Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Nursing Education: How Students Study and Learn
Utilization of Medical Service Among Nursing Students
Hsiu-Min Tsai, PhD, RN1, Shiow-Li Hwang, RN, DNSc1, and Su-Jene Dou, MSN, RN2. (1) Nursing, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Kwei-Shan, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, (2) President's office, Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: 1. The learner will be able to recognize the relationship between demographic characteristics and medical service utilization among insured and uninsured nursing students.
Learning Objective #2: 2. The learner will be able to understand the reasons of medical service utilization among Taiwanese nursing students.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the utilization of medical services in insured and uninsured Taiwanese nursing students. Two major research questions included 1) what was the relationship of demographic characteristics to medical service utilization in Taiwanese nursing students with and without national health insurance? and 2) what were the reasons of using medical services in Taiwanese nursing students with and without national health insurance? Design: A two-group comparative design was used including insured and uninsured Taiwanese nursing students. Sample: Participants consisted of 164 females in a nursing school of 2-year and 5-year nursing program including 83 uninsured and 81 insured students. Method: Both quantitative and qualitative data were used. Quantitative method was used to obtain the data about the relationship between demographic characteristics and medical service utilization. Qualitative data were used to capture the reasons of medical service utilization among Taiwanese nursing students. Two instruments were used including a demographic information