Exploring the Knowledge Sharing Practices among Medical Doctors in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

Medical doctors constitute a vital component of the health sector’s workforce. One major factor that aids their efficiency is knowledge of practice and what they do with it. Literature is replete with knowledge-sharing cases among other professionals but less visible concerning physicians, especially in Nigeria. This study investigates the knowledge-sharing practices among doctors in Ibadan, one of the country’s major cities. The descriptive survey research design was adopted, and data collected through interviews with sixteen doctors selected through convenience sampling. Findings show that the doctors shared knowledge regularly through social media, formal discussions, and informal deliberations. The findings also indicated that the doctors derive benefits from exchanging information, while the knowledgesharing process challenges stem from adverse social factors. This study is useful to medical practitioners, medical associations, and policymakers who need data for staff development and how that impacts the health sector

Collaborative knowledge sharing in developing and evaluating a training programme for health professionals to implement a social intervention in dementia research

Purpose: This study aims to explore the utility of collaborative knowledge sharing with stakeholders in developing and evaluating a training programme for health professionals to implement a social intervention in dementia research. Design/methodology/approach: The programme consisted of two phases: 1) development phase guided by the Buckley and Caple’s training model and 2) evaluation phase drew on the Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model. Survey and interview data was collected from health professionals, people with dementia and their supporters who attended the training programme, delivered or participated in the intervention. Qualitative data was analysed using the framework analysis. Findings: Seven health professionals participated in consultations in the development phase. In the evaluation phase, 20 intervention facilitators completed the post one-day training evaluations and three took part in the intervention interviews. Eight people with dementia and their supporters from the promoting independence in dementia feasibility study participated in focus groups interviews. The findings show that intervention facilitators were satisfied with the training programme. They learnt new knowledge and skills through an interactive learning environment and demonstrated competencies in motivating people with dementia to engage in the intervention. As a result, this training programme was feasible to train intervention facilitators. Practical implications: The findings could be implemented in other research training contexts where those delivering research interventions have professional skills but do not have knowledge of the theories and protocols of a research intervention. Originality/value: This study provided insights into the value of collaborative knowledge sharing between academic researchers and multiple non-academic stakeholders that generated knowledge and maximised power through building new capacities and alliances

Collaborative knowledge sharing in developing and evaluating a training programme for health professionals to implement a social intervention in dementia research

Purpose: This study aims to explore the utility of collaborative knowledge sharing with stakeholders in developing and evaluating a training programme for health professionals to implement a social intervention in dementia research. Design/methodology/approach: The programme consisted of two phases: 1) development phase guided by the Buckley and Caple’s training model and 2) evaluation phase drew on the Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model. Survey and interview data was collected from health professionals, people with dementia and their supporters who attended the training programme, delivered or participated in the intervention. Qualitative data was analysed using the framework analysis. Findings: Seven health professionals participated in consultations in the development phase. In the evaluation phase, 20 intervention facilitators completed the post one-day training evaluations and three took part in the intervention interviews. Eight people with dementia and their supporters from the promoting independence in dementia feasibility study participated in focus groups interviews. The findings show that intervention facilitators were satisfied with the training programme. They learnt new knowledge and skills through an interactive learning environment and demonstrated competencies in motivating people with dementia to engage in the intervention. As a result, this training programme was feasible to train intervention facilitators. Practical implications: The findings could be implemented in other research training contexts where those delivering research interventions have professional skills but do not have knowledge of the theories and protocols of a research intervention. Originality/value: This study provided insights into the value of collaborative knowledge sharing between academic researchers and multiple non-academic stakeholders that generated knowledge and maximised power through building new capacities and alliances

Knowledge retention practices among healthcare workers at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Knowledge has transformed to become an economic resource in a knowledge-based society, which determines the proficiency, progress and efficiency of any performed task. However, efficiency can be compromised when the health sector fails to retain the wealth of knowledge from experienced, senior and subject experts who have, or are about to leave or retire from the institution. Knowledge management provides for knowledge acquisition, sharing, transfer and further motivates the creation of influential atmospheres for knowledge sharing in the Public health sector. Healthcare is a knowledge driven process and thus knowledge management and the tools to manage knowledge in the healthcare sector are receiving attention. This study investigated knowledge retention practices in the Public health sector, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study was informed by the Socialisation, Externalization, Combination, Internalization SECI model of knowledge creation and conversion by Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) and the Knowledge based theory of the firm by Grant (1996). Both theories interpret knowledge sharing and preservation as vital for institutional growth and effective service delivery. The theories advised on the establishment of platforms designated for acquisition of new knowledge, knowledge sharing and retention to assist in future decision making to obtain a competitive edge. The study employed a mixed method approach that is largely quantitative in nature. Self-administered questionnaires were adopted for quantitative data collection and three interviews were conducted with middle management to supplement the quantitative data. The reliability and validity of the research instruments was achieved through adapting, and modifying questions from previously used research instruments from the works of Dewah, (2012); Teffo, (2014) and Tatani, (2015). New questions were further developed and evaluated through expert analysis. The study took place at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape. The population of the study comprised of qualified healthcare workers in the health sector mainly “nurses”. The sample size was 198 and three interviews were conducted with the middle management to obtain qualitative data. xix The findings of the study revealed that the concept of knowledge retention was not dominant in public hospitals such as Cecilia Makiwane; however, certain practices are adopted to stimulate knowledge sharing thus contributing to knowledge retention. Several factors such as budget, ICT use, time allocation, fear of losing the competitive value through knowledge sharing and absence of supporting structures or services have been identified as root causes for reduced knowledge sharing practices among healthcare workers. The study, therefore, recommends the appointment of knowledge officers who would oversee the effective implementation of knowledge management policies and adopt strategies that will assist with knowledge retention. Further recommendations are, effective integration of knowledge management practices into the system, development of an internet based system for effective communication and institutional repositories for knowledge preservation. The study concludes that the development of training programs would assist healthcare workers to be familiar with any new or old invented mechanism

