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Abstract
Aims To provide a rapid assessment of baseline knowledge of who qualifies as a Looked After Child (LAC) among the staff of a Children’s Hospital.
Methods Staff were approached by one of the authors during their working day and asked to complete a 9-item questionnaire (Table 1). Staff had no prior knowledge of this assessment.
Results 104 questionnaires (from 21 consultants, 23 junior doctors and 60 nurses) were completed. This assessment was carried out over two working weeks and the estimated average time for completion of the questionnaire was 30 s.
Taken together, participants scored a mean of 65.8% (5.91 out of a total of 9). Of these, consultants, junior doctors and nurses respectively scored 68.8% (mean 6.19, SD 1.12); 66.2% (mean 5.95, SD 1.29) and 64.4% (mean 5.8, SD 1.35) of questions correctly. These differences between the groups were not statistically different (F=0.72, p = 0.49).
The % correct score for each question is shown in Figure 1. Only 2 questions had a correct response rate of less than 50%.
Conclusions This questionnaire provides a rapid method of assessing knowledge levels about LAC among hospital staff. It can be used to monitor knowledge levels, raise awareness levels and to target training to specific groups of staff.
Percentage of correct responses per question