionals recognise their critical role in encouraging and supporting the adoption of a brain-healthy lifestyle to optimise lifelong brain health for plwMS. However, discord is evident when they underestimate the complexity of translating knowledge of lifestyle-related behaviour change(s) into action. Greater awareness must be made in recognising and addressing the bidirectionality of external factors such as those in the SCT, that may influence how behaviour change occurs. Healthcare professionals volunteered to be interviewed as part of the data collection phase of this study.
Healthcare professionals' statistical illiteracy can impair medical decision quality and compromise patient safety. Previous studies have documented clinicians' insufficient proficiency in statistics and a tendency in overconfidence. However, an underexplored aspect is clinicians' awareness of their lack of statistical knowledge that precludes any corrective intervention attempt. Here, we investigated physicians', residents' and medical students' alignment between subjective confidence judgments and objective accuracy in basic medical statistics. We also examined how gender, profile of experience and practice of research activity affect this alignment, and the influence of problem framing (conditional probabilities, CP vs. natural frequencies, NF). Eight hundred ninety-eight clinicians completed an online survey assessing skill and confidence on three topics: vaccine efficacy, p value and diagnostic test results interpretation. Results evidenced an overall consistent poor proficiency in statistics often combined with high confidence, even in incorrect answers. We also demonstrate that despite overconfidence bias, clinicians show a degree of metacognitive sensitivity, as their confidence judgments discriminate between their correct and incorrect answers. Finally, we confirm the positive impact of the more intuitive NF framing on accuracy. Together, our results pave the way for the development of teaching recommendations and pedagogical interventions such as promoting metacognition on basic knowledge and statistical reasoning as well as the use of NF to tackle statistical illiteracy in the medical context.
Healthcare providers (HCPs) are recommended for priority influenza vaccination due to their high risk of contracting influenza. HCPs greatly aid in targeted population immunization campaigns. Therefore, understanding the factors that influence HCPs' decisions to get vaccinated and to recommend influenza vaccination is essential. However, there currently needs to be more evidence on this topic in China. Qualitative interviews using a semi-structured interview method were conducted with 180 HCPs from urban community hospitals and town hospitals in four cities in Shandong Province during August 2023. The interview content was analyzed using thematic analysis to identify the variables impacting the vaccination and recommendation practices of HCPs, as well as their suggestions for improving vaccination services. The results will help support the future development of precise intervention measures as well as focused education and training.
Healthcare providers across all clinical practice settings are progressively relying and adapting information communication technologies to perform their professional activities. In this era of technology, healthcare providers especially in lower income countries should have at least basic digital competency if a successful application of technology is to be achieved. The aim of this study was to assess digital competency of healthcare providers among seven public health centers in North-West Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study design was applied to assess the basic digital competency of healthcare providers working in seven public health centers in North-west Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. Self-administered questionnaire adopted from the European commission's digital competency framework for assessing digital competency were used. A multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with basic digital competency with p-value< 0.05 as a rule out for statistical significance. The strength of association was explained in terms of coefficient estimate, adjusted odds ratio and a 95% confidence interval (CI). From the total of 193 healthcare providers included in the study, 167 of them responded which is a response rate of 86.5%. The majority of respondents 88 (52.7%) were males and the mean age was 28.2 years with a standard deviation of 5.5 years. The result indicated that all items demonstrated an adequate level of internal consistency with Cronbach alpha > 0 .7. Healthcare providers in those public health centers reported that problem solving, safety and communication are the most common challenges encountered. The multivariable logistic regression model indicated that factors such as sex, educational status, profession type, monthly income and years of experience are statistically significant predictors. Basic digital competency level of healthcare providers working in public health centers in this setting is relatively low. The results highlight the need to improve digital competency among healthcare providers focusing on the identified skill gaps.
