Essay Writing For Undergraduate And Postgraduate Medical Examinations

The written examination in most medical examinations consists of long and/or short essays and multiple choice questions. The essays contain numerous questions on topical issues in the respective faculties and most times, all questions are compulsory

Towards Reducing Cancer Death: An Exploratory Study Of Physicians Knowledge On Cancer Basic Facts

Objective: To explore the knowledge of basic facts on common female cancers amongst Physicians in active practice. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study among 160 doctors working in a Nigerian Teaching Hospital. Results: Majority of the physicians surveyed (86.2%) were in full time academic practice with 13.8% in combined academic and private practice. The experience (years in practice) of the Physicians varied from 1-22 years, with a majority (57.9%) in category A (1-5 years ), while 40.3% were in category D (>15 years). A large proportion of the Physicians had poor knowledge on basic cancer facts with regards to the prevalence (47.2%), mortality rate (54.1%), available screening tests (65.4%), and association between HPV and cancers of the anogenital region (56.6%). The type of practice did not significantly influence Physicians knowledge on basic cancer facts (P values > 0.05) More Physicians in full academic practice had good knowledge about human papilloma virus compared to those in combined practice (23.3% vs. 5%; fulltime academics vs. combine practice). There was no significant difference in the knowledge of the Physicians on the prevalence, available screening tests and mortality rate of the cancers based on their experience (P values > 0.05) Conclusion: Physicians in active practice have poor knowledge of basic cancer facts irrespective of their number of years in practice. These portend serious setback for health education, policy formulation on prevention and reduction of Cancer related morbidity and mortality. Keywords: Cancer, Human papilloma Virus (HPV), Knowledge, counsellin

Five Year Review Of Complicated Induced Abortions In University Of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City

This is a retrospective study of 104 cases of complicated induced abortion, seen at the University of Benin over a 5 year period. One hundred and four cases constituting 3.93% of gynaecological admissions were studied. This represents 27.4 cases per 1000 live births. The mean age of patients was 21.37 ± 5.7 years with almost 80% being between 16 and 25 years. About 90% of patients were nulliparae, unmarried and had at the most a secondary school education. Over 70% of the patients had at least a previous abortion. The mean gestational age at abortion was 11.8 ± 4.7 weeks with almost two-thirds of the women having procured the abortion in the first trimester. Greater than 70% had dilatation and curettage or suction evacuation as the mode of abortion. A ‘doctor’ was the attending abortionist in a majority of the cases. The major presenting features were vaginal bleeding, lower abdominal pain and vaginal discharge. The major indications for admission included incomplete abortion and post abortal sepsis. Close to a tenth of cases had abdominal visceral involvement. All the patients had antibiotic therapy, half had evacuation of retained products of conception, a fifth had laparotomy while about a sixth had blood transfusion. Over 90% of the patients were discharged in stable condition. The case fatality rate was 4%. The major causes of death were sepsis with visceral injury and acute renal failure

Non-consensual sex in Benin

Objective: The objective of the study is to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of non-consensual sex/rape in Benin.Materials and Methods: We surveyed 580 females in the University Community of Benin, 414 questionnaires were sufficiently completed for analysis.Results: Seventy-six (18.4%) respondents reported that they had been victims of non-consensual sex (NCS), 36 in their current relationship. The unmarried single respondents had the lowest mean age at NCS experience of 18 years, while the divorced victims had the highest mean age of 32.5 (P = 0.000). There was a major exposure peak age at 19 years with a smaller peak at 25. The majority of sex offenders were their present partners and next the husbands (22.2%). The father was the perpetrator on one (2.78%) occasion, while armed robbers raped two of the victims. Eighteen of the seventy-six respondents made a formal report. Cumulatively, 95.4% of the respondents felt it was futile reporting, four (5.3%) felt it was not all a bad experience. The risk of being infected with the HIV/AIDS virus was the worst fear. Ninety-five of four hundred and fourteen respondents want the public and parents to be educated, 64 would like the penal code to be tougher and better implemented, while 64 (14.0%) crave for a dress code for the University community.Conclusions: The self-reported incidence of NCS is high, majority were not formally reported as most of the sex offenders were the (ex)partners of the victims. There was a major exposure peak age at 19 with a smaller peak at 25 years. There was a condoned sense of futility and frustration in reporting

Delivery rate in Benin City, Nigeria: Are there seasonal variations?

