Bedside presentations and infant feeding practices: two qualitative research reviews

¶ … doctor and patient relationship behavior in a new light. The research documented in this article attempted to describe the effect of bedside case presentations vs. conference room style presentations. The impact of the medial care was interpreted through the patients perceptions of their medical care.

The research contained in this article was premised upon the idea that a significant difference may be noticed through different doctor presentations. The dichotomy presented here was bedside presentations may be more effective than the more rigid and academic style of the conference room presentation. They wrote "Despite the potential advantages of bedside presentations for students and physicians, there has been a trend to move clinical teaching away from the bedside and into the conference room. Concern about patients' discomfort with bedside presentations appears to be one reason for this change. Studies of such presentations have focused on patients' impressions and measurements of patients' anxiety. Bedside and conference-room presentations have not been directly compared."

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this research were to perform a randomized, controlled trial to compare bedside presentations with conference room presentations with their impact on patients perceptions of satisfaction.

Study Methods

To better understand this problem the researchers collected data on patients in randomized fashion to help judge these perceptions. Groups of doctors performed both bedside and conference room style presentations and patient satisfaction was measured and statistically analyzed.

Article 2: Qualitative

Matsuyama et al. (2013) used a qualitative study to examine the perceptions of caregivers about feeding practices of infants in Kenya. The research aimed to examine if exclusive breast feeding was a prominent ideal within this community.

Problem Statement

The research in this article is premised on the idea that only 32% of children under 6 months old were exclusively breast-fed in Kenya 2008. The author's also assume in their research that exclusive breast feeding is an optimal way to feed infants.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative research was to gather data on attitudes and perceptions about exclusive breast feeding from caregivers within Kenya. In the authors words "the aim of this study was to explore perceptions and feeding practices of caregivers of children under 6 months old with special attention to the caregivers' indigenous knowledge, perceptions about the health and nutritional problems of their infants, and care seeking behaviors that affect feeding practices."

Research Question

What is the knowledge base for caregivers about the benefits of exclusive breast-feeding in Kenya?

Method

In order to find out the answer to the research question an exploratory study was conducted. 32 participants mostly mothers or mothers in law, were interviewed to gain insight on their infant feeding practices. The nature of the questions dealt with perceived health problems of their children and the severity of these health problems by rank order. In addition to the interview, all subjects were observed at home with regard to feeding practices. The data from this research was " triangulated to formulate an ethnomedical explanatory model for mothers who do not practice exclusive breast feeding."

Key Finding

The researchers of this article found that there is much ignorance about the health benefits of exclusive breast feeding in Kenya. Many of the perceived ill health symptoms appeared to be associated with a lack of exclusive breast feeding practices. The authors suggested that more needed to be done in terms of educating young mothers and caregivers in this environment to practice exclusive breast feeding methods on their infants. Too much reliance is given to "their own backyard garden, and popular and folk medicines."

Matsuyama, A., Karama, M., Tanaka, J., & Kaneko, S. (2013). Perceptions of caregivers about health and nutritional problems and feeding practices of infants: a qualitative study on exclusive breast-feeding in Kwale, Kenya. BMC public health, 13(1), 525.