Effectiveness of innovative instructional module for professional competence in health literacy in medical students

BACKGROUND

Physicians should be equipped with professional competence in health literacy to communicate more effectively with patients with limited health literacy. However, the health literacy curriculum has not yet been refined globally, and is scarce in Taiwan's medical education. We implemented an innovative instructional module to attain professional competence in health literacy among medical students and investigated its effects.

METHODS

We adopted a quasi-experimental design and recruited 204 fifth-year Taiwanese medical students between December 2019 and May 2020. Participants who worked as clerks at the Department of Family Medicine of three medical schools in northern Taiwan were assigned to the experimental group through convenience sampling. A total of 98 students received a three-hour innovative instruction, including medical simulation videos, role-playing, and board games. Both the experimental and control groups completed the online pre-test and mail-in post-test. A generalized estimating equation was applied to measure the effects of the intervention.

RESULTS

There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of professional competence in health literacy in all three aspects. In terms of knowledge, the experimental group improved 12% more than the control group (𝛽=0.12, 95% CI: 0.05 ~ 0.19, p = 0.001). In terms of attitude, the experimental group improved by an average of 0.27 more points per question than the control group (𝛽=0.27, 95% CI: 0.08 ~ 0.46, p = 0.007). As for skill, the experimental group improved by an average of 0.35 more points per question than the control group (𝛽=0.35, 95% CI: 0.14 ~ 0.55, p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The proposed innovative instructional module significantly improved fifth-year medical students' professional competence in health literacy, which is expected to benefit their future medical practices.

Studying wearable health technology in the workplace using the Behavior Change Wheel: a systematic literature review and content analysis

Wearable Health Technology (WHT) is considered to be fast, feasible, and effective in workplace health promotion programs. This study aims to analyze behavior change strategies applied to WHT products used by employees in health promotion programs. A systematic literature review of WHT in workplace health promotion between 2006 and 2020 was conducted. The Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) was used to undertake the content analysis. We identified 14 articles of WHT in the workplace. First, physical activity and weight management were the most common health issue. Second, using the BCW, we found guidelines, regulation and communication were the most frequently applied policy categories. Third, education, enablement and training were the most common intervention functions. For example, the promoter could provide health education information by WHT. Moreover, encouraging online would motivate employees to improve health behavior. There has been a growing interest in WHT with increasing complexity in research designs and specifications. While using WHT can be an appropriate strategy to adopt as employee health projects, other interventions should be considered, for incentivization and modeling, etc. The results of this study suggest using WHT should take related health behavior theories or variables into consideration to form a comprehensive health promotion programs.

Adequate emergency department resource usage: Applying simulation-based workshop to improve teaching competence among elementary and junior high school teachers in Taiwan

INTRODUCTION

More than 80% of patients who visited Emergency Department (ED) was not urgent in Taiwan in 2019. It causes insufficient medical services and a latent fiscal threat to the Nation Health Insurance (NHI). This study adopted simulation-based educating modules to explore the effect in teaching competence among primary and middle school teachers for efficient AEDRU (adequate emergency department resource usage) education in the future.

METHOD

The subjects were 414 elementary and junior high school teachers in Taiwan. 214 participants attended the simulation-based workshop as the simulation-based group, whereas 200 participants took an online self-learning module as the self-learning group. The workshop was created by an expert panel for decreasing the unnecessary usage amount of ED medial resources. The materials are lecture, board games, miniature ED modules, and simulation-based scenarios. A teaching competence questionnaire including ED knowledge, teaching attitude, teaching skills, and teaching self-efficacy was conducted among participants before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed via McNemar, paired t test and the generalized estimating equations (GEE).

RESULTS

The study showed that teachers who participated in the simulation-based workshop had improved more in teaching competence than those who received the online self-learning module. In addition, there were significant differences between the pre-test and post-test among the two groups in teaching competence.

CONCLUSION

The simulation-based workshop is effective and it should be spread out. When students know how to use ED medical resources properly, they could affect their families. It can help the ED service to be used properly and benefits the finance of the NHI. The health care cost will be managed while also improving health.

Risk factors of prehypertension and hypertension among workers at public elderly welfare facilities in Taiwan: A cross-sectional survey

The prevalence and factors that influence prehypertension and hypertension in workers at elderly welfare facilities remain unknown. This study investigated prehypertension and hypertension as well as the relevant factors affecting the development of these conditions in workers at elderly welfare facilities.A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 242 workers at 3 elderly welfare facilities in northern Taiwan. A structured questionnaire survey comprising demographic characteristics, job characteristics, burnout inventory, and health information was employed for data collection. Chi-Squared tests and multinomial logistic regression were adopted to analyze the correlation between research variables and blood pressures as well as relevant factors influencing prehypertension and hypertension.The results indicated that sex, age, education level, type of work shift, work-related burnout, and body mass index of the research participants were significantly correlated with prehypertension and hypertension. The results of multinominal logistic regression demonstrated that being male, being older, being a nonnurse assistant, being obese, working in shifts, and having moderate or severe work-related burnout were associated with higher risks of prehypertension and hypertension. The interaction between age and being a nonnurse assistant was statistically significant. Compared with nonnurse assistants, nurse assistants aged ≥55 years had a relatively low risk of prehypertension and hypertension.Age, job characteristics, work-related burnout, and obesity of workers in elderly welfare facilities were the major risk factors for prehypertension and hypertension.

