Journal of Public Health Research and Innovation

Editorial

2025-08-31T20:32:07+07:00

Development of Medication Error Checking and Prevention System in Inpatient Dispensing Process at Banpong Hospital

2025-06-04T22:19:05+07:00

Background: Medication errors significantly impact patient safety in hospitals, particularly in inpatient medication dispensing processes that involve multiple healthcare professionals. This study aimed to develop a medication error monitoring and prevention system in the inpatient dispensing process at Banpong Hospital.

Methods: This action research employed the PDCA quality improvement framework based on ISO 9001:2015 quality management guidelines in four phases, conducted at Banpong Hospital, Ratchaburi Province, from July 2024 to April 2025. The sample consisted of 41 healthcare professionals involved in the inpatient medication dispensing process. Research instruments included medication error record forms, inpatient medication safety checklists, and guideline adherence assessment forms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, including paired t-test and Chi-square test.

Results: After system implementation, the overall medication error rate decreased from 8.75 to 3.12 errors per 1,000 patient-days. Prescribing errors decreased by 60.5%, pre-dispensing errors by 67.2%, and dispensing errors by 69.3%. Errors involving high-alert medications and look-alike/sound-alike (LASA) medications decreased by 80.0% and 81.2%, respectively. The severity of medication errors decreased significantly ( = 12.56, p = 0.003), with level no patient impact increasing from 63.79% to 86.36% and level patient impact decreasing from 36.21% to 13.64%. Increased monitoring was observed post-implementation.

Conclusion: The developed medication error monitoring and prevention system effectively reduced both medication error rates and severity levels. Long-term follow-up is recommended to evaluate system sustainability, and the system should be expanded to other hospitals

The Effects of Health Literacy Development Program on Self-Health Care Behaviors Among Post Cardiac Valve Surgery Patients

2025-07-06T20:54:57+07:00

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major public health problem and a leading cause of death. In 2024, Thailand reported over 250,000 cases and 40,000 deaths. Valvular heart disease requires continuous medical treatment, with surgical repair or replacement indicated when medication is no longer effective. While surgery can improve quality of life, sustaining these benefits relies on effective self-health care to prevent complications and hospital readmissions. This study examines how health literacy influences self-health care behaviors in patients with valvular heart disease.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 40 patients undergoing valve surgery for valvular heart disease at a tertiary hospital in Bangkok. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 20) or control group (n = 20) by simple random allocation without replacement. The intervention was a researcher-developed health literacy program. Data were collected using a personal information form, a health literacy questionnaire, and a self-health care behavior questionnaire, with reliability coefficients of 0.73 and 0.81, respectively. Statistical analyses included the Independent Samples t-test, Paired t-test, Mann–Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Results: Pre-intervention, self-health care behavior scores were similar between the experimental (Mean = 179.40, SD = 14.45) and control (Mean = 178.10, SD = 7.05) groups. Post-intervention, the experimental group’s score increased to a high level (Mean = 224.60, SD = 9.09) and was significantly higher than the control group (Mean = 180.75, SD = 7.59, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The findings support that the health literacy development program can help patients improve their health literacy and self-health care behaviors more effectively than receiving standard nursing care alone. Implementing this program in patient care may contribute to reducing postoperative complications

The Effect of a Health Communication Program for Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) in Khok Thai Subdistrict, Si Mahosot District, Prachinburi Province

2025-07-18T21:46:14+07:00

Background: Health communication plays a crucial role in promoting public health, as it facilitates the effective transmission of information on disease prevention, medical care, and health promotion to the population. This study aimed to compare the levels of health communication skills among village health volunteers before and after the intervention.

Methods: This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a sample of 37 village health volunteers (VHVs) from Khok Thai Subdistrict, Si Mahosot District, Prachin Buri Province. Participants were selected using simple random sampling through a lottery method without replacement. The research instruments, developed by the researcher, comprised a Health Communication Development Program for VHVs and a questionnaire, which demonstrated a content validity index (CVI) of 0.89 and a reliability coefficient of 0.98. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics with a paired t-test, applying a significance level of 0.05.

Results: The majority of participants were female, with a mean age of 57.24 years. Most had completed upper secondary education, were not engaged in formal employment, had an average of 13.43 years of experience as village health volunteers (VHVs), and had received formal VHV training. After the intervention, the overall mean score for health communication significantly increased ( = 0.55, p-value <0.001) Significant improvements were observed in the communicator component ( = 0.57, p-value = 0.003), context component ( = 0.39, p-value <0.001), message content component ( = 0.65, p-value <0.001), communication channels, activities, formats, and methods component ( = 0.53, p-value <0.001)and evaluation component ( = 0.55, p-value <0.001), All components demonstrated significantly higher scores compared with pre-intervention levels.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the Health Communication Development Program was highly effective in enhancing participants’ knowledge and improving their proficiency across all five dimensions of health communication skills. Moreover, the program can be applied to various health issues that require community engagement, with digital media serving as a supportive tool to facilitate effective communication in diverse contexts.

Factors Associated with Online Learning Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Students of the Faculty of Health Science and Sports, Thaksin University, Phatthalung Campus

2025-07-16T10:01:01+07:00

Background: The global outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) disseminated swiftly across all sectors in countries worldwide, leading to the widespread adoption of social distancing protocols to prevent its transmission. As a direct consequence of this public health crisis, academic institutions universally transitioned to online teaching and learning frameworks to ensure educational continuity while mitigating the spread of the virus. This study, therefore, examined to identify and analyze the factors associated with the online learning behaviors of undergraduate students within the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences at Thaksin University's Phatthalung Campus during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic

Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study involved 249 students from the Faculty of Health and Sports Science, who were selected via simple random sampling during the 2021 academic year. Data was collected using a questionnaire with a content validity index of 0.89 and a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.95. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, and inferential statistics by Spearman's rank correlation and one-way ANOVA.

Results: Factors related to students' online learning behavior were identified as follows: year of study was significantly associated with the learner (p=0.041) and the technology usage (p=0.033). Furthermore, the field of study demonstrated a significant association with the learner (p=0.019), the curriculum/content (p=0.001), the technology usage (p=0.001), and the course evaluation (examination) (p=0.001) with statistically significant at the p<0.05 level.

Conclusions: Academic year and major were key factors affecting students’ online learning behaviors across several aspects, particularly in the technology usage, curriculum/content, and evaluation. Therefore, lecturers who were online curriculum instruction should be mindful of these differences. To maximize the effectiveness of online learning, they should adapt instructional formats, content, technology integration, and assessment methods to be appropriate for each student group.