Objective To investigate the feedback of continuing medical education (CME) based on short message service (SMS) for village doctors in Gaolan County of Gansu Province, and to explore how to improve the efficiency of CME based on SMS. Methods A total of 75 village doctors were investigated with a questionnaire when attending the training program conducted by the Health Bureau of Gaolan County. Results A total of 75 valid questionnaires were collected back. The statistical analyses showed that 56% of the doctors received the majority of the messages sent to them, of whom, 98% could read the messages promptly, 81% saved the majority of the messages they received, 98% could read the saved massages occasionally, 25% transmitted messages to others, 93% thought that the messages might be helpful in varying degrees, 96% would like to continue receiving the messages in the future, 51% thought the biggest shortcoming of the messages was the poor relevance to their concern, and 70% wanted the most to receive short messages about clinical diagnosis and treatment. At present, 39% of the doctors thought the most convenient approaches to get the updated medical knowledge are attending the study or training program organized by higher authorities, while 37% thought those are reading short messages on the mobile, websites or papers. Conclusion The village doctors are willing to receive the short messages about the best clinical evidence. However, both the receiving rate and use rate of the short messages have yet to improve. A complete SMS transmission system and highly-relevant contents are regarded as important guarantees for improving the receiving rate and use rate.
Objective To investigate the decision-making situation of doctors in the township hospitals in Gaolan, Gansu province, and to discuss its scientificity and rationality. Methods Self-designed questionnaire was adopted to investigate the clinical decision-making situation of 108 doctors from 7 township hospitals in Gaolan county. The investigation contained three parts as follows: basic information of respondents, general information of clinical decision-making evidence, and comparison between respondents’ decision-making situation and current best clinical evidence. Results Among the total 108 questionnaires distributed, 89 valid were retrieved. The feedback showed that 79% of the doctors diagnosed and treated patients in accordance with medical textbooks; 53% took curative effect into consideration in the first place; 33% failed to consider patients’ willingness properly when making clinical decisions; and 52% made clinical therapy regimen for common diseases based on the evidence which was different from that in BMJ published Clinical Evidence. Conclusion While making clinical decisions, doctors in the township hospitals do not adequately refer to the best clinical evidence as their decision-making basis, and fail to take patients’ value and willingness into consideration properly. It is necessary to promote the concept of evidence-based medicine and spread the best evidence in the township health departments.
Objective To investigate the villagers’ cognitive degree of health knowledge in Gaolan county, Gansu province, so as to explore new methods to promote health education and spread health knowledge in rural areas. Methods Through non-random sampling methods, the questionnaires were distributed to the residents in Shagang village, Manwan village and Yanzi village, and the data were then statistically analyzed by using Epidata 3.1 and Excel 2003 softwares. Results A total of 290 questionnaires were distributed and retrieved with 100% valid rate. Only 23% of the surveyed had physical examination in the last one year; 75% thought they were lack of health knowledge; 92% would like to obtain health knowledge in regular; 86% thought lack of health knowledge was the reason of their or their relatives’ diseases; 74% obtained health knowledge by watching TV; 59% went to their village clinic first when suffering from mild symptoms of common diseases; and only 6% did exercises in their leisure time. Conclusion Most people in rural areas don’t pay enough attention to their health condition and are lack of high-quality health knowledge resources as well as consciousness of physical training. So it is not only necessary to strengthen health education, but also urgent to promote physical and mental health education in rural areas.