[Clinical Simulation Teaching Program to Promote the Effectiveness of Nurses in Coping With Workplace Violence]

BACKGROUND

Workplace violence is a phenomenon that is prevalent around the world. Nursing personnel are one of the most frequent victims of workplace attacks. Beyond the harm done to physical health, mental health, and workplace morale, workplace violence also leads to the loss of personnel and causes severe injury to institutions and nursing professionals.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to improve the awareness, attitudes, and self-confidence of nurses with regard to workplace violence using clinical simulation teaching and training courses.

METHODS

A total of 400 clinical nurses at a tertiary hospital in Taipei City were enrolled and randomly assigned into either the experimental group, which received the education intervention, or the control group, which received no intervention. A total of 392 enrolled participants completed the study, including 200 in the experimental group and 192 in the control group. Before and after the intervention, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data, which were analyzed using a GEE model with SPSS V.23.

RESULTS

After the clinical simulation teaching course, awareness of workplace violence as well as related attitudes and self-confidence were higher in the experimental group than the control group. Moreover, the posttest scores and pretest-posttest differences in scores were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (p < .001). Advanced analysis of the data showed that cognition scores, being older in age, and having a registered nurse grade of N3 were all associated with earning a higher score. In addition, in terms of attitude, registered nurse grade was found to correlate positively with score. Further, male participants earned higher self-confidence scores than their female colleagues and participants who worked in either the emergency or psychiatric departments earned higher scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The "Workplace Violence Clinical Simulation Teaching and Training Course" was shown to improve the awareness, attitudes, and self-confidence of clinical nurses with regard to workplace violence and may thus help reduce the risk and harm of violence in this category. In the future, contextual teaching courses on workplace violence prevention should be developed for different nursing levels, divisions, and units based on their specific characteristics and needs.

An analysis of healthy workplace accreditation and health promotion efforts based on employees' perspectives

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of health promotion efforts in relation to a workplace accreditation program and differing workplace sizes. The research population for the study consisted of 966 employees working at a total of 84 different worksites located in Taipei, Taiwan. The survey instructions used were developed by the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (WHP). The results indicate that accredited workplaces have better WHP quality than nonaccredited workplaces (p < .001) and commonly implement health promotion measures related to specific health issues. It is recommended that the government provide more health-related resources in workplaces, especially those of small and medium companies.

Effect of recreational noise exposure on hearing impairment among teenage students

Several studies have focused on the potential impact of children's hearing loss on learning and development. Recently, numerous teenage students have been found to be fond of listening to music on personal devices and participating in recreational music activities. The objective of this study was to investigate teenage students' hearing impairment, their experience with recreational noise exposure, and their self-reported hearing. The participants were 1878 first-year students at a university in Taiwan. The result of the pure tone audiometry test showed that 11.9% of the participants had one or two ears with a hearing threshold over 25 dB. Over the past year, approximately 80.9% of the participants had taken part in at least one loud-noise recreational activity, and 90.9% of the participants were in the habit of using earphones. Among the participants, 190 students with a high level of recreational noise exposure were assigned to the exposure group, and 191 students with a low level of recreational noise exposure constituted the control group. The exposure group had more hearing problems than the control group, but no significant difference existed between the two groups in the pure tone audiometry test (p=0.857). It is suggested that the schools should reinforce hearing health education and proactively provide intervention measures, such as hearing tests, evaluation of noise exposure, and hearing protection.

The effects of different environmental education programs on the environmental behavior of seventh-grade students and related factors

This study used random allocation to separate out groups of students from four Taipei junior high schools, each of which underwent a different environmental-education program, in order to examine the effects of such programs on students' environmental behavior and related factors. Results indicate that Taiwanese junior high schools should coordinate the teaching of environmental programs with other school activities to obtain the most ideal results.

Effects of stroke on medical resource use and costs in acute myocardial infarction. GUSTO I Investigators. Global Utilization of Streptokinase and Tissue Plasminogen Activator for Occluded Coronary Arteries Study

BACKGROUND

Stroke occurs concurrently with myocardial infarction (MI) in approximately 30 000 US patients each year. This number is expected to rise with the increasing use of thrombolytic therapy for MI. However, no data exist for the economic effect of stroke in the setting of acute MI (AMI). The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the effect of stroke on medical resource use and costs in AMI patients in the United States.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Medical resource use and cost data were prospectively collected for 2566 randomly selected US GUSTO I patients (from 23 105 patients) and for the 321 US GUSTO I patients who developed non-bypass surgery-related stroke during the baseline hospitalization. Follow-up was for 1 year. All costs are expressed in 1993 US dollars. During the baseline hospitalization, stroke was associated with a reduction in cardiac procedure rates and an increase in length of stay, despite a hospital mortality rate of 37%. Together with stroke-related procedural costs of $2220 per patient, the baseline medical costs increased by 44% ($29 242 versus $20 301, P<0.0001). Follow-up medical costs were substantially higher for stroke survivors ($22 400 versus $5282, P<0.0001), dominated by the cost of institutional care. The main determinant for institutional care was discharge disability status. The cumulative 1-year medical costs for stroke patients were $15 092 higher than for no-stroke patients. Hemorrhagic stroke patients had a much higher hospital mortality rate than non-hemorrhagic stroke patients (53% versus 15%, P<0.001), which was associated with approximately $7200 lower mean baseline hospitalization cost. At discharge, hemorrhagic stroke patients were more likely to be disabled (68% versus 46%, P=0.002).

CONCLUSIONS

In this first large prospective economic study of stroke in AMI patients, we found that strokes were associated with a 60% ($15 092) increase in cumulative 1-year medical costs. Baseline hospitalization costs were 44% higher because of longer mean lengths of stay. Stroke type was a key determinant of baseline cost. Follow-up costs were more than quadrupled for stroke survivors because of the need for institutional care. Disability level was the main determinant of institutional care and thus of follow-up costs.