scholarly journals Healthcare Professionals and Telehealth Usability During COVID-19

Author(s):  
Jing Xu ◽  
Hanadi Hamadi ◽  
Kristen Hicks-Roof ◽  
Robert Zeglin ◽  
Chloe Bailey ◽  
...  

Objective: During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many other health providers needed to rapidly adopt telehealth services to ensure continuity of patient care, without the opportunity to extensively evaluate the usability of the adopted technology. Therefore, this study aims to examine health professionals’ telehealth usability during COVID-19 in Florida. Design: This cross-sectional study employed the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) to licensed healthcare providers in Florida in June 2020. Setting and Participants: A total of 399,660 selected health professionals with Florida licensure were recruited from open-access Florida healthcare to participate in a Qualtrics web-based survey. A total of 1868 health professionals completed the survey. Multiple linear and mixed regression models were applied to analyze the overall and subdomain scores from TUQ. Main outcome measures: Telehealth Usability. Results: The analysis of overall TUQ score showed younger, female healthcare professionals, and participants who reported an increase of telehealth usage during pandemic had a significantly higher overall TUQ score. Compared with the score from physicians and nurses, the scores from the mental health group and social work group were significantly higher, while the score rehabilitation group was significantly lower. Analysis of the subdomain scores were consistent with the overall scores. Conclusion:  The findings from this study indicate that the health professionals’ telehealth usability is related to age, gender, and the change of telehealth usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. While pandemics represent only one possible impetus for the healthcare system to swiftly switch to telehealth platforms, each profession should consider providing adequate resources to accommodate the need for change.

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Syed Meraj Ahmed ◽  
Faisal Alhumaidi Alruways ◽  
Thamer Fahad Alsallum ◽  
Meshal Munahi Almutairi ◽  
Abdullah Saif Al-Subhi ◽  
...  

<span lang="EN-US">Use of social media for patient care is the new frontier in the healthcare indus-try. Sharing of information between the clinicians and their patients is now so much easier. In slowly gaining a foothold worldwide it needs a healthy push to make it universally accepta-ble. Study the knowledge, attitude, and practices of healthcare providers on the usage of social media in their clinical practice.</span><span lang="EN-US">A baseline cross – sectional study was conducted among 200 healthcare professionals from March 2015 to September 2015 on their knowledge, attitude, and practices in the use of social media for patient care in Majmaah, Saudi Arabia. A close ended self – administered validated questionnaire was used to gather data which was analyzed by using the SPSS ver. 21.0 software. 55.3% participants used social media for both professional and personal reasons. Some (25.3%) specified using it for patient care while a significant majority (52.9%) opined that it can be successfully used for patient interaction. Nearly 55% agreed that social media should not be banned due to its benefits as an efficient tool for patient communication. </span><span>S</span><span lang="EN-US">ocial media use for pa-tient doctor interaction should be encouraged to improve patient care through effective com-munication.</span>


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-282
Author(s):  
Beatriz Montes- Berges ◽  
M. Elena Ortúñez Fernández

Objetivo: Analizar los efectos psicológicos que la actual pandemia de coronavirus (covid19) está teniendo en los profesionales del ámbito sanitario.Métodos: Estudio descriptivo de corte transversal en una muestra de 1150 profesionales del ámbito sanitarios, seleccionados al azar. Las mediciones y los resultados se explicaron con el modelo teórico el Diferencial Semántico propuesto por Osgood.Resultados: Se ha encontrado que, en general, el personal del ámbito sanitario se siente muy desprotegido, con miedo y estresado. Confieren más miedo al autocontagio que al contagio de otros. Perciben su trabajo como eficaz, beneficioso, activo, útil y flexible, y simultáneamente se siente amable, afectivo, sincero, cálido y discreto. Encontramos que las enfermeras, y después los técnicos en cuidados enfermeros se sienten más útiles, valientes, importantes y sinceras que otras categorías sanitarias, entre las que figuran los y las médicos/as. Las emociones que sentían el personal sanitario están fuertemente influidas por la orientación política que tuvieran.Conclusión: El estudio realizado sobre el efecto psicológico de la actual pandemia en los profesionales del ámbito sanitario aporta diferencias significativas en función de la profesión, el contrato laboral, el sexo y la orientación política de los entrevistados. Objective: To analyze the psychological effects that the current coronavirus pandemic (covid19) is having on healthcare professionals.Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study in a sample of 1,150 healthcare professionals, randomly selected. Measurements and results were explained with the theoretical model of the Semantic Differential proposed by Osgood.Results: It has been found that, in general, healthcare professionals feel very unprotected, afraid and stressed. They were more afraid of self-contagion than of others. They perceived their work as effective, beneficial, active, useful and flexible, and at the same time, they feel kind, affective, sincere, warm and discreet. We found that nurses, and later, nurse care technicians feel more useful, brave, important, and sincere than other healthcare categories, including physicians. The emotions that the health personnel felt were strongly influenced by their political orientation.Conclusion: The study carried out on the psychological effect of the current pandemic on health professionals provides significant differences depending on the profession, the employment contract, the sex and the political orientation of the interviewees.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Syed Waseem Tahir ◽  
Sahila Nabi ◽  
Shazia Javaid

