Page 13 - Portuguese Journal - SPORL - Vol 61. Nº2

between the results of the participants who patients, training should be given to medical
received training on this topic during the
medical course and those who did not. These
findings suggest one of the two hypotheses:
1) the questions asked were not sensitive
enough to differentiate between these two
groups of participants (in fact, the lack of a
validated instrument for assessing this type of
knowledge was one of the limitations of the
present study), but we sought to overcome this
limitation by ensuring a thorough validation
of the questionnaire by five specialists in
otorhinolaryngology and head and neck
surgery at the Hospital Pedro Hispano; 2)
the training given during the medical course
was insufficient and not very effective in
transmitting basic and essential knowledge of
this topic.
The absence of differences in the results
between the doctors who had contact with
patients with a tracheostomy during the
IFG and those who did not was somewhat
expected, considering the short duration of
this contact.
Thus, doctors in a variety of specialties may
see patients with a tracheostomy and care for
them in very different contexts . Data from the
11
UK National Confidential Enquiry into Patients
Outcomes and Death reveal significant
mortality and morbidity among patients with
a tracheostomy due to preventable errors and
complications . Part of the solution to this
14
problem is better training and qualification
of the healthcare professionals who manage
these patients, including doctors . Therefore,
8
to improve the quality of care provided to these
patients and provide doctors with adequate
skills to perform these tasks, it is important
to promote training in tracheostomy during
undergraduate medical education, and, in our
opinion, otorhinolaryngology and head and
neck surgery should lead this process.
Conclusion
Management of patients with a tracheostomy
can be a major challenge for healthcare
professionals, especially doctors.
To improve the care provided to these
professionals from as early as medical school.
It appears that there is a gap in the knowledge
of newly qualified doctors about tracheostomy
in Portugal that may be partly attributed
to deficient training in this area during the
medical course.
Otorhinolaryngology should be responsible
for imparting appropriate and better quality
training to medical students in tracheostomy.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all the
medical residents who participated in the
study. They also thank colleagues in the
otorhinolaryngology department of the
Hospital Pedro Hispano who collaborated in
the validation of the questionnaire.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest
regarding this article.
Data confidentiality
The data were collected anonymously.
Funding
The present study was conducted in the
absence of any contribution, funding, or grant.
Availability of scientific data
There are no publicly available datasets related
to this study.
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