Authors (including presenting author) :
WS Lau, TS Cheung, TT Hung, CM Leung, LF Tai, TL Lee, A Tam, HK Ho, C Sun, TL Suen, S Huang, WC Lao
Affiliation :
Department of Medicine, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China
Introduction :
Integrated Model of Specialist Outpatient Service through Medical Nurse Clinic (Hepatitis) has been developed in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH) since October 2020. The nurse clinic has provided education for patients with chronic hepatitis B to enhance their participation in disease management. We hypothesized that patients' knowledge of hepatitis B could be increased by nurse-led education provided at the nurse clinic.
Objectives :
To evaluate improvement in level of knowledge for patients with hepatitis B following attendance of nurse clinic
Methodology :
A prospective study was performed on patients with chronic hepatitis B who first attended the hepatitis nurse clinic from October 2020 to September 2021. The nurse clinic was run by gastroenterology and hepatology nurses. Patients received education on hepatitis B when they attended the nurse clinic. Patients’ knowledge about hepatitis B was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire before and after their first attendance at the nurse clinic. The questionnaire comprised 20 true or false questions developed by the HA GI nursing work group. A patient could obtain a total knowledge score of 20 if correct answer was given to all 20 questions. Data were analysed using t-test. Statistical significance was set at p< 0.05.
Result & Outcome :
A total of 475 patients were included in the study. There were 257 (54.1%) male patients. The mean age was 55.8 +/- 11.9 years. Four patients who refused to fill out the questionnaires were excluded. The baseline knowledge score before the first attendance at the nurse clinic was significantly higher in the younger age group (mean knowledge score, 16.7 in age group ≤ 60 years vs 15.3 in age group >60 years; p< 0.001). The overall mean knowledge score of the patients significantly increased from 16.1 (range, 15.9-16.4) at baseline to 19.8 (range, 19.7-19.8) after receiving education at the nurse clinic (p< 0.001).
The study highlights that education delivered at medical nurse clinic can improve patients’ knowledge on hepatitis B.