Healthcare providers performing aerosol-generating procedures like airway management are at the highest risk for contamination with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We developed an in-situ simulation (ISS) airway management training in confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients for emergency and anesthesiology staff, evaluated participants' reactions, and identified perceived challenges. We used a cross-sectional study design incorporating a quantitative questionnaire to describe participants' reaction to the ISS and a qualitative group interview using the plus-delta debriefing modality to explore participants' challenges in acquiring the knowledge and skills required for each learning objective. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and deductive content analysis. Two hundred and ninety-nine healthcare providers participated in 62 ISS training sessions. Over 90% of our study participants agreed or strongly agreed that: they understood the learning objectives; the training material appropriately challenged them; the course content was relevant, easy to navigate, and essential; the facilitators' knowledge, teaching, and style were appropriate; the simulation facilities were suitable; and they had ample opportunities to practice the learned skills. The main challenges identified were anticipating difficult airways, preparing intubation equipment, minimizing the number of personnel inside the room, adhering to the proper doffing sequence, preparing needed equipment outside the intubation room, speaking up, and ensuring closed-loop communication. The newly developed ISS training was feasible for busy healthcare practitioners to safely perform airway management procedures for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients without affecting bedside care. Anticipation of difficult airways and speaking up were the most frequent challenges identified across all specialties in this study.
Healthcare providers play important roles in supporting breastfeeding. Although there has been insufficient actual breastfeeding support from healthcare providers in China, little research has been conducted to understand Chinese healthcare providers' perceived barriers to providing breastfeeding support, especially in rural China. This study aims to identify these perceived barriers to providing breastfeeding support in Northwestern rural China. This study was conducted during the period from March 2018 to December 2018. Forty-one healthcare providers were recruited through purposive sampling in two rural counties in Northwest China that are in close proximity to each other and share similar demographic features. Participants included obstetrician-gynecologists, midwives, nurses, "village doctors", and township and village maternal and child health workers. Qualitative data were collected through one-on-one in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Transcripts were thematically analyzed. Analysis of interview data resulted in four themes that the participants perceived as barriers to supporting breastfeeding: (1) lack of medical resources, within which inadequate staffing, and lack of financial incentives were discussed, (2) lack of clear and specific responsibility assignment, within which no one takes the lead, and mutual buck-passing were discussed, (3) healthcare providers' lack of relevant expertise, within which lack of knowledge and skills, and low prestige of village healthcare providers were discussed, (4) difficulties in accessing mothers, within which medical equipment shortages reduce services utilization, mothers' housing situation, mothers' mobility, and cultural barriers were discussed. The study identified HCPs perceived barriers to providing breastfeeding support. Unique to China's Tri-Level Healthcare System, challenges like staffing and financial incentives are hard to swiftly tackle. Recommendations include mHealth enhancement and clarified responsibilities with incentives and tailored training. Further research is crucial to evaluate these strategies in rural Northwestern China and comparable underdeveloped areas nationwide.
Healthcare regulators in many countries undertake inspections of healthcare providers and publish inspection outcomes with the intention of improving quality of care. Comprehensive inspections of general practices in England by the Care Quality Commission began for the first time in 2014. It is assumed that inspection and rating will raise standards and improve care, but the presence and extent of any improvements is unknown. We aim to determine if practice inspection ratings are associated with past performance on prescribing indicators and if prescribing behaviour changes following inspection. Longitudinal study using a dataset of 6771 general practices in England. Practice inspection date and score was linked with monthly practice-level data on prescribing indicators relating to antibiotics, hypnotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The sample covers practices receiving their first inspection between September 2014 and December 2018. Regression analysis and the differential timing of inspections is used to identify the impact on prescribing. Better-rated practices had better prescribing in the period before inspections began. In the six months following inspections, no overall change in prescribing was observed. However, the differences between the best and worse rated practices were reduced but not fully. The same is also true when taking a longer-term view. There is little evidence that practices responded in anticipation of inspection or reacted differently once the ratings were made public. While some of the observed historic variation in prescribing behaviour has been lessened by the process of inspection and ratings, we find this change is small and appears to come from both improvements among lower-rated practices and deteriorations among higher-rated practices. While inspection and rating no doubt had other impacts, these prescribing indicators were largely unchanged.
