An Assessment of Information Technology Skills and Training Needs of Health Record Management Professionals in University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
The general objective of the study is to assess the information Technology Skills and Training needs of Health Records Professionals in University Medical Science Technology Hospitals, Ondo. The specific objectives of this study are to:
- Examine the use of Information Technology by Health Records Professionals at University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
- Evaluate the training needs of Health Records professionals in university of Medical science Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
- Find out the challenges faced in the use of information technology skills by Health Records Professionals in University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
- Determine the solutions to the challenges faced by Information Technology in health records management of University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
CHAPTER TWO
Challenges and the situation of the health sector
Challenges of the health sector
One of the biggest challenges facing the health sector in Nigeria is proper management of resources and lack of development. The states of infrastructure are in their worst state and nobody is doing anything about it due to negligence and corruption. With diseases like Malaria, AIDS, Cholera and so on becoming epidemic in a country as big as Nigeria; new measures must be taken in order to tackle these problems. Another issue would be how would they tackle it and how trained are the people tackling it.
The so called professionals most of the time are not well trained due to the quality of the institutions they were being trained. Most institutions lack basic tools and laborato- ry to train their students. With internet becoming more common among people in Ni- geria, they tend to do their research on their own rather than trusting medical practi- tioners. It is the proposition of this study that if the government implement the use of ICT in our health sector, information can be shared among various health centres and they can help patients faster. In addition, problem of dissemination and familiarity of the system, however, the same process must be implemented in various schools so that the student will be familiar with the systems and familiarise themselves with the way in which the system is being used. Another problem is the growing concern with the method of treatment and the relationship between the patients and the medical doc- tors.
Factors that contribute to the decay After Nigeria independence Nigeria health sector had its ups and downs just like other sectors of the country. Problems like the private sector not contributing to its devel- opment, lack of professional order and best practices, bad infrastructure, as well as inconsistency from government budget and policy, mismanagement of funds to name a few.
It is quite sad that after 53 years of independence, the health sector is struggling to de- liver the basic care to its people. One can expect by now that the health sector would
have achieved Universal health coverage with all her citizens having access to afforda- ble and quality healthcare.
The following are the major factors that contribute to the decay
Corruption and infrastructure decay: Corruption is the biggest factor af- fecting the development of the sector and it has eaten it up to the highest level.
Government officials don’t care about the sector because they can afford to go abroad for better healthcare. In terms of infrastructure decay, the state of some of the health center are nothing to write home about, they are in their worst state and nobody is doing anything about it because the funds are shared among few political elites.
Lack of information system: Every sector in every part of the world al- ways review what they are doing right and wrong and how to improve them with time which is essential to the development of any organization. Nigeria health sec- tor needs information system which can help improved and create a lot of good re- sult that can help transform the current state of the sector.
Policy inconsistency: Different government wants a different approach or policy to implement which does not correspond with the existing one, these causes confusion to determine the direction they tend to follow.
Lack of commitment: Political leaders are not determined to do anything about it because they are not affected by it and they seem to overlook many things through negligence. Recent records show they have suffered from their negligence as well.
Professionalism: The state of the educational system which the doctors are being trained is not in the best condition which is one of the problems being faced by the sector. Adhering to best practice is important as well in order to achieve results.
Poor implementation: Many health policies are implemented wrongly and are shabbily done by the authorities responsible for it. More efforts is needed to change things around.
Worsening poverty and low level of health coverage for all Nigerians: The poverty level in the country is getting worse with each passing day. Lack of com- mitment and the level of corruption is the major cause of these problems.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out for an Assessment Of Information Technology Skills And Training Needs Of Health Record Management Professionals In University Of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo. University Of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which 100 were returned. The analysis of this study is based on the number returned.
Table 1: Gender Distribution of Respondents
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on the Assessment Of Information Technology Skills And Training Needs Of Health Record Management Professionals In University Of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
Summary of the Study
In this study, our focus was on the Assessment Of Information Technology Skills And Training Needs Of Health Record Management Professionals In University Of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo. The study is was specifically focused on examining the use of Information Technology by Health Records Professionals at University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo; Evaluate the training needs of Health Records professionals in university of Medical science Teaching Hospital, Ondo; Finding out the challenges faced in the use of information technology skills by Health Records Professionals in University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo; and determining the solutions to the challenges faced by Information Technology in health records management of University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 100 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are staff of university of Medical science Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
Conclusions
With respect to the analysis and the findings of this study, the following conclusions emerged;
Health information professionals in Nigeria acknowledged the importance of IT in managing patients’ health information and were willing to improve their skills. However, the proportion of IT-skilled health information professionals working in technical and leadership roles in health information technology who currently possess these skills is not encouraging. This has created many skill gaps among these profes- sionals. Much more needs to be done with regards
to IT training and retraining in order to enhance their skills and improve healthcare data manage- ment. Furthermore, the clause on IT in the existing curriculum used in Nigerian schools of health informa- tion should be upgraded to include specific software for health information technology.
Recommendation
Based on the findings the researcher recommends that;
It is highly recom- mended that the respective authorities make necessary IT equipment and accessories available for the trans- formation of theory in IT training into real practice.
References
- Adeleke, I.T., Adekanye, A.O., Adefemi, S.A., Onawola, K.A., Okuku, A.G., Sheshi, E.U., James, J.A., Francis, M., Elegbe, T.R.O., Ayeni, A.M. and Tume, A.A. (2011). Knowledge, attitude and practice of confidentiality of patients’ health records among healthcare professionals at Federal Medical Centre, Bida. Nigerian Journal of Medicine 20(2): 228-235. PMID 21970234.
- Adeleke, I.T., Adekanye, A.O., Onawola, K.A., Okuku, A.G., Adefemi, S.A., Erinle, S.A., et al. (2012). Data quality assessment in healthcare: a 365-day quantitative review of inpatients’ health records at a Nigerian tertiary hospital. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 19(6): 1039-42 doi: 10.1136/amiajnl-2012- 000823 PMID 22798479 PMCID PMC3534461.
- Aina, L.O. (2004). Library and information science text for Africa. Ibadan Nigeria, Third World Information Services Ltd.
- Ajuwon, G.A. (2003). Computer and Internet use by first year clinical and nursing students in a Nigerian teaching hospital. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 3:10.
- Ajuwon, G.A. (2006). Use of the Internet for health information by physicians for patient care in a teaching hospital in Ibadan. Biomedical Digital Libraries 3:12. doi: 10.1186/1742-5581-3-12.
- Ajuwon, G.A. and Rhine, L. (2008). The level of Internet access and ICT training for health information professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. Health Information & Libraries Journal 25(3): 175-185.
- Ameh, N., Kene, T.S. and Ameh, E.A. (2008). Computer knowledge amongst clinical year medical students in a resource poor setting. African Health Sciences 8(1): 40-43.
