ABSTRACT Introduction: Medical referral system is a vital and critical aspect of patient care from a primary health care professional to a tertiary care provider or specialist. Referral letters have become the most common means by which health care providers communicate with each other on patient information transfer. Objectives: The aim of this research is to determine the quality and appropriateness of medical referrals to the Ga West municipal hospital, Amasaman. Methods: This research i...
ABSTRACT The research investigated the influence of religiosity on the psychological well-being (PWB) of persons with chronic kidney disease (CKD) receiving dialysis treatment at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital-Ghana. The descriptive cross-sectional survey design was employed and the purposive sampling technique was used in selecting sixty-two (62) CKD patients for the study. Data was collected on the respondents’ demographic characteristics, their religiosity, and their PWB using demograp...
ABSTRACT Background Access to essential medicines is a major component for an effective health service delivery system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the availability and affordability of essential medicines used in the treatment of the top ten registered diseases in Builsa District in the year 2009. Method The survey was a cross sectional descriptive study, that employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches, following the standardized World Health Organization and Healt...
ABSTRACT Dual contraception or dual method refers to the use of condom with hormonal contraceptives or an intrauterine device to ensure enhanced protection and prevention of both unintended pregnancies and STI/HIV. When used consistently and correctly, it is capable of ensuring healthy sexual life devoid of the challenges of morbidity and mortality associated with unprotected sex. Notwithstanding, the extent of the use of dual contraceptives method use in Ghana is not known. The overarching...
A B S TR A C T The main purpose o f th is re tro s p e c tiv e com parative stu dy o f random ly selected women was to assess the partograph as an aid to p a rtu ritio n and to p ro vid e fu rth e r inform ation to s u p p o rt more w idespread use o f th is instru m ent and id e n tify any areas w here im provem ent could be made. Two g ro up s o f women expecting th e ir f ir s t babies were stu die d. The p re -p a rto g ra p h group comprised 65 women who d elivered in 1988 before the p a...
ABSTRACT Introduction: Cancer has been described to be a disease in which cells in the body grow so much the body can no longer control them. Cervical cancer is a disease that affects the cervix in the female reproductive system. It has been said to be the second cause of female cancers worldwide. It accounts for over 275,000 female deaths and about 529,000 new diagnoses each year. There is a reduction in the occurrence of cervical cancer in developed countries because of constant screening b...
ABSTRACT Blood transfusion saves lives but can result in poor client outcome when it is associated with errors. This study aimed at examining the knowledge of blood transfusion and practice errors among nurses in the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. The study utilized a descriptive cross-sectional design approach using 140 registered nurses who were selected purposively. A modified Routine Blood Transfusion Knowledge Questionnaire (RBTKQ) was used to collect information in two sections. First ...
ABSTRACT Background: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in both high-resource and low-resource countries. According to WHO Global Burden of Disease, 2004, breast cancer accounts for 16% of all female cancers with majority (69%) of breast cancer deaths occurring in developing countries. Although breast cancer incidence rate is said to be increasing worldwide, little is known about the determinants of the disease in Africa and currently, there is no data available on ...
ABSTRACT Effective leadership and employees’ job satisfaction are fundamental to the success of educational institutions. Adopting ideal leadership behaviour by the Nurse Leaders can have a positive influence on employees’ job satisfaction and institutional outcomes. It is widely accepted that employees’ who are satisfied with their jobs have a tendency of being more innovative, creative, motivated and committed, focusing on tasks that are beneficiary to the organization as compared t...
ABSTRACT The use of modern contraceptive among adolescents is still low in many low – income countries, including Ghana. Despite the low level of contraceptive prevalence among adolescents and the high teenage pregnancy rates, few studies have been done especially in the Nabdam district of Ghana, to examine the factors that influence modern contraceptive use among adolescent in the Nabdam district, an area where teenage pregnancy is high. This study aimed to determine the factors that inf...
ABSTRACT Background: Breastfeeding has been established as the gold standard of infant feeding, and exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of a child’s life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) less than 40% of children globally are exclusively breastfed up to six months. The practice of exclusive breastfeeding in Ghana is estimated at 52% and that of professional working mothers is about 10.3%. This study therefore sought to find out the support prof...
ABSTRACT Background: Tuberculosis has become a global burden and of public health importance. Health care workers in developing countries are highly susceptible to workplace associated TB infection due to the long hours spent with patients who have undiagnosed or untreated TB cases, poor infection control measures and poor isolation of TB cases in health care facilities. Objective: To assess the implementation of tuberculosis infection control measures among health care workers at the Great...
ABSTRACT Rapid diagnostic tests for malaria (RDTs) carry the hope that malaria treatment can be prompt, accurate and cost-effective. However, malaria rapid tests can achieve this goal only if they give accurate results comparable to those recommended by World Health Organization, and if health workers apply treatment according to test results. The study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of malaria rapid tests in routine field settings and the implications for the test-based management of ma...
ABSTRACT Background: Good nutrition in the formative years is very important for optimal growth and development of children. Feeding practices in the early stages of a child’s life are very critical as they set the pace for good growth if done optimally and could also affect the child negatively all through life if done sub-optimally. Feeding practices are variables of a child that are determined by a number of factors including; exclusive breastfeeding, timing of introduction of solid fo...
ABSTRACT Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic genetic blood disorder common among people of African descent. The disease places nutritional burden among affected individuals which affect their nutritional status. The aim of the study was to determine the dietary intake and nutritional status of children with sickle cell disease and determine the associations of severity of illness with dietary intake and nutritional status. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out ...