Healthcare services face significant challenges due to the aging population, increasing complexity of health issues, and a global shortage of health professionals. Health professions education needs to adapt and develop with healthcare services' needs. Interprofessional education and patient partnership are two trends that are increasingly being reinforced. Health professions students worldwide are expected to acquire competencies in interprofessional collaboration through undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Developing interprofessional collaborative skills in clinical placements is crucial. This study aims to explore two patients' meetings with an interprofessional student team and better understand how the patient can participate actively in the students´ learning processes. This is a small single-case study. Two patients participated. Data was generated through participant observation and qualitative interviews. A practical iterative framework for qualitative data analysis inspired the analysis. The patients observed and reflected on the interprofessional students' learning process and felt responsible for contributing to their learning. The patients contributed to students' learning by making themselves available for practicing and sometimes giving feedback. They considered it a win-win situation to be involved in the interprofessional learning activity as they perceived being taken seriously by the students when addressing their problems and experienced positive outcomes for their situation, such as better physical functioning and adjustments to assistive devices. Patients emphasized the importance of learning collaboration between health professionals and how this could contribute to them feeling safer as patients. This study highlights the importance of including patients in interprofessional students' learning processes. Patients' active participation in interprofessional clinical placements can empower them, improve their self-efficacy, and potentially shift the power dynamic between patients and healthcare professionals. The study emphasizes the importance of the patient perspective in future research on interprofessional education in clinical settings. The study also highlights the need for clinical supervisors to facilitate patient involvement in interprofessional clinical placements and reinforce patients' feedback for the student team. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of research on interprofessional education and patient partnership and emphasizes the importance of including patients in health professions education.
Healthcare systems are increasingly resource constrained, leaving less time for important patient-provider interactions. Conversational agents (CAs) could be used to support the provision of information and to answer patients' questions. However, information must be accessible to a variety of patient populations, which requires understanding questions expressed at different language levels. This study describes the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to evaluate predefined medical content in CAs across patient populations. These simulated populations are characterized by a range of health literacy. The evaluation framework includes both fully automated and semi-automated procedures to assess the performance of a CA. A case study in the domain of mammography shows that LLMs can simulate questions from different patient populations. However, the accuracy of the answers provided varies depending on the level of health literacy. Our scalable evaluation framework enables the simulation of patient populations with different health literacy levels and helps to evaluate domain specific CAs, thus promoting their integration into clinical practice. Future research aims to extend the framework to CAs without predefined content and to apply LLMs to adapt medical information to the specific (health) literacy level of the user.
Healthcare systems constantly evolve to improve care quality and resource utilization. One way is implementing Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) an economic approach. This scoping review aims to identify and describe the literature on VBHC, particularly its psychosocial aspects, to uncover research gaps. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews. We took the following 14 steps: (a) defining the research question; (b) identifying relevant studies; (c) selecting studies; (d) 15 mapping data; (e) collecting, synthesizing and reporting results. A detailed Boolean search was conducted from January 2021 to August 31, 2021, across APA PsycINFO and PubMed databases using keywords such as "Value-Based Healthcare" and "psychosocial perspective." Initially, three reviewers screened 70 e-records independently, assessing titles, abstracts, and full-text against the inclusion criteria. Discrepancies regarding the evaluation of the articles were resolved through consensus sessions between the reviewers. The final review included 14 relevant e-records in English from peer-reviewed sources, focusing on quantitative and qualitative research. From the analysis, four areas emerged: (1) Value chains in Healthcare; (2) Styles, activities, and practices of value co-creation in Healthcare; (3) Value co-creation in the encounter process; (4) Value co-creation in preventive health services. The scoping review findings suggest several potential key aspects, including the interdependence between patients and healthcare organizations, organizational culture in healthcare, and the role of patient-centered approaches that focus on relationships, communication, and social support in healthcare. This can be achieved through patient engagement, patient-centered care and communication, health literacy, psychosocial support services, comprehensive psychosocial assessments, care coordination, and continuity of care. Integrating psychosocial elements in VHBC enhances quality and optimizes resource use. Findings highlight the need to develop practical guidance on how to implement a culture of value in care that takes into account the psychosocial aspects that have emerged, but not fully addressed. The pandemic teaches that the workforce poorly receives sudden and unsystematic changes. This review could provide an initial basis for the redesign of value in healthcare and a paradigm shift that has already begun with patient-centered medicine and patient engagement.