Background: Hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to control health care related infection. Every year millions of patients around the world are affected by infections that are transmitted by the health-care professionals(HCPs).(2)(3). Rationale: Nurses and physicians are the main health care workers contacting with patients, representing the vector in the chain of infection. Thus, assessing their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding hand hygiene is very important to decrease the incidence of health care related infection and to improve quality of care. Objective: The objective of our study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of handwashing among healthcare professionals of Kashmir Division. Methods: This study was an institutional based cross sectional study, conducted in various healthcare institutions of Kashmir Division which were selected randomly. A predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants. The questionnaires contained questions about four different parts which included sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of hand washing, attitude and practice of hand washing among healthcare professionals. The questionnaires were distributed to various healthcare professionals working in wards, emergency department, laboratories, outpatient departments, injection and dressing rooms, EPI unit and others. The distributed questionnaires were then collected back. Results: A total of 110 participants were included. Out of total 110 participants,53% were male ,36% were nurses 36% of health professionals were working in IPD (In Patient Department). 89% of the participants agreed that, direct or indirect contacts are the most important routes for transmission of hospital-acquired infections,97% agreed that
 proper and consistent hand washing prevents infections in health facilities,100% agreed that health professionals should always wash their hands immediately when they arrive at health institutions,98% said that they knew steps of handwashing(WHO)/rules of hand hygiene,91% agreed that hand washing is the single most effective mechanism to prevent spread of infection and 95% agreed that wearing jewellery, artificial fingernails, damaged skin and regular use of hand cream are associated with increased likelihood of colonisation of hands with harmful germs. 83% of the participants said that they are committed to the proper rules of hand hygiene all the time,78% said they comply with rules of hand hygiene even in emergencies,80% said that they think when they are wearing gloves it is not necessary to wash hands,92% feel irritated when others don’t follow hand hygiene rules,95% advice others to follow the rules of hand hygiene and 97% said it is easy for you to follow rules of hand hygiene. 40%(each) of the participants said that they always and usually wash hands before touching a patient,100% of the participants said that they always wash hands before performing aseptic and clean procedures, 100% of the participants said that they always wash hands after being at risk of exposure to body fluids and 95% of patients said that they wash hands after coming to and before leaving the hospital. DISCUSSION In this study we had a total of 110 participants. Health professionals had a satisfactory knowledge of hand hygiene but some lacunae are still there as is evident in the result part. Thus from this study we conclude adherence to handwashing is lacking among health professionals, so we need to have regular handwashing sessions for health professionals which will regularly sensitize them, also we need to address the reasons of this poor adherence both at the administrative and personal level. We also recommend to conduct more studies in this field so as to highlight the shortcomings in hand hygiene and then to improve upon them.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheick Oumar Bagayoko ◽  
Mahmoud Cissé ◽  
Joseph Aka ◽  
Adama Dicko ◽  
Abdrahamane Anne ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Mali, like many Sub-Saharan African countries, is experiencing an acute crisis with respect to the shortage of qualified health professionals. This crisis is even more acute when it comes to specialized medical fields such as dermatology. To address this shortage, a tele-dermatology project has been launched in Mali since 2015 in order to provide access to specialized care to the most remote populations.Objective: The aim of our study is to assess the medico-economic benefits of the pilot phase of this project.Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of all requests for expert advice sent to dermatology experts through the "Bogou" tele-expertise platform.The sample consisted of 52 patients at eight remote sites and ten health professionals, including 4 specialists.The economic study was done using a parameter of cost analysis and the professional evaluation of healthcare providers. It compared consultation and transportation fees (on-site and off-site), and used a questionnaire assessing items on a 5-level Lickert scale and open-ended questions to evaluate the satisfaction of health professionals. Data analysis was performed by SPSS v25.Results: During the period, 374 requests for tele-expertise were made for the benefit of 52 patients. 89.3% of requests were answered by specialists, with an average response time of 46 hours 59 minutes and extremes from 7 minutes to 415 hours 4 minutes. Eczema was the most common medical condition diagnosed. 98% of patients had never completed a dermatological consultation because of a lack of means to travel to the only specialized center in the country. Consequently, they were all very satisfied or satisfied with the tele-expertise service. The 52 participating patients in project have realized a great financial benefit. Together they saved an average of 5,824,500 XOF (9429 euros).All the health professionals surveyed also expressed satisfaction with the application. They confirmed that the project has enabled them to strengthen their skills in the management of dermatological pathologies.Conclusion: Based on the results of our study, we can say that tele-dermatology allows access to specialized care and a reduction in the costs of care for patients in remote areas.


