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Background: Advancements in the medical field have made organ transplantation an attractive treatment option for patients when indicated. Shortage of organs and commodification of organs are major challenges encountered in organ donation and transplantation. These could potentially breed unethical practices, if the process is not well regulated., Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of healthcare workers (HCWs) on the legal provisions regulating organ donation and transplantation in Nigeria., Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted amongst physicians and nurses across Nigeria. Knowledge of legal provisions on organ donation and transplantation was assessed using a validated questionnaire that had 21 questions derived from the National Health Act. Each correctly answered question was given 1 point with a total obtainable score of 21 points. A score of ≥14 points was classified as good knowledge. P <0.05 was considered significant., Results: A total of 836 physicians and nurses with a mean age of 37.61 ± 9.78 years participated in the study. Females and physicians constituted 53.3% and 62.9% of the respondents, respectively. The mean knowledge score of the respondents was 9.70 ± 2.91 points. Eighty-three (9.9%) respondents had a good knowledge score. There was a significantly higher proportion of male HCWs (P < 0.037) and older HCWs (P = 0.017) with good knowledge of legal provisions. On logistic regression, age was the only factor found to be associated with good knowledge of legal provision (adjusted odds ratio: 3.92; confidence interval: 1.33-11.59; P = 0.01)., Conclusion: The overall knowledge of legal provisions on organ donation and transplant was very poor amongst HCWs in Nigeria. There is a need to educate them on these provisions to curb unethical practices., (Copyright © 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal.)

Background: Patients' Bill of Right (PBoR) was launched in Nigeria in 2018 with the aim of improving health service delivery to Nigerians. However, knowledge of PBoR among physicians and patients is pivotal to achieving its laudable objective., Aim: This study assessed the awareness and knowledge of PBoR and associated factors among physicians and their patients at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital in Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria., Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that assessed awareness and knowledge of PBoR among physicians and patients using questionnaire. Maximum score obtainable was 16 and those with less than 8 were considered as having poor knowledge, 8-12 as good knowledge and 13-16 as excellent knowledge. P value of <0.05 was taken as significant., Results: Four hundred and fifty-three respondents made up 199 physicians and 254 patients participated in the study. There were 227(50.1%) males and 226(49.9%) females. Amongst the participants, 212(46.8%) were aware of existence of PBoR and 108(23.8%) claimed to be aware of its contents. Physicians and patients with good to excellent knowledge were 60.6% and 21.3 % respectively. The physicians had significantly better knowledge of PBoR compared to patients (p= <0.001). Factors associated with good to excellent knowledge of PBoR were male gender (p= 0.004), higher educational level (p= <0.001), being physician (p= <0.001) and younger age (p= <0.001)., Conclusion: Overall level of knowledge of PBoR was unsatisfactory especially among the patients. There is an urgent need for government to adequately educate and sensitize the public on PBoR in order to ensure qualitative health services delivery.

Background: Numerous studies indicate that immunization against vaccine-preventable infectious diseases lowers mortality among Chronic Kidney Disease/dialysis patients and improve their quality of life. However, their knowledge and practice of this appears to be poor in Nigeria and parts of Africa., Objectives: We set out to determine subjects' awareness of vaccination against preventable infectious diseases and its impact on their participation in vaccination programs., Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional study. Data was collated using questionnaires, laboratory results and dialysis entries and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics19., Results: One hundred and twenty-four participants (mean age, 48.26±14.45 years) undergoing maintenance haemodialysis were studied. Sixty-two subjects (50.4%), 15.3% and 16.9% had heard of Hepatitis B Virus, S. pneumoniae and H. influenza virus respectively. Thirty-four (54.6%) of the participants first heard of these infections from sources other than healthcare personnel. Of the three common infections, study participants only received formal counselling on Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection. Majority had never heard of S. pneumoniae or H. influenzae. Seven (5.7%) had completed their HBV immunisation schedule only. Better educated participants were more aware of necessary vaccination against Hepatitis B Virus (p=0.000) S. pneumoniae (p=0.005) and H. influenza virus (p = 0.003). A significantly higher proportion of participants who received health-personnel driven formal education commenced vaccination against Hepatitis B virus (p=0.000)., Conclusion: Awareness and practice of vaccination against infectious diseases by haemodialysis patients was found to be poor. Defective system and practice of information dissemination by healthcare workers was remarkably contributory.

Health workers require adequate knowledge of chronic kidney disease (CKD) to be able to play their role in reducing the burden of CKD. Most previous studies focused on assessing knowledge of doctors on CKD; however, nurses are also important in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of CKD. This study assessed the knowledge of non-nephrology nurses on CKD with the aim of identifying areas of knowledge gaps which will be targets for future educational programs. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out among nurses in Akure, Southwest Nigeria during their mandatory continuing professional development program required for practicing license renewal. Knowledge of CKD was assessed using self-administered pretested questionnaires. P <0.05 was taken as significant. One-hundred nurses participated in the study with a male:female ratio of 1:3.7. The mean duration of their nursing experience was 14.5 ± 9.1 years. Only 15% had nephrology posting during their training. Six (6%) of the respondents had good knowledge of CKD, 55 (55%) had fair knowledge, and 37 (37%) had poor knowledge. Only 5% was aware of renal care policy in Nigeria. Junior and intermediate cadre nurses had better knowledge of CKD than senior cadre nurses (P = 0.004). Nurses who had nephrology posting during their training had significantly higher mean knowledge score than others (14.38 ± 2.25 vs. 12.93 ± 3.10, P = 0.036). There were significant deficiencies in the knowledge of CKD among non-nephrology nurses who participated in the study. Junior and intermediate cadre nurses and those who had nephrology postings had better knowledge of CKD., Competing Interests: None

Adequate knowledge of acute kidney injury (AKI) among all health-care providers is essential for early diagnosis and management to reduce the associated burden. This study determined the knowledge of AKI among nurses in two government hospitals in Ondo City, Southwest Nigeria. This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in two government hospitals in Ondo City using a self-administered pretested questionnaire that assessed knowledge of AKI and associated factors. A total of 156 respondents participated in the study. Majority were between 20 and 40 years of age and were females. Ninety-nine (63.5%) had ≤10 years of nursing experience. A total of 106 (67.5%) respondents had received formal lectures on AKI in the past. Only 12 (7.7%) respondents had good knowledge of AKI, 98 (62.8%) had fair knowledge, and the remaining 46 (29.5%) had poor knowledge of AKI. There was a significant association between the knowledge of AKI and having received previous AKI lectures (P = 0.03), but knowledge was not associated with the years of nursing experience (P = 0.37). There was a significant association between having received previous AKI lecture and knowledge of AKI. We, therefore, recommend regular in-service training on AKI for practicing nurses.

Background: Kidney transplantation (KT) is now the preferred renal replacement therapy in suitable patients with end-stage renal disease but organ availability is a major limiting factor., Aims: To evaluate the willingness of caregivers (CGs) and healthcare workers (HWs) to donate a kidney and possible motivating factors in our setting., Methods: This cross-sectional study was done at Mother and Child Hospital, Kidney Care Centre Ondo and Babcock University Teaching Hospital, all in Southern Nigeria. Participants' willingness to donate a kidney was assessed using Likert and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Student t test was used to compare weighted mean scores. Multivariate analysis done; P < .05 was taken as significant., Results: A total of 563 CGs and HWs took part in the study. Sixty percent of them were aware of kidney donation (KD) but only 43.7% had a favorable attitude towards it, and these were predominantly HWs (63.4% vs 33.1%, P < .001). A quarter of the participants were adequately willing to donate a kidney; HWs were significantly more willing than CGs (45.4% vs 15.8%, P < .001). On VAS, the mean willingness score of HWs was higher than that of CGs (t = 7.13, P < .001). Factors strongly influencing the willingness of CGs to donate include their educational level (P = .028, OR = 4.86, 95% CI: 1.19-19.91) social class (P = .012, OR = 6.17 95% CI: 1.5-24.8) and having a relative with kidney disease (P = .019; OR = 3.07 95% CI: 1.25-12.00). Willingness correlated with awareness of KD among CGs (r = 0.534, P < .001)., Conclusion: There is a low level of willingness alongside negative attitudes toward kidney donation among our participants., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)