Percepción del trato humanizado de pacientes adultos mayores atendidos en la Universidad Santo Tomás

Abstract

Introduction: Humanization is the essential condition that guarantees the specific care and protection services given to users of health services, through respect, dignity and human condition of their beliefs, customs, creed, race and everything that makes the human being unique and unrepeatable. The health professional must provide a humanized service to the elderly with an ethical criterion considering that at present this issue has become more relevant both nationally and internationally. Objectives: To measure the perception of humanized behavior in the adult clinic Major of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Santo Tomás University. Materials and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional observational study was carried out. The population consisted of 118 people over 65 years of age treated at the undergraduate clinics of the Santo Tomás de Bucaramanga University during the second academic period of 2019. Due to the current situation caused by the pandemic, data collection was carried out applying a survey by telephone. The validated self-filling questionnaire “Validity and Reliability of an instrument to measure the perception of humanized care in dentistry” was taken. The data was entered in Excel generating a single file that was exported to the Stata 14.0 program for its corresponding processing and analysis. Results: 94 of the 118 participants reported that students always look them in the eye when they speak to them. 73.7% consider that the student always gives the indications of self-care in a timely manner. 88.1% responded that they always feel well cared for in the elderly clinics of the Santo Tomas University. 77.9% of the sample stated that the professional always listened to them carefully. Finally, 94.9% of the research participants report that they always respect their decisions. Conclusions: The patients cared for in the elderly clinics of the Santo Tomas University perceive the care as humanized and of quality. From the patients' perspective, there are three sociodemographic variables that significantly affect the humanized perception of the clinical practice provided in the elderly clinics of the Santo Tomas University, such as age, occupation, and level of education. To understand the perception of patients regarding the care provided in the dental clinics of the Santo Tomas University, studies are needed that address these experiences, under a phenomenological paradigm typical of qualitative methodology.