Communication strategy for malaria control 2014-2016

Malaria remains a public health problem in Guyana, particularly in the hinterlands. Malaria prevention centers on control and treatment options provided by the National Malaria Program through the Ministry of Public Health. This makes communication an essential tool for positive outcomes of all options offered in malaria prevention and control by the National Malaria Program. The National Malaria Communication Strategy is to guide the development, implementation, and monitoring of the communication and behavior change component of malaria prevention and control. The National Malaria Communication Strategy is aligned to support the National Malaria Strategic Plan for 2015-2020. It is our hope that all actors who use this strategy will find it useful in their interventions and most importantly in the promotion of interventions that are meant to eliminate malaria in this country.

Health communication in the Caribbean and beyond: a reader

Providies a comprehensive, well researched and up-to-date discussion of the local and international health communication literature and provides a theoretical and practical framework for teaching health and/or medical communication skills. It reviews, explains and applies health communication concepts and principles and provides contexts for their application in both the classroom and in the health professions.

A study of pharmacist intervention in patient care at institutional and community pharmacies [abstract]

The objectives of the study are: (1) To demonstrate the various types of pharmacist therapuetic interventions encountered in institutional and community pharmacies in Trinidad. (2) To identify the prevalent drug-related problems in therapeutic interventions. (3) To investigate the use of a more detailed form to document intervention in the provision of pharmaceutical care. The study used a detailed form to record the therapeutic interventions. It was conducted over a three-month period. The collected data were transcribed to a Patient Care Intervention (PCI) form with relevant categories for drug-related problems. It was analyzed and presented as frequencies on graphs and tables. From a total of 289 interventions, 174 interventions were collected from an institutional pharmacy and 115 from community pharmacies. Nineteen percent of the interventions were due to unclear instructions or no instructions to the patients, of which 92 percent were from the community pharmacies; 17 percent accounted for dosing problems where excessive was 9 percent and sub-therapeutic 8 percent; 6.9 percent were due to wrong choice of drug or dosage form. Others accounted for 55 percent of the interventions of which 92 percent were due to out-of-stock medications. The study showed that there is a variety of significant drug-related problems on prescribing. It highlighted the need for pharmacist intervention, thorough documentation of the interventions, effective pharmacist-physician communication and improved inventory management in order to achieve positive outcomes of patient medication therapy. Due to the limitations of the study, it is recommended that a further study should be done and it should include the pharmacoeconomic aspect of the interventions. (AU)

Teaching English for communication purposes in a medical context [abstract]

This study explores the application of the concept of communicative competence to the teaching of English for communication purposes in a medical context. This exploration is guided by five research questions. These questions focus on the meaning of communicative competence (RQ1 and 3) and the needs and assessment requirements of learners from the viewpoints of learners and theorists (RQ2 and 4), and ways of developing existing courses in health communication to meet the needs and assessment requirements of learners (RQ5). In investigating these questions, an attempt is made to link the linguistic concept of communicative competence to the pedagogical demands of communicative teaching/learning situation. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, and involves a target population of 199 Year 1 students in dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and veterinary medicine who take two courses in health communication. The study draws on six data courses - a focus group interview (n= 8), a questionnaire (n= 93), a series of medical student self-evaluations of communication skills (n=175, n=124, n=73), student examination performance, syllabus documents and literature sources - in combining qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The findings indicate that for the student population, comprising students of diverse language and cultural backgrounds, a number of linguistics issues emerge. These issues have implications for curriculum development in health communication and for the teaching of communication skills. The study concludes that the learner's perspective, as well as other traditional influences, should be considered in formulating linguistic, curricular and pedagogical policy to meet the needs of health professionals and the persons with whom they interact. Making linkages between Linguistics and Communication appears feasible in the teaching of English for communication purposes in a medical context. (AU)

The assessment of empathy and the quality of interpersonal communication by standardized patients in an OSCE: an exploratory study [abstract]

Emphatic communication is a critical aspect of medical interviewing. While there are a number of theoretical perspectives on empathy, in the medical context Feignhny (1995) describes, empathy as, "a physician's cognitive capacity to understand a patient's needs, an affective sensitivity to a patient's feelings, and a behavioural ability to convey empathy to a patient". From this definition, the most direct and valid assessment of empathetic concern is likely to come from the patients own perspective. The development of empathy in students is critical in the provision of quality undergraduate medical attention. At the St. Augustine Campus of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the skills laboratory programme has the responsibility for developing basic clinical competencies in medical students in years 1 to 3, including empathetic concern. However, as yet, there are no formal intervention programmes. A standardized patient (SP) programme is maintained in which a core of volunteers is trained to work with the students and to perform in the role of patient at the annual OSCE at the end of year 3. In the 1999 OSCE, the SPs were asked to assess the quality of the interpersonal communication of students. These ratings were compared with those of experts raters at key stations. In the 2000 OSCE, the study was expanded to include an assessment of empathy using the Adjective Check List. The key research questions for the study focused on the relationship between empathy and student individual characteristics and performance in traditional assessments. It was found that empathetic communication as practised in the OSCE and as assessed by the SPs was related to gender but unrelated to performance in traditional assessments in the Phase examinations and admission scores. There was evidence that students with high admission scores were likely to score lower in some aspects of empathy as perceived by the SPs. Recommendations for the development and assessment of attitudes are provided. Issues centring on design intervention programmes for developing empathetic concern in students are discussed. (AU)

