Knowledge And Attitude Assessment Of Healthcare Staff Regarding Mlc Process At The Selected Hospitals Of Ahmedabad City

Abstract

Introduction: Medicine, a noble profession, aims at providing healthcare service to the people. But today medical practice is much beyond the concept of service. It deals with legal process and issues and hence it is quite necessary for doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff to know about the various medico-legal aspects of their practice. Each hospital has its own method and process to abide by local norms related to medico-legal regulations. Assessment of awareness about medico-legal process, issues and related aspects among the healthcare professional thus becomes necessary. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and attitude about MLC process of healthcare professionals engaged in the hospitals. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge and attitude of healthcare staff regarding MLC process was conducted among various categories of health workers (i.e., doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers) at various hospitals of Ahmedabad. The prospective respondents were selected through non-probability convenience sampling method to participate in this study. The tools used for data collection were proforma for personal variables to assess the sample characteristics; structured knowledge questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge; and attitude scale to assess the level of attitude. The pilot study was conducted and study was found to be feasible. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results: A total of 300 healthcare workers were enrolled in the study, representing 92% response rate. Findings of the key personal variables showed that majority (67%) staff were of 24-30 years of age, majority (65%) staff were female, majority (56.33%) staff belonged to nursing department, majority (72.66%) staff had >3 years of clinical experience, majority (56.34%) staff were working in Emergency, ICU or any other critical areas and majority (83.67%) staff had attended some formal training regarding MLC process. The study result shows that majority of staff (79.66%) had average to good knowledge regarding overall MLC process while only 20.33% possessed poor knowledge. The study also showed that majority of staff (88.33%) displayed positive attitude towards MLC process while only 11.67% staff didn’t have positive outlook towards MLC process. The study also revealed that there is a significant and positive correlation between knowledge and attitude scores of staff regarding MLC process. Conclusion: The sound knowledge of healthcare workers on medico-legal process is high and their attitude is positive. However, regular training to update their knowledge will be necessary in order to ensure continuous improvement of the quality of healthcare delivery as well as medico-legal compliance.