OKOLIE, CE

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Background: Medical laboratory scientists (MLS) are known for analysis and documentation of  findings from various laboratory requests. Writing up findings from such work could serve in educating health care providers and the management and eradication of  causative agents of  diseases. They generate a lot of  data from the analysis of  human and animal samples, but it has been observed that many of  them are unable to translate this to research publications. This study was designed to assess the level of  awareness of  MLS to research paper writing with a view to ascertain difficulties encountered in paper writing.Methods: The study was questionnaire based cross sectional survey of  Medical laboratory Scientists in Nigeria attending a conference.Results: Of  the 206 questionnaires administered to MLS, 190 (92.2%) were returned completed. Thus 140 (68%) males and 50 (24.3%) females were studied. Most were between the age range of  31-35(25.2%)while the least were >50 years(9.7%).Majority of  the respondents experienced difficulty in statistical analysis(41.3%) while the bench work aspect of  research was easier(41.7%). Statistical analysis was  mainly done by manual calculation 79(38.3%) while 5(2.5%) analysis was done by combinations of  different statistical methods.15.4% of  the male respondents had >5 publications while 5.3% of  females had >5 publications (P>0.05)The age group >40 years  had written more scientific papers when compared with the age group <40years(P<0.05).Respondents who had worked for >10 years had 20.6% publications when compared to those who had worked <10 years(P<0.05)Conclusion: This work reveals that MLS in Nigeria lack the ability of  writing research papers. It also highlights deficiency in training programme and a need for change of  orientation of  MLS from mere service delivery to value added to data generated from services. There is need in focused training in the art of  scholarly writing.Keywords: Manuscript Writing, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Research, Statistical AnalysisIntroductionMedical Laboratory Scientists (MLS) play a vital role in the diagnosis, treatment and control of  diseases.  They are known to be involved with delivering quality enhancement services, which would aid in the achievement of  the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the area of  research which is geared towards current updates on new trends, applications and procedures for management of  various diseases 1the MLS are key players.   stA current development in 21  century healthcare is the growing involvement of  laboratory science in 2every day medical practice .  Prior to commencing treatment, it is necessary that physicians know the cause of  an aliment since management of  illnesses 3without precise diagnosis can be risky .  This leaves the medical laboratory scientists with the role of  routine investigation of  body fluids for possible identification of  cause of  illness.Medical research can largely, be divided into two categories the first being evaluation of  new treatments for both safety and efficiency also known as clinical research while the preclinical research contributes to 4the development of  new treatments . The Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria are involved with preclinical research, which involves basic sciences. In Europe most preclinical research is pursued by biomedical scientists also known as scientists in 5African/Nigeria  .Available data in Nigeria indicates that over 8,000 Medical Laboratory Scientists were able to meet the needs of  the Nigerian Healthcare sector in 61980 in the area of  laboratory diagnosis . With the increasing number of  medical laboratory scientists and the emergence of  new diseases/infections, it is vital to have well groomed Scientists who will contribute to the eradication of  diseases through sustainable research and paper writing based on outcome of  assays.This study was therefore aimed at determining O R I G I NA L A RT I C L EAbstractDepartment of  Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of  Medical Sciences, University of  Jos, NigeriaAll correspondences and requests for reprints toAdaobi EkwempuE-mail: adaekwem@yahoo.com34J Med Res Pract 2013;2(1):34-37Evaluation of the research writing skills of Medical Laboratory Scientists in NigeriaAdaobi I Ekwempu, Charles E Okolie, Essien U Cosmas, Gwom I Davou, John Shindang, James O Adisathe level of  awareness of  Medical Laboratory Scientists in research paper writing and challenges encountered in writing scientific papers.  Materials and Methods This was a questionnaire based cross-sectional survey on the awareness of  Medical Laboratory Scientists in research writing. Self  administered questionnaires were distributed to Medical Laboratory Scientists attending the 2011 National Association of  Medical Laboratory Scientists Conference held in Makurdi the Benue State capital in September 2012. The questionnaire, in addition to obtaining biometric information, consisted of  questions aimed at identifying major obstacles encountered by respondents in their drive towards research paper writing. The administered questionnaire sought to obtain information about sex, age, place of  work and work experience of  respondents. In addition, questions geared towards obtaining information on statistical method were also included. Different cadres of  MLS were enrolled such as MLS on national service and newly graduated MLS with 2 years and 1 year work experience respectively. Other category enrolled were paramount officers who work mainly in ministry of  health and are involved with regulation of  MLS practice in Nigeria. The senior cadres of  MLS are engaged in supervision and performing routine laboratory analysis and collation of  results for physicians. Results were expressed as mean values with standard deviation for continuous variables and proportions for categorical variables. Comparison of  data was by the student's t-test and chi square analysis as appropriate. Significance level was set at P <0.05.  