Gestão do conhecimento organizacional em contexto dos serviços partilhados: revisão sistemática da literatura e estudo bibliométrico

A Gestão do Conhecimento (GC) apresenta um papel determinante nas organizações de qualquer setor, sendo de interesse como esta se pode relacionar com os Serviços Partilhados. Para isso, elabora-se o presente estudo com os objetivos de reunir a informação necessária para auxiliar novos investigadores e as suas investigações e efetuar o mapeamento da produção científica relacionada com a GC nas organizações e o SP entre os anos 2015 e 2022. A concretização do estudo empírico tem em conta os objetivos delineados, pelo que se efetua uma divisão do trabalho em duas fases: a primeira é uma Revisão Sistemática da Literatura (RSL), que consiste numa forma de síntese de pesquisa, que utiliza métodos sistemáticos para procurar, analisar criticamente e, de certa forma, agrupar os resultados de estudos existentes sobre um ou vários tópicos, com o objetivo de responder às questões de investigação e reunir literatura relevante sobre os tópicos referidos, analisando-as e relacionando-as, assim como identificar as principais metodologias e técnicas de pesquisa usadas nas áreas. E, numa segunda fase, efetua-se um estudo bibliométrico, que consiste na aplicação de técnicas estatísticas e matemáticas para descrever os aspetos da amostra de literatura e/ou meios comunicacional, resumir estatísticas e prover índices comparativos. A concretização do trabalho pressupõe recolha e análise dos artigos resultantes das expressões utilizadas para questionar cada Sistema de Recuperação de Informação, sendo estes Google Scholar (Google Académico), o Mendeley, o Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) e a B-On, das pesquisas e artigos provenientes das mesmas, tendo em conta os 11 pontos de análise da qualidade de Kitchenham (et al., 2015). Durante a avaliação de qualidade, extrairam-se os dados para um documento MS Excel para, posteriormente serem cruzados, avaliados e discutidos. Uma análise bibliométrica também foi realizada, incluindo os indicadores relativos ao documento, nomeadamente: tipologia documental, idioma, palavras-chave e ano de publicação, assim como o indicador relativo ao país de origem dos autores. Conclui-se que o RCAAP apresenta o número mais elevado de resultados; a tipologia mais frequente, no cômputo geral, é “Artigos Científicos”, com os números mais elevados entre os anos 2016 e 2020; de entre os idiomas, “Português do Brasil” ocorreu na maior percentagem da amostra; a palavra-chave mais utilizada é “Conhecimento”; o ano de 2017 foi o mais produtivo, uma vez que exibe o número mais elevado de publicações; e, por fim, o país com o maior número de documentos é o “Brasil”.Knowledge Management (KM) presents a decisive role in organizations of any sector, showing an interest in how it can be related to Shared Services (SS). For this, the present study is prepared with the objective of gathering the necessary information to help new researchers and their investigations to map the scientific production related to KM in organizations and the SS between the years 2015 and 2022. To carry out the study, taking into account the objectives outlined, the work is divided into two parts: within the first is a Systematic Literature Review (RSL), which consists of a form of research synthesis that uses systematic methods to search, analyze critically and group the results of existing studies on one or several topics. The first phase aims to answer the research questions and gather relevant literature about the topics mentioned, analyzing and relating them, as well as identifying the main methodologies and research techniques used in the areas. And, in a second phase, a bibliometric study is carried out, which consists of applying statistical and mathematical techniques to describe the aspects of the literature sample and/or communication media, summarize statistics and provide comparative indices. The completion of this work presupposes the collection and analysis of several articles resulted from the expressions used to question each Information Retrieval System, being Google Scholar, Mendeley, Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) and B-On, of the researches and articles from them, taking into account the 11 points of analysis of the quality of Kitchenham (et al., 2015). During the quality assessment, the data are extracted into an MS Excel document to be later cross-checked, evaluated and discussed. A bibliometric analysis was also carried out, including form and content indicators, namely: document type, language, keywords and year of publication, as well as the personal indicator of the authors’ country of affilitation. It is concluded that RCAAP presents the highest number of results; the most frequent document type is, overall, “Scientific Articles”, with the highest numbers within the years of 2016 and 2020; among the languages, “Brazilian Portuguese” occurred in the highest percentage of the sample; the most used keyword is “Conhecimento”; the year 2017 was the most productive, as it displays the highest number os publications; and, finally, the country with the largest number of documents is “Brazil”