2020 ◽  
pp. postgradmedj-2020-137547
Author(s):  
Ayman El-Menyar ◽  
Wanis H Ibrahim ◽  
Walid El Ansari ◽  
Mohamed Gomaa ◽  
Brijesh Sathian ◽  
...  

BackgroundThe pattern and impact of burnout among the medical staff are not yet well defined. However, the consequences of burnout are not limited to the healthcare providers but also may affect their family, colleagues and patients in a negative manner. We aimed to assess the characteristics and predictors of burnout among health professionals at two large tertiary hospitals.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study during the period from July 2018 to 31 December 2018. Data, via Maslach Burnout Inventory survey, were collected from physicians and other healthcare workers in two hospitals.ResultsA total of 624 responses to questionnaires were analysed. Half of the respondents were physicians, and men constituted the majority. About 10% (95% CI, 7.8 to 12.5) of the respondents satisfied the criteria of burnout. Emotional exhaustion (EE) was observed in 45.7%, depersonalisation (DP) in 26.9% and personal accomplishment (PA) in 41.2% of the respondents. There was a positive correlation between EE and DP (r=0.627, p=0.001), and a weak negative correlation between DP and PA (r=−0.195, p=0.001). Young age, less experience, trauma surgery, lack of habits and getting depressed ≥1 time/week were predictors of burnout.ConclusionsBurnout affects one-tenth of the health professionals in the tertiary hospitals in Qatar. Physicians are more likely to have higher DP and lower PA, whereas nurses prone to have higher EE. In this study, no gender discrepancy is appreciated and the junior medical staff is at a higher risk of burnout.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dialechti Tsimpida ◽  
Daphne Kaitelidou ◽  
Petros Galanis

Rationale, Aims and Objectives: To explore the issues related to the use of health services by deaf and hard of hearing adults in Greece.Method: The study population consisted of 140 adults with hearing loss (86 deaf and 54 hard of hearing). We gathered information about sociodemographic characteristics, use of health services characteristics, satisfaction from health providers and complaints during the use of health services.Results: A considerable percentage of the participants did not make appropriate use of healthcare services, as they made avoidable visits to emergency departments even for minor, short-term conditions (p=0.002) or used to just wait for the symptoms to pass in an illness occurrence (p=0.06). They also experienced major difficulties as part of the health visit (p=0.01) and the quality of communication with health providers (p=0.002). The absence of assistive technology, along with the lack of low availability of Sign Language interpreters, were important barriers for those that communicate in Sign Language. Regarding the engagement with healthcare providers, there were high rates of dissatisfaction from doctors, nurses and receptionists related to issues during the use of health services.Conclusions: Our results underscore the fact that deaf and hard of hearing persons constitute a minority population that experience major barriers during the use of health services and considerable difficulties in the healthcare provider-patient relationship. In light of these findings, a special effort must be made to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing individuals receive appropriate, ethical and person-centered healthcare.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine Martorella ◽  
Anaïs Lacasse ◽  
Michelle Kostic ◽  
Glenna Schluck

