Competence of Health Care Professionals from the Eyes of Patients Living with Hepatitis C and the caregivers in Karachi, Pakistan

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2012

Issue: Nov-Jan

Title: Competence of Health Care Professionals from the Eyes of Patients Living with Hepatitis C and the caregivers in Karachi, Pakistan 

Author Name: Noureen Shehzad Jiwani, Raisa Begum Gul 

Synopsis: 

As a chronic disease, Hepatitis C impedes patients’ physical, psychosocial, financial, and emotional wellbeing throughout their illness. Competence of health care professional, especially their communication skills and attitude towards Hepatitis C may help to ease or add to the burden of this disease for patients and their families. Although few studies are available about the interactions of health care professionals with hepatitis C patients and their caregivers, little is known about this phenomenon in the developing countries including Pakistan. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of hepatitis C patients’ and the caregivers with health care professionals in a Pakistani context. Using descriptive exploratory design, data were collected through in-depth interviews, from ten patients with hepatitis C and eight caregivers. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim; manual content analysis was performed for extracting themes and categories. Findings of the study reveals that health care professionals for few patients were very supportive however, for majority of the participants lack competence in dealing with patients having hepatitis C and the caregivers. Study findings suggest that appropriate understanding of hepatitis C is critical for health care professionals of Pakistan, not only to alleviate patients and caregivers suffering but also to reduce the prevalence of hepatitis C.