Objective: To determine if there are monthly variations in the rate of deliveries in Benin City, Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study carried out in the three major obstetric centers in Benin City, Nigeria. We extracted the total number of deliveries from the hospitals’ records for over a five-year period and analyzed the figures for monthly variation in delivery rates. This was repeated for a standardized 30-day month and the findings noted.Results: There were 28,686 deliveries during the study period with an average monthly delivery of 2,390. The monthly distribution showed a sinusoidal pattern with peak delivery rates in April—May and October and lowest rates in July–August and December. The months of April, May, and October had delivery rates that were significantly higher than the monthly average delivery rate, while the converse was true for July, August, and December at the 99% confidence interval.Conclusions: There exists a significant monthly variation in delivery rates in Benin City. This finding will prove valuable in health system planning and in the interpretation of seasonal variations in other reproductive parameters

Health and the millennium development goals. The Nigerian perspective

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Ensemble-based methods for forecasting census in hospital units

BACKGROUND: The ability to accurately forecast census counts in hospital departments has considerable implications for hospital resource allocation. In recent years several different methods have been proposed forecasting census counts, however many of these approaches do not use available patient-specific information. METHODS: In this paper we present an ensemble-based methodology for forecasting the census under a framework that simultaneously incorporates both (i) arrival trends over time and (ii) patient-specific baseline and time-varying information. The proposed model for predicting census has three components, namely: current census count, number of daily arrivals and number of daily departures. To model the number of daily arrivals, we use a seasonality adjusted Poisson Autoregressive (PAR) model where the parameter estimates are obtained via conditional maximum likelihood. The number of daily departures is predicted by modeling the probability of departure from the census using logistic regression models that are adjusted for the amount of time spent in the census and incorporate both patient-specific baseline and time varying patient-specific covariate information. We illustrate our approach using neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) data collected at Women & Infants Hospital, Providence RI, which consists of 1001 consecutive NICU admissions between April 1st 2008 and March 31st 2009. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate statistically significant improved prediction accuracy for 3, 5, and 7 day census forecasts and increased precision of our forecasting model compared to a forecasting approach that ignores patient-specific information. CONCLUSIONS: Forecasting models that utilize patient-specific baseline and time-varying information make the most of data typically available and have the capacity to substantially improve census forecasts

Willingness of Pregnant Women in Benin City Nigeria to Donate Placenta Cord Blood for Stem Cell Transplantation

Stem Cell Transplantation has become an approved curative therapy for malignant and non-malignant disorders. Cord blood is a recommended source of Stem cell for Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). However the method of collection, maternal and placenta factors have been shown to influence the quantity and quality of the cord blood. A total of 302 pregnant women, attending the Ante-Natal Clinic from June to August 2010 at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) were assessed for willingness to donate placenta cord blood for HSCT The results revealed that most of the women were mainly of age group 20-29yrs (53.2%), parity of 1 to 2 (59.6%), have tertiary education (57.6%) and were Christians (95.4%). However 212 (70.2%) of the pregnant women were willing to donate placenta cord blood. Reasons for those not willing to donate placenta cord blood were mainly that of fear of losing their child�s destiny (Placenta)with a figure of 20(22.2%), that it is a strange idea 16(17.8%), religious and traditional beliefs 14(15.6%)/8(8.9%) respectively. As part of the UBTH policy women routinely leave their placenta behind to be discarded by the hospital. Those who would prefer to take their placenta home were 32(10.6%) and 24(75%) of these women would rather bury their placenta in their compounds. The other 8(25%), would discard it in the dust bin. There is need to educate and reassure pregnant women in Nigeria to donate placenta cord blood, which hitherto is a biological waste. Cord blood in the future could be an important source of stem cells for HSCT for the purpose of initiating blood banking in Nigeria. Keywords: Placenta Cord Blood, Willingness to Donate, Stem Cell Transplantation. clas