Theses and dissertations (Health Sciences)
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Item Patient perception survey : Durban University of Technology Homoeopathic Day Clinic(2008) Herr, Benjamin Jamie; Naude, David F.Within healthcare, patient satisfaction is a combination of need, expectation and the experience of care being provided. Patient satisfaction is an intermediate outcome, and is an important measure of the quality of the overall care provided. Healthcare which does not satisfy the patient is usually less effective, because less satisfied patients tend not to comply with instructions, they take longer to follow up with appointments and they have a poor understanding of their medical condition (Wilkin, Hallam and Dogget, 1994; AI-Assaf, 1998). The provision of overall quality healthcare for patients is a key motivation for many service providers. Therefore, determining the level of patient satisfaction forms a very important part of managing and fulfilling the patients' healthcare needs (Smith, 2001a). Furthermore, surveys of patient satisfaction form an essential role in assessing public opinion of the service provided. Thus, the evaluation of the service provided by a clinic can be reflected in the degree of satisfaction perceived by individuals receiving the services as elicited by a patient perception survey. This study assess patient’s perception of the service provided at the Homoeopathic Day Clinic (HDC) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). The use of a self-administered questionnaire to establish patient satisfaction was applied. No names were required and all data has been kept strictly confidential. This information will subsequently be used to improve the quality of the service offered at this facility and increase the degree of patient satisfaction experienced. The sample group of the first 100 patients that consulted the HDC at the DUT between July and November 2007 that voluntarily participated in this study were included in the study by means of convenience sampling.In this study there is generally a high degree of satisfaction with the healthcare and services provided. Areas of particularly high satisfaction are related to patients’ arrival to the clinic where they were both promptly and politely greeted, as well as in relationship to the approachability/friendliness of the Homoeopathic student, and the instructions given on how to take the medicine. Areas that revealed lower degrees of satisfaction are advertising, both in media and by signage, as well as the accessibility of the clinic for disabled patients.Item A survey to determine the perceptions of nurses in the eThekwini region towards homeopathy(2008) Allopi, Kirasha; Maharaj, Madhueshwaree; Steele, RichardA survey method was employed to investigate the perceptions of nurses in eThekwini towards homeopathy. The aim of this study was to answer the following questions: What does the nursing community in the eThekwini region know of homeopathy? Does homeopathy have a role to play in a hospital setting in the context of South Africa? The study population was all nurses with 5 years experience or more working in hospitals in the eThekwini region. The sample was drawn from 6 public and 5 private hospitals and included staff nurses and professional nurses. A total of 330 questionnaires were distributed and a total of 200 questionnaires were returned (60.6%). A total of 93 nurses (46.5%) responded from the public sector and 107 nurses (53.5%) from the private sector. The study was carried out using a questionnaire as a measuring tool. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics using frequency tables and bar charts. The Pearson’s Chi Square Test was used on selected data. The majority of respondents were female (94%) and were between the ages of 26-35 and 36-45 years. Most of the respondents had been practising for 6-10 years and 11-15years. 19% of the total number of respondents had never heard of homeopathy and 10% indicated that they were quite familiar with the homeopathic profession. Of those respondents who had never heard of homeopathy, 71.1% were in the public sector and 28.9% in the private sector. Of those respondents who answered that they were quite familiar with homeopathy, 14.3% were in the public sector and 85.7% in the private sector. With regards to legitimacy of homeopathy most nurses working in the private hospitals (60.1%) perceived homeopathy to be a legitimate form of health care as compared to nurses working in public hospitals (39.9%). Generally, both groups considered communication and co-operation with homeopaths to be very poor. In total 79.49% of respondents said it would be beneficial to improve communication between the professions. The majority of respondents (70.06%) perceived that homeopathy does have a role to play in a hospital setting. Only 29.94% of respondents perceived that homeopathy had no role to play in a hospital setting. This indicates that many respondents perceive that integrated medicine is needed in a hospital setting. This study reveals that the respondents had a positive view of homeopathy in general, and were open to learning more about it, and to cooperate with homeopaths. The finding that knowledge of homeopathy is low, and communication between the two professions is poor, can be addressed through suitable publicity and education programmes.