Cancer Patients' Satisfaction with Nursing Care Provided in Teaching Hospitals in Tehran, Iran

A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine cancer patients’ satisfaction level and factors that contribute to patients' satisfaction towards the nursing care services provided at the selected teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran. A proportional stratified sampling method was adopted and data were collected via face-to-face interviews from November 2007 through January 2008, based on a validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ). A total of 384 cancer patients aged 14 years old and above was selected. The majority of respondents were males (52.4%), married (66.4%) with age group 45-54 year (26.4%); secondary education level (44.8%). The majority of respondents was working adults (52.6%), with family monthly income of US$200-500 (60.9%), and hospitalized between 2 to 5 days (81.8%), and treated for chemotherapy (67.4 %). The findings revealed that a vast majority of these respondents (82.8%) was satisfied with the nursing care provided to them, while the others (17.2%) were not. Generally, most of the respondents were satisfied with the amount of information given by the nurses (76.6%), technical quality (76.8%), interpersonal relationship (96.6%) and physical environment (69.5%) they were admitted. From the bivariate analysis, only two factors were found to be significantly related to the level of satisfaction, i.e. the types of hospital (x2=4.985; df=1; p=0.025; n=384) and the types of treatment (x2=8.128; df=2; p=0.017; n=384). In term of the type of hospital, the multiple logistic regression test indicated that the patients, who were hospitalized in the teaching-hospitals of Shahis Beheshti University, were (1/0.523=1.912) times more likely to be satisfied with the nursing care (p= 0.037) as compared to those were hospitalized in the teaching-hospitals of Iran University. Similarly, the respondents who were married were 5.5 times more likely to be dissatisfied with the nursing care (p= 0.033) as compared to those who were divorced and widowed. The Nagelkerke R2 showed that about 14% of the variation in the level of the patients' satisfaction could be explained by this logistic model. This study found that most of the respondents were satisfied with the services which they received. However, the respondents suggested that several factors such as improving socio-environment in term of privacy and interpersonal manner in the care, and improving the facilities of the teaching-hospitals, should be taken into consideration in order to improve the overall satisfaction. At the same time, further research is still needed to study on the socio-cultural and environment pertaining to the issues of patient care in the teaching-hospitals. On the other hand the patients, admitted to Teachinghospitals of SHUMS, were more satisfied as compared to those admitted in the IUMS. Nevertheless, further research is also needed to find the reasons why those patients admitted to Teaching-hospitals of SHUMS had higher level of satisfaction, which also indicated the need to improve the interpersonal manners and socio-cultural aspects of patients' care

Patient satisfaction : evaluating nursing care for patients hospitalized with cancer in Tehran Teaching Hospitals, Iran

Patient satisfaction is used as an important indicator of quality care and is frequently included in healthcare planning and evaluation. A cross sectional study was conducted to examine the relationship between cancer patients' satisfaction with nursing care in order to assist nurses in defining more clearly their roles in 10 government teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran. A proportional stratified sampling method was used and data were collected via face-to-face interviews based on a validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) within a 3 month period. A total of 384 cancer patients aged 14 years old and above was selected. The majority of respondents were males 201 (52.3%), age group 45-54 years 102 (26.4%); and with family monthly income US$200-500, 234 (60.9%). The highest number and percentage 375 (97.7%) of respondents were admitted at general room, and 204(54.0%) of them were admitted at teaching hospital B of The University of Medical Science. The findings revealed that a vast majority of these respondents (82.8%) were satisfied with the nursing care provided to them, while the others (17.2%) were not. There was a significant relationship between patients' satisfaction and University's hospital, types of treatment (P≤0.05). Also; the University's hospitals was the best predictor for level of satisfaction. This study found that most of the respondents were satisfied with the nursing care, though they suggested some improvements especially with respect to interpersonal relation. Further research is needed to study in-depth the socio-cultural and environment parameters relevant to patients' satisfaction of nursing care

Development and validation of breast cancer knowledge and beliefs questionnaire for Malaysian student population

This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire on Malaysian students' knowledge and belief toward breast cancer and breast cancer screening. A cross sectional study was conducted among 792 female undergraduate students in selected public universities in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Convergent and discriminant validity tests were used for assessing construct validity of the questionnaire while the internal reliability of the instrument was checked by Cronbach's alpha. The average age of respondents was 22 years (21.77± 1.20). Majority of them were single (96.8%), Malay (91.9%), and Muslim (94.6%). This instrument had a good face and content validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for Health Belief Model Scales ranged between 0.73-0.83, indicating acceptable levels of internal consistency. The Kappa value for the knowledge part ranged between 0.52-0.90, also showing acceptable reliability. The developed instrument indicated good construct validity and reliability for Malaysian female students. This instrument can help health care planners and providers to measure levels of knowledge and beliefs of Malaysian women toward breast cancer before planning appropriate intervention