ResultsOut of  the two hundred and six Medical Laboratory Scientists sampled, only 190 (140 males and 50 females) returned completed questionnaire giving a response rate of  92.2%. The senior cadres of  MLS were the most respondents 156 (75.7%) while the least were the paramount officers 13 (6.3%). The characteristics of  the respondents are shown in Table 1. The majority of  the respondents were between the ages of  31 to 35 years (25.2%).Most respondents experienced difficulty in the area of  statistical analysis (41.3%), while experimentation was an area of  most competence (41.7%) as shown in Table 2. When carrying out statistical analyses from data generated from research, 79 (38.3%) would prefer to use manual calculations for analysis while five (0.5%) would utilize combinations that is use of  more than one statistical method for generating results (Table 3).Our work shows that the majority of  males (88) had less than five publications and 16 (15.4%) had more than five publications when compared to their female counterparts with 36 (94.7%) having less than five publication and only two having more than five publications (p > 0.05).  The age group greater than 40 years had more publications when compared to the age group less than 40 years (Table 4).  Also respondents who had worked for more than ten years had more publications when compared with their counterparts who had worked for 10 years (p < 0.05). Table1: Characteristics of Medical Laboratory Scientists attending a conferenceThere were a lot of  difficulties encountered in the area of  statistical analysis by respondents as shown in Table 5. Male and female scientists had 47.1% and 63.7% difficulty in performing statistical analysis respectively. It was also observed that statistical analysis was a major challenge irrespective of  the respondents' age. Table 2: Research areas of competence and difficulty of Medical Laboratory Scientists attending a conference35Characte ristics  Number of  Respondents (%)Sex Male 140 68.0 Female  50 24.3 No response 16 7.8 Total  206 100.0 Age group (years) 30 34 16.5 31-35 52 25.2 36-40 38 18.4 41-45 39 18.9 46-50 23 11.2 >50 20 9.7 Total  206 100.0 Cadre Assistantship 17 8.3 Senior 156 75.7 Paramount officer 13 6.3 Intern/corper 20 9.7 Total  206 100.0 Work Place  University 26 12.6 Teaching hosp.  104 50.5 Research Institute  24 11.7 Private sector 33 16 Ministry of health 14 6.8 No response 5 2.4 Total 206 100.0 Work experience (years)   5 77 37.4 6-10 41 19.9 11-15 34 16.5 16-20 18 8.7 >20 30 14.6 No response 6 2.9 Total 206 100.0>>  Area of Research Area of diffN (%)iculty  Area of comfortN (%) Abstract writing  20(9.7%) 8(3.9%) Literature review 25(12%) 41(19.9%) Experimentation  30(14.6%) 86(41.7%) Results/conclusion/discussion 13(6.3%) 28(13.6%) Statistical analysis 85(41.3%) 18(8.7%) Combinations  9(4.4%) 8(3.9%) No response  24(11.7%) 17(8.3%) Total  206 206 Ekwempu AI et alCharacteristics Abstractwriting  Literature reviewBench workResults/conclusionStatistical analysis X2 P Sex Male 16(13.4)  13(10.9)  26(21.6) 8(6.7)  56(47.1)  10.09  0.039  Female  3(7.3)  11(26.8)  3(7.3)  2(4.9)  22(53.7)    Age group ≤40  15(13.9)  15(13.9)  16(14.8) 9(8.3)  53(49.1)  3.280  0.512  >40 5(7.9)  10(15.9)  14(22.2) 3(4.8)  31(49.2)    Work experience  ≤10  14(13.7)  18(17.6)  12(11.8) 9(8.8)  49(48.0)  9.429  0.045  >10 4(5.9)  7(10.3)  18(26.5) 4(5.9)  35(51.5)  10>40>Characteristics   Number of publication               5  >5Total  X 2 df  Sex  Male  88(84.6)  16(15.4)  104(100)  2.576  1   Female 36(94.7)  2(5.3)  38(100)   Age group   89(98.9)  1(1.1)  90(100.0)  24.793  1   >40 44(72.1) 17(27.9) 61(100.0)  Work experience   81(97.6)  2(2.4 ) 83(100.0)  13.039  1  >10 54(79.4) 14(20.6) 68(100.0)P 0.109 <0.0001<0.0001>On the other hand most of  the respondents were more confident in the area of  bench work as shown in Table 6.  There was no difference in areas of  comfort with bench work when the sex, age group and work experience were compared (P = 0.64, 0.67 and 0.74 respectively). The method of  statistical analysis utilized by respondents was mainly manual calculation with few respondents using the Epi Info statistical software package as shown in table 7.  There was no association between sex, age group and work experience of  respondents and use of  statistical software packages (p values of  0.49, 0.80 and 0.69 respectively).Table 3. Methods of statistical analysis utilized by Medical Laboratory Scientists attending a conferenceTable 4. Association between demographic characteristics and number of publications among Medical Laboratory Scientists attending a conferenceTable 5. Association between demographic characteristics and areas of difficulty in paper writing among Medical Laboratory Scientists attending a conferenceDiscussion This work reveals that the majority of  the respondents were between the ages of  31 and 35 years while ages greater that 50 were the fewest in number.  