Healthcare systems rely on well-trained family medicine physicians who can offer continuous quality services to their communities and beyond. The American Academy of Family Physicians and the World Organization of Family Doctors recommend that medical curricula should have adequately supervised education and training of the learners in family medicine during their preclinical and clinical placements. However, some medical schools don't have a comprehensive family medicine program to prepare graduates who can meet the community needs. This work aims to report the essential steps for the development, implementation, and evaluation of the family medicine program at the College of Medicine at the University of Sharjah in United Arab Emirates. We used the Kern's 6-step model to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of the family medicine program. This includes problem identification, needs assessment, goals setting, educational strategies, implementation, and evaluation. During 2014-2022, we longitudinally collected essential information about the family medicine program from different stakeholders including the feedback of clinical coordinators, adjunct clinical faculty, and medical students at the end-of-clerkship. All responses were analysed to determine the effective implementation and evaluation of the family medicine program. Over the course of 8 academic years, 804 medical students, 49 adjunct clinical faculty and three College of Medicine faculty participated in the evaluation of the family medicine program. The majority of respondents were satisfied with various aspects of the family medicine program, including the skills gained, the organisation of program, and the variety of clinical encounters. The medical students and adjunct clinical faculty suggested the inclusion of e-clinics, faculty development program, and the expansion of more clinical sites for the effectiveness of the family medicine program. We report a successful development, implementation, and evaluation of the family medicine program in United Arab Emirates with a positive and impactful learning experience. More attention should be paid towards a suitable representation of family medicine program in the medical curriculum with focused and targeted educational plans for medical students.
Healthcare workers are currently making efforts to offer services that cater to the holistic care needs of their patients. Previous studies have shown that some healthcare workers encounter challenges when advising patients about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), even though its use is widespread. Many health care workers may not have received formal education or training in CAM and consequently are unable to address their patients' questions about it. This study explored the knowledge, perception, attitude and practice of CAM by healthcare workers in Garki Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria. This was an institution-based cross-sectional study, design and a convergent parallel, mixed methods design was used for data collection. Five (5) healthcare workers were purposively selected as participants for the key informant interviews, while two hundred and fifty (250) selected using a simple random sampling method completed the questionnaire. The data collection instruments used were a key informant interview guide and a 35-item self-administered questionnaire. Knowledge was assessed with a 4-item scale with a maximum score of 8. Perceptions and attitudes were assessed using Likert scales with a maximum score of 45 and 20, respectively. Practice was assessed with a 6-item scale with a maximum score of 18. Qualitative data was analysed using framework analysis. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Data acquired from both methods were integrated to form the findings. The average age of respondents for the quantitative study was 34.0 ± 7.8 years, and they were predominantly females (61.2%) with one to ten years of work experience (68.8%). The mean knowledge, perception and attitude scores were 1.94 ± 1.39, 13.08 ± 2.34 and 32.68 ± 6.28, respectively. Multiple linear regression result showed that knowledge (t = 2.025, p = 0.044) and attitude (t = 5.961, p = 0.000) had statistically significant effects on the practice of CAM. Qualitative data revealed that the majority of the participants perceive CAM favourably, provided it is properly introduced into mainstream medicine with evidence of safety and research to prove its efficacy. The study has shown the gaps in knowledge and the practices of CAM by conventional medical practitioners. This has implications for their ability to counsel and refer patients who may require CAM therapies. Policy, research and programmatic initiatives that seek to enhance their knowledge of CAM, and improve collaboration with CAM practitioners are recommended.