Breast cancer prevention information seeking behavior and interest on cell phone and text use: a cross-sectional study in Malaysia

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second principal cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, including Malaysia. This study focused on media choice and attempted to determine the communication channels mostly used and preferred by women in seeking information and knowledge about breast cancer. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was carried out to examine the breast cancer prevention information seeking behavior among 450 students at one private university in Malaysia. Results: The mean age of respondents was 25±4.3 years. Common interpersonal information sources were doctors, friends, and nurses and common channel information sources were television, brochure, and internet. Overall, 89.9% used cell phones, 46.1% had an interest in receiving cell phone breast cancer prevention messages, 73.9% used text messaging, and 36.7% had an interest in receiving text breast cancer prevention messages. Bivariate analysis revealed significant differences among age, education, nationality and use of cell phones. Conclusions: Assessment of health information seeking behavior is important for community health educators to target populations for program development

Knowledge on breast cancer and practice of breast self examination among selected female university students in Malaysia.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in most parts of the world including Malaysia. Even though breast self examination (BSE) is not seen as a relevant cancer screening tool anymore, it still plays an important role in the breast health awareness programme. Aim of the study to determine the knowledge of respondents on breast cancer regarding the risk factors, symptoms, and to determine respondents’ practice of breast self-examination. A cross sectional study was carried out in University Putra Malaysia, data were collected using validated questionnaire developed for this study. Among respondents 197(83.1%) were single, 100 were Malay (42.3%) and 49(20.7%) of the respondents reported having a family history of breast cancer. eighty-seven respondents (36.7%) claimed they had practice BSE. There were statistically significant differences between those who practice and did not practice BSE in term of knowledge regarding risk factors, symptoms of breast cancer, total knowledge of breast cancer and knowledge score of BSE (p-value <0.05). The findings showed that knowledge of breast cancer and the practice of BSE is inadequate among young Malaysian female

Cancer patients' satisfaction with communication and information given by nurses at teaching hospitals of Tehran, Iran.

Background: Effective patient–professional communication can be of crucial importance to long-term psycho-social outcomes in patients with cancer. A cross sectional study was conducted to examine cancer patients' satisfaction with regard to various aspects of communication and information given by nurses. Methods: A proportional stratified sampling method was done and data collected via face-to-face interview based on a validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) during a 3 month period. A total of 384 patients aged 14 years old and above were selected. Results: The majority of respondents were males (52.3%) and married (66.4%), working (52.6%) and age group 45-54 year (26.6%) with secondary education level (44.8%), and 53.1% of them admitted at teaching hospitals of government A University of Medical Science. The findings revealed that a vast majority of respondents (81.5%) were satisfied with communication and information given by nurses, while the others (18.5%) not. There was significant relationship between patients’ satisfaction and age group (p ≤ 0.05). Also, the age groups of 15-44 years old and married patients were the best predictors for level of cancer patients’ satisfaction with communication, and information given by nurses. Conclusion: Key findings are a number of issues with regard to information and communication which can be clearly improved within teaching hospitals of in Tehran city. The study concluded that patient– professional communication should be tailored to meet individual need

Factors associated with level of satisfaction in nursing care among cancer patients at teaching hospitals of Tehran City, Islamic Republic of Iran

Background: Patients' satisfaction with their nursing care is an important issue in assessing the quality of nursing care. In Iran, cancer patients' satisfaction at teaching hospitals of Tehran City has not been investigated. Aim: A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the level and identify factors that contributed to patients' satisfaction in nursing care provided at selected teaching hospitals in Tehran City, Islamic Republic of Iran. Method: A proportional stratified sampling method was used and data were collected via face-to-face interview based on a validated Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ). A total of 384 cancer patients aged 14 years and above were selected. Result: The majority of respondents were males (201, 52.4%), age group 45-54 years (102, 26.4%); employed (202, 52.6%) and with a family monthly income of US$200-500 (234, 60.9%).The majority (314, 81.8%) of respondents were hospitalized between 2 to 5 days, and most (204, 54.0%) of them were admitted to teaching hospital B of The University of Medical Science.' A majority of the respondents (318, 82.8%) was satisfied with the nursing care provided, while the others (66, 17.2%) were not. Generally, most of the respondents were satisfied with the amount of information given by the nurses (294, 76.6%), technical quality (295, 76.8%), interpersonal relationship (371, 96.6%), and physical environment (267, 69.5%). There was a positive significant relationship between patients' satisfaction and type of hospital (y2=4.985; df=1; p=O.O26, n=384). Using the University's hospital type was found to be the best predictor for level of satisfaction. Conclusion: Most of the respondents were satisfied with the nursing care. However, the respondents suggested several improvements such as increasing the number of doctors, improving socio environment factors in terms of privacy and interpersonal relationship, and improving on the existing facilities. Further research is needed to study in depth the socio-cultural and environment parameters which are relevant to patients' satisfaction with nursing care

The prevalence risk of anxiety and its associated factors among university students in Malaysia: a national cross sectional study

Background: Anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental health problems worldwide, including Malaysia, and this issue has gained concern and attention from many, including experts and authorities globally. While average levels of stress and worry may help to motivate students to perform well in their studies, excessive feelings will increase their level of anxiety. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at selected government and private universities throughout Malaysia. A total of 1851 students participated in this study. The students were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires, including socio-demographic, academic, and psychosocial characteristics. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire was used to measure the prevalence risk of anxiety among the students. Chisquare analysis was conducted to find the relationship between the variables and anxiety, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors. Results: The response rate was 97.90%, where 1821 out of 1860 students participated in the study. The prevalence risk of anxiety in this study was recorded at 29%. The data revealed that academic year, financial support for the study, alcohol consumption, poor sleep quality, body mass index (BMI), having a good friend in the university, having doubt regarding the future, actively involved in the society, and having problems with other students and lecturer(s) were significantly associated with risk of anxiety; with the academic year as the primary predictor. Conclusions: The findings highlight the current prevalence risk of anxiety among university students in Malaysia. The outcome of this study can serve as the evident baseline data and help with the development of specific interventions in addressing and managing the issue appropriately

Effectiveness of chemotherapy counselling on self-esteem and psychological effects among cancer patients in Malaysia: randomized controlled trial

Objectives: The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate the outcomes of chemotherapy counselling based on the "Managing Patients on Chemotherapy" module on self-esteem and psychological affect (anxiety, depression) of cancer patients by pharmacists in ten selected government hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia. Methods: A randomized control trial was conducted among 2120 cancer patients from April 2016 to January 2017 in ten selected government hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia. Cancer patients were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received chemotherapy counselling by pharmacists based on the "Managing Patients on Chemotherapy" module. The outcomes were assessed at baseline, 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counselling. In the course of data analysis; independent sample t-test, chi-square and two-way repeated measures ANOVA were conducted. Results: Mean scores of self-esteem in the intervention group had significant difference in comparison with those of the control group in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counselling (P < 0.0001). Also, among those with depression and anxiety at baseline, there was reduction in depression and anxiety scores after the 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups after counselling (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Repetitive counselling by pharmacists based on the "Managing Patients on Chemotherapy" module had positive effect on improving self-esteem and psychological affect of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Peninsular Malaysia. Practice implications: This module can be used for all Malaysian cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to improving self-esteem and psychological affect

Comparative assessment of self-sampling device and gynecologist sampling for cytology and HPV DNA detection in rural and low resource setting: Malaysian experience

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess the agreement and differences between cervical self-sampling with a Kato device (KSSD) and gynecologist sampling for Pap cytology and human papillomavirus DNA (HPV DNA) detection. Materials and methods: Women underwent self-sampling followed by gynecologist sampling during screening at two primary health clinics. Pap cytology of cervical specimens was evaluated for specimen adequacy, presence of endocervical cells or transformation zone cells and cytological interpretation for cells abnormalities. Cervical specimens were also extracted and tested for HPV DNA detection. Positive HPV smears underwent gene sequencing and HPV genotyping by referring to the online NCBI gene bank. Results were compared between samplings by Kappa agreement and McNemar test. Results: For Pap specimen adequacy, KSSD showed 100% agreement with gynecologist sampling but had only 32.3% agreement for presence of endocervical cells. Both sampling showed 100% agreement with only 1 case detected HSIL favouring CIN2 for cytology result. HPV DNA detection showed 86.2%agreement (K=0.64, 95% CI 0.524-0.756, p=0.001) between samplings. KSSD and gynaecologist sampling identified high risk HPV in 17.3% and 23.9% respectively (p= 0.014). Conclusion: The self-sampling using Kato device can serve as a tool in Pap cytology and HPV DNA detection in low resource settings in Malaysia. Self-sampling devices such as KSSD can be used as an alternative technique to gynaecologist sampling for cervical cancer screening among rural populations in Malaysia