Ethics, medicine and society: imperatives for the future

Historically, medicine has been a caring profession and social factors have directly and indirectly affected clinical practice, yet the social roots of disease and suffering in patients and the ethics of patient care have often been left out of medical teaching and discussions at medical conferences. As health and social problems are inseparable, ethically, medicine and medical teaching need to respond to social suffering, and should help to solve the economic problems in health care. Further, since all intervention in the lives of human beings carries ethical content through the nature of care, ethical competence involving ethical analysis, critical thinking, and problem-solving should be developed in medical students and doctors simultaneously with clinical judgement and expertise.(AU)

Communication and behaviour modification - position statement

Traditionally, communication has been said to be a formal part of our effort in promoting health and nutrition in the region. But in what way is this reflected in our work? How do we see the role of communication? From observations, current effort is based on: *the perception that mass media channels are powerful means of influencing our audiences to accept our promotional messages, *knowledge based strategies. In recent years revoluntionary developments in communication technology, theory and practice facilitated partnership between those responsible for national health care programmes, and communication specialists with an orientation toward use of communication resources for social development. The secret of using health or nutrition communication effectively lies in find the appropriate medium, content and target audience to help to solve a specific health problem. The secret also lies in knowing how to place a health communication programme within the larger context of our national health and nutrition communication programme and services. All this must be done with limited resources and under circumstances that make healthier lifestyles the highest priority for the region in general and our country in particular. Merely providing information has been shown to be inadequate to change people's behaviour. The chronicle of failed behaviour change efforts demonstrates that new techniques are needed to supplement existing ones. Some of these techniques come from the commmerical marketing sector, which has devised a host of strategies to change human behaviour. These strategies can, for example, successfully motivate a particulr audience to buy one brand of processed food over another. Given that in health promotion our aim is also to change behaviour, some commerical communications techniques are believed to be appropriate contributions for bringing about the needed behaviour change that ensures a population's health and well-being. One approach to health and nutrition education is called social marketing. Social marketing is simply the application of generic private sector marketing to a specific class of problems. In this presentation, we show how social marketing techniques can be used effectively in the design and implementation of health promotion programmes aimed at behaviour change.(AU)

Communication and behaviour modification - position statement

Lessons learnt from the field of HIV/STD prevention have significant implications for the efficacy of behaviour change interventions to facilitate health promotion in general. It is clear that interventions must address both the determinants of behaviour that may put people at risk and the actions that people may take to prevent ill health. Information, education and communication (IEC) stratetgies must therefore increase awareness, improve knowledge, influence attitudes, teach skills and facilitate social support structures. The coordination of goals and objectives, IEC strategies, messages and materials, and communication channels must be given priority. Behaviour change communication models including the Communication Pyramid and the Stages of Changes model have been very influential in the development of health promotion programmes in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Psychosocial and cultural factors play an important mediating role in the "operationalisation" of these models and constructs. A situational analysis of the communication processes used in a variety of interventions ranging from mass media campaigns to face to face counselling reveals that the impact of these interventions is significantly limited by existing paradigms and the social structures in which they operate. Relevant psycho-cultural issues are discussed, specific barriers to communication are identified and recommendations are made to improve behaviour modification strategies by matching behavioural interventions to the appropriate stage of change.(AU)

Jamaican patients' understanding of diabetes mellitus

Ambulant and hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus were interviewed by two trained interviewers to obtain information about their knowledge of the illness and the communication they had received about it. Sixty to seventy per cent of patients claimed that no explanation about the illness was given to them at the time of diagnosis. This poor communication occurred in both public and private medical services. Fifty-seven per cent of the patients' knowledge of the illness was in general poor. The hospitalized patients did learn about the illness while there, but still claimed that they learnt nothing. These data are examined in the context of the nature of the doctor-patient communication style and effect. Jamaican diabetic patients need to be better informed about their illness; despite short patient-physician contact time, an effort to explain the nature of the illness at the time of diagnosis would be worthwhile. This will need subsequent assessment and reinforcement by involving a team approach.(AU)

Partner support for female contraceptive use

The study of partner support for female contraceptive use was conducted in February 1989. This cross-sectional study focussed on the social and demographic variables of women who are currently users and non-users of contraceptives. The variables included education, occupation, age and fertility and their relationship to the level, intensity and quality of partner support they received from their male partners. The study sought to determine communication between the partners and the level of approval for contraceptive use, content of communication and the experience of side-effects. Partner support for contraceptive use in the study was generally low. Practical support from the men to promote continuous method use being low. There is, however, a higher level of approval given by the men for contraceptive use. The experience of side-effects from contraceptive methods, although not experienced by the majority has serious consequences for creating unmet needs for contraceptives among those so affected. There is the need to develop relevant and accessible family planning services for men, while expanding those already in place for women, to address the new and ongoing issues in family planning (AU)

Theraputics and family medicine update, 1985

The task of collecting and editing papers for publication is daunting and the cost of printing for a limited circulation is enormous, but the response to our first two CME books and the repeated enquires after this one have encouraged us to carry on. Continuing Medical Education (CME) is still a highly individual exercise, but a study of attitudes, practices and recommendations carried out in Barbados in 1983 gives food for thought. This study indicates that textbooks and journals are rated most valuable sources of CME, with medical meetings close behind. Since the University of the West Indies has accepted the responsibility of providing CME for practitioners in the region, publication of cheap, authoritative and up-to-date articles relevant to local needs is mandatory (Ed.)