Assessment of the attitude of nuclear medicine staff towards patient care at a nuclear medicine centre in Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: The mutual relationship between health care providers and their clients (patients) is very important in achieving the desired result in seeking health care services by the patients. The crucial qualities in the patientpersonnel relationship are effective communication, care, empathy, respect and trust. These are major components of attitude of personnel towards patients but there is a strong widespread negative attitude of health care providers towards patients. While it had also been shown that the level of knowledge of healthcare providers (healthcare workers) significantly determines their attitudes towards their clients, the attitude of medical professionals towards patient care has largely been ignored in studies so we decided to assess the attitude of medical personnel in nuclear medicine. Methods: A self applied structured questionnaire was designed to collect data from the research population of patients who came to access nuclear medicine services in the department. Data were collected using the research instrument and were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 (SPSS, Inc. Chicago Ill) using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis respectively. Results: Majority of respondents rated the attitude of Nuclear Medicine staff in this department as positive. The result also showed that the attitude of health care providers (or health care professionals) correlates positively with clients’ satisfaction. Conclusion: We conclude that majority of the Patients were satisfied with the attitude of Nuclear Medicine Staff towards Patients Care and hence, were satisfied with the health services provided