Background. Utilization of the emergency department (ED) by patients seeking relief from chronic pain (CP) has increased. These patients often face stigmatization, and the ED is no exception. The French-Canadian Chronic Pain Myth Scale (CPMS) was developed to evaluate common societal misconceptions about CP including among healthcare providers. To our knowledge, no tool of this nature is available in English. Objectives. This study thus aimed at determining to what extent a new English adaptation of the CPMS could provide valid scores among US emergency nurses. The internal consistency, construct validity, and internal structure of the translated scale were thus examined. Methods. After careful translation of the scale, the English CPMS was administered to 482 emergency nurses and its validity was explored through a web-based cross-sectional study. Results. Acceptable reliability α>0.7 was reported for the first and third subscales. The second subscale’s reliability coefficient was below the cutoff (α=0.67) but is still considered adequate. As expected, statistically significant differences were found between nurses suffering from CP vs nurses not suffering from CP, supporting the construct validity of the scale. After exploratory factor analysis, similar internal structure was found supporting the 3-factorial nature of the original CPMS. Conclusion. Our results provide support for the preliminary validity of the English CPMS to measure knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes towards CP among emergency nurses in the United States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Turki Alanzi ◽  
Maryam Altuwailib ◽  
Amjad Mohammed Saadah ◽  
Fahad Alanezi

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the perceptions of healthcare providers about the use of social media for healthy diet management in Saudi Arabia.Participants and Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the use of social media healthy diet management. The sample constituted 308 healthcare professionals from Saudi Arabia. The social media application, WhatsApp is employed to distribute the questionnaire, which has achieved a response rate of 50.61%. Out of the total participants, 55% of the participants were under 30 years of age, 71% were females, and 55% of the participants had a bachelor's degree.Results: Among the total respondents, 66% used social networking applications more than four hours a day, and 78% utilized social media to get information about a healthy diet. The respondents employed the following platforms for this purpose: Instagram (27%), YouTube (19%), Snapchat (19%), WhatsApp (18%), Twitter (8%), and Facebook (5%). The respondents considered that social media is very helpful to educate (44%), communicate with specialists (33%), and get applications for a healthy diet (38%). They held an opinion that social media is very helpful in improving knowledge about a healthy diet (47%), creating diet awareness (42%), and achieving healthy diet outcomes (37%) and lifestyle (37%).Conclusion: According to the perception of health providers, social media can be used to promote healthy diet management in Saudi Arabia. Also, the growing use of social media in Saudi Arabia represents the potential to create programs that encourage and promote healthy eating habits in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and WhatsApp platforms can be used for this purpose.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Dongyele ◽  
Daniel Ansong ◽  
Francis Osei Adjei ◽  
Evans Xamuzu ◽  
Nicholas Karikari Mensah ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The issue of mediums to communicate to make enquiries to a hospital in finding out the type of services available, availability of physicians and beds at the receiving hospitals, and a reminder system remains a challenge for patients and providers of the health service in the Sub-Sharan Africa. This present study sought to review the existing healthcare communication mediums from the perspectives of patients and health professionals at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, KumasiMethod A cross-sectional design was employed with a multilevel sampling method to select a total of 651 participants consisting of 304 patients, 303 health workers and 44 hospital directorate managers for the study. A well-structured survey questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents.Results Most hospital staff (66.4%) used a blend of social media and direct means (face-to-face medium) for communicating among themselves whereas 89.8% only communicates with management through meetings sections. Predominantly, 97.4% of the staff communicated by direct means (face-to-face medium) with patients. Almost all the management of the hospital communicated with the general public using mediums like letters and official memos.Conclusions There is evidence of combination of both traditional mediums (face-to-face) and the technological mediums (social media) for communications by health providers and health consumers. However there is a dissatisfaction with delayed information flow and poor feedback with the use of these available mediums. Therefore, a digital mobile application communication system is recommended to offer efficient communication within and outside the Ghanaian health facilities.


Antibiotics ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Haya Nassar ◽  
Rana Abu-Farha ◽  
Muna Barakat ◽  
Eman Alefishat

This study aimed to evaluate health professionals’ perceptions regarding the level of implementation of the Antimicrobials Stewardship (AMS) programs in Jordanian tertiary hospitals and to assess the perceived barriers to its implementation. During this cross-sectional study, a total of 157 healthcare providers agreed to participate (response rate 96.3%). Participants were asked to complete an electronic survey after meeting them at their working sites. Only 43.9% of the healthcare providers (n = 69) reported having an AMS committee in their hospital settings. The results suggested that private hospitals have significantly better AMS implementation compared to public hospitals among four areas (p ≤ 0.05). Moreover, the results showed that the most widely available strategies to implement AMS were infectious disease/microbiology advice (n = 112, 71.3%), and treatment guidelines (n = 111, 70.7%). Additionally, the study revealed that the main barrier to AMS implementation was the lack of information technology support (n = 125, 79.6%). These findings could draw managers’ attention to the importance of AMS and support the health care provider’s practice of AMS in Jordanian tertiary hospitals by making the right decisions and the required modifications regarding the strategies needed for the implementation of AMS programs.


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