Also, most were of  the senior cadre in civil service with 50.5% working in teaching hospitals within the country.   According to the US department of  labor, 330,600 scientists held different jobs in 2010, with 52% being employed in hospitals, while others worked in diagnostic laboratories and offices this is similar to 7our findings.Table 6. Association characteristics of Medical Laboratory Scientists attending a conference and areas of confidence in research paper writingTable 7. Relationship between respondents characteristics and methods of statistical analysisThe major source of  difficulty in writing research paper from this study was statistical analysis using computer-based soft wares. Competence shown in the area of  performing various bench work could be linked to their training and involvement with routine laboratory assays. The weakness observed with statistical analysis is not in line with the role of  Medical Laboratory Scientists in the United States of  America who are known to analyse data and prepare 8reports for physicians and other medical personnel .Recent studies by the Knowledge for (K4) Health/Nigeria Continuing Professional Development (CPD) showed that only about half  of  the Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria have had a formal computer training course with only 10% 9being comfortable using computers .   Since the majority of  our respondents used manual statistical analyses that do not require computer use, it therefore suggests that the respondents may not have been exposed to current statistical methods.The main limitation of  this work is the fact that this was a questionnaire based study which is prone to recall bias. In addition, not all MLS were present at 36Areas of research Num.of  response PercentageManual calculation  79 38.3 Epi info software  12 5.8 SPSS 36 17.5 Microsoft Excel  35 17.0 Microcal origin 5.0  1 0.5 Stata 1 0.5 Combinations  5 2.5 No response  37 18.0 Total  206 100.0 Variable    Abstract writing Literature review Bench work Results/conclusion Statistical analysisX2 P Sex Male 4(3.3) 31(25.2) 56(45.5)  20(16.3) 12(9.8) 2.506 0.644  Female 2(4.5) 8(18.2) 24(54.5)  8(18.2) 2(4.5)   Age group  ≤40  5(4.5) 28(25.0) 49(43.8)  17(15.2) 13(11.6) 1.974 0.740  >40 3(4.5) 13(19.4) 35(52.2)  11(16.4) 5(7.5)   Work experience  ≤10  5(4.8) 28(26.7) 46(43.8)  15(14.3) 11(10.5) 2.340 0.674  >10 3(4.2) 13(18.3) 36(50.7)  13(18.3) 6(8.5)    Characteristics Manualcalculation Epi Info SPSS Microsoft Excel     X2 P Sex Male 54(47.8) 7(6.2) 26(23.0) 26(23.0) 2.399 0.494 Female  16(45.7) 5(14.3) 7(20.0) 7(20.0)  Age group  ≤40  45(47.9) 8(8.5) 23(24.5) 18(19.1) 0.973 0.808 >40 33(50.8) 4(6.2) 13(20.0) 15(23.1)  Work experience  ≤10  43(48.3) 7(7.9) 22(24.7) 17(19.1) 1.444 0.695 >10 35(50.74) 4(5.8) 13(18.8) 17(24.6)   Evaluation of  the research writing skills of  Medical Laboratory Scientists the conference so responses may not reflect the true picture of  MLS in Nigeria. However results of  this work points out areas where appropriate interventions can be implemented.Findings from this work imply that MLS would not be competent in writing scientific papers for the international community which is a major setback in health care delivery. In addition, analysis of  data generated will be burdensome and tedious for MLS when using the manual method.References1. Afolabi MO. Laboratory Science and Social change, Paper delivered at the Interfaculty social science seminar series on the Human Sciences and Social Change in a developing society.  University of  Ibadan, thNigeria. 20  April, 20072. Sturdy S. The Political economy of  Scientific Medicine: Science, Education and the transformation of  Medical Practice in Sheffield, 1890 -1922.  Med. Hist 1992;36, 125, - 159.3. Gladstone D. Doctor and Patient, State and Market In: Philips Calbert (ed) The Logic of  Medicine. London BMJ Books 1995; pp 196, 194, 204.4. Johns Hopkins Biomedical Research and Discovery (External Links). Available at  (Accessed September 29, 2012)5. Durowoju JE. Manpower Planning for Medical Laboratory Scientists in the Third National Development Programme. Nig. J. Lab. Tech, 1979;4:5-6.6. Bureau of  Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of  Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012 – 13 Edition, Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians. Available at www.bls.gov/ooh (Accessed October 7, 2012)7. Education – Portal Com. http://org/wiki en. wikipedia /Portal. Education (Accessed October 5, 2012)8. Responsibilities of  Medical laboratory Scientists: The free encyclopedia. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Medical_laboratory_scientist.viewed (Accessed October 19, 2012).9. Knowledge for Health (K4 Health) Project Center for communication programs. John Hopkins Bloomberg School Public Health. Khealth. Org, Popline org. http://www.unaids.org/en/ dataanalysis. (Accessed October 15th 2012)37Cite this article as:Ekwempu AI, Okolie CE, Cosmas EU, Davou GI, Shindang J, Adisa JO, Evaluation of  the research writing skills of  Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria. J Med Res Pract 2013;2(1):34-37Ekwempu AI et al

Evaluation of the research writing skills of Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria

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Evaluation of the research writing skills of Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria

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