IN FOCUS: Explore the future of profession - 2022
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Item Knowledge and attitudes toward children with specific learning disabilities among primary school teachers in the Mathugama Educational Zone; a preliminary study(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Kumari, H.R.G.M.; de Silva, M.D.K.Background: The teachers’ role in identifying Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) in primary grades is significant, and teachers play a unique role in this process. To make the education for the students with SLD successful, teachers require knowledge of different types of SLD and an understanding of their students with SLD.Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate primary school teachers’ knowledge and attitudes toward children with specific learning disabilities (SLD).Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 248 primary school teachers. The self-selection sampling method was used to select participants from the Mathugama Educational Zone in Sri Lanka. An online questionnaire was used to collect data, and the questionnaire consisted of 3 sections: demographical details, teachers’ knowledge, and their attitudes toward children with SLD. Results: Most primary school teachers are conversant on some aspects of children with SLD such as characteristics of SLD and handling a child with SLD in the regular class. Teachers’ knowledge of SLD significantly changed according to gender (p < .05). This indicated that males have more knowledge about SLD than female teachers. However, there was no significant association between teachers’ knowledge with other demographical details such as age, teaching experience, educational level, teaching grade, training in special education, and having a student with SLD in the class. Overall, participants have positive attitudes about training programs.Conclusion: Overall, most of the study participants had average knowledge levels in areas such as management of children with SLD, risk factors, and some symptoms about SLD. However, knowledge level in some symptoms such as IQ level and aetiology of SLD were inadequate. Attitudes regarding their responsibilities in managing children with SLD were positive. On the contrary, a majority of teachers do not have positive attitudes to raise the quality of life of children with SLD and they reported that they felt more sympathy toward the student with SLD than the student without SLD. The study further revealed that most participants had not attended the training programs on teaching children with SLD. Therefore, the relevant institutes or authorities should implement frequent workshops to improving the above aspects regarding the knowledge and attitudes of SLD.Item Teachers’ knowledge on symptoms, attitudes, and classroom teaching strategies for Specific Learning Disabilities: A study among Tamil speaking primary school teachers in the Nuwara Eliya Educational Zone, Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Kanagendran, K.; Caldera, A.V.Background: A learning disability is a condition that is characterized by difficulties with listening, speaking, reading, writing or mathematics. Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are the most common learning disabilities. The primary level teachers carry a significant responsibility in identifying children with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the teachers’ levels of knowledge and their attitudes towards children with specific learning disabilities, and their use of classroom strategies when working with children with specific learning disabilities in the Nuwara Eliya Educational Zone. Methods: A sample of 167 Tamil primary school teachers were recruited for the study. A descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study was used to collect information from the participants. The questionnaire was developed based on evidence-based research. In addition, a convenient sampling method was used. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Software was used to analyze the data. Results: The majority of the teachers were females (69.3%-n = 115). Most of the teachers were aware of SLD characteristics as 77.7% (n =129) of the participants believed that language-based learning disability is called dyslexia. Also, 23.5% (n=39) teachers reported that students with dysgraphia mix up upper/lower case/cursive writing. More than 42.2% (n = 70) teachers believe that pupils who have difficulty in measuring (weight/distance/time) have dyscalculia. Most of the teachers had a personal experience of at least one student with SLD who has difficulty taking notes in the class. Although most of the teachers understand the challenges, nearly 121 out of 165 primary teachers agree that they have insufficient time to teach students with SLD. Conclusion: Most of the primary teachers had a basic understanding of SLD identification and characteristics. Teachers are also aware of how to use classroom strategies for students with SLD. However, teachers frequently use those strategies for the entire class and are unaware of specific strategies like Individual Education Plans. In addition, the majority of the teachers had a reasonable understanding of the difficulties experienced by children with SLD.Item Evidence-based practice among speech therapists in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Wanigasooriya, I.G.; Colonne, U.T.Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is essential to providing quality health care. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the process of providing high-quality health care through research findings, practical knowledge, and client preferences and values. Evidence-based health care is the careful application of current best evidence in making choices regarding individual patient care or health service delivery. Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) treat communication difficulties and swallowing difficulties. Currently, their range of services provided is wide, and high-quality results can be obtained through EBP. Evidence-based practice provides superior service to people with speech, language, and swallowing difficulties. Objectives: Our study aimed 1- To identify the use of evidence-based practice among speech and language therapists in Sri Lanka, 2- To determine the speech and language therapists’ knowledge on evidence-based practice, 3- To determine the speech and language therapists’ skills on use of the evidence-based practice and 4- To determine the association between current knowledge skills and usage of EBP among SLTs, and their socio-demographic variables. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used to identify the level of knowledge, skills, and use of EBP among SLTs. Altogether 169 participants completed a self-administrative online survey questionnaire with 32 rank order questions (strongly agree to strongly disagree). Demographic characteristics of the participants were analyzed descriptively and presented as means, standard deviations (SD), frequencies, and percentages. The Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were used appropriately to determine the association of current knowledge, skills, and usage of EBP among SLTs with their socio-demographic variables (gender, age range, educational qualifications, client group, work setting). Results: The majority of SLTs had heard about EBP (71.9%) and had an idea about EBP (95.9%). However, 70% of responses (agreed or strongly agreed) were obtained for all other questions asked related to the knowledge of EBP. Forty percent to 55% of participants confirmed that they have average skills on EBP. 50% of participants confirmed that they use EBP, have access to EBP, or read research publications, sometimes. 30% of participants were using EBP, frequently. In general, a significant association was not revealed (P<0.05) between knowledge, skills, and usage of EBP among SLTs, and the five demographic variables. Conclusion: The present study showed that Sri Lankan SLTs have good to fair knowledge and skills toward EBP. The majority of participants confirmed that they are sometimes using EBP. All these current practices of EBP are not influenced by their gender, age, work setting, practicing client group, or highest educational qualification. However, there was a significant association between gender and current usage of EBP.Item A Survey on current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology among audiology professionals in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Prabodani, G.V.; Jayasena, B.N.Background: With the advancement of technology and resources, telehealth is becoming a prominent method of filling the gaps in conventional audiology services across the world. Teleaudiology services in Sri Lanka are evolving and still is an under addressed area of local literature compared to other telehealth applications in the medical sector. Objectives: To describe the current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology and factors affecting planning and implementation of teleaudiology services in Sri Lanka. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 104 (n=104) audiology professionals employed in public and private audiology work setups across the country. Objectives of the study were evaluated through an online self-administered questionnaire, which was configured as a Google form. Results: The study yielded a response rate of 83.87% and a majority (75.0%) of the participants were female and the age distribution of participants was between 25 and 45 years. A majority (79.8%) of the practitioners reported awareness on teleaudiology while 32.7% of them were utilizing teleaudiology in practice. Initiation of teleaudiology was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic for the majority. Audiology practitioners reported the use of telepractice predominantly in counselling, education, training, hearing aid related rehabilitation, and prevention of hearing and balance related conditions as individual or group sessions, utilizing a hybrid telehealth model. More than 75.0% of the services were centralized within the Western province in private centres and the teen to adult age range was served through telepractice predominantly. Despite practices, several factors and challenges were reported to influence teleaudiology practices, including the lack of facilities and resources as the major challenge while reporting several benefits of practice also. Conclusions: The findings of the study indicate that teleaudiology services are currently available in Sri Lanka, but it is centralized within a narrow geographic area and primarily restricted only to certain services. No information can be derived on the trend of teleaudiology in Sri Lanka due to the lack of evidence in the existing literature. This study sheds a light on current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology with an emphasis on factors affecting it, which will assist in improving services further.Item Effectiveness of an educational workshop for improving ICU nurses` knowledge on managing dysphagia in patients with tracheostomy at government hospitals in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Karunarathna, W.K.L.; Perera, K.D.R.D.; Rathnayake, S.P.Background: Adult patients with tracheostomy are a medically complex population. Tracheostomy insertion is a common procedure seen in Intensive Care Unit (ICU} settings to manage many critical patients by means of an artificial airway. But the tracheostomy indication is associated with several complications. Therefore, dysphagia is one of the main complications that tracheostomy leads to, where 11% to 93% of patients following tracheostomy have been identified with dysphagia in various studies. The management of dysphagia is a multidisciplinary team approach, and the nurses are one of the health professionals in this team. Therefore, the nurses` knowledge of the management process of dysphagia is important to improve the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients with tracheostomy. Objective/s: The objectives of this study were to describe nurses` knowledge regarding dysphagia management in patients with tracheostomy before and after conducting an educational workshop and to describe the nurses’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the educational workshop. Methods: The pre-post interventional study design compared nurses' knowledge differences after attending an educational workshop on dysphagia management in tracheostomy patients. There were sixty participants (n = 60) included, and they were selected by purposive sampling and the snowballing technique. The data was gathered through an online survey. The educational workshop was planned based on the outcomes of the needs assessment and the nurses` knowledge assessed by providing pre and post-test questionnaires. Paired-sample t-tests were used to identify whether there is a significant improvement in the nurses` knowledge after the educational workshop. Results: The findings showed that the designed online workshop significantly improved nurses’ knowledge of managing dysphagia in tracheostomy patients t (59) =-25.755, p =.000. Further, the perceived effectiveness of the workshop, as reported by nurses, indicated that the workshop is highly effective and helpful in improving their knowledge regarding dysphagia management in patients with tracheostomy. Conclusion/s: The results of the present study showed that the nurses had moderate knowledge regarding dysphagia management in patients with tracheostomy before conducting the educational workshop. However, after conducting the educational workshop, the mean scores of nurses increased to the high knowledge level. Therefore, the study concludes that the educational workshop undertaken is an effective method to improve nurses' knowledge on the management of dysphagia in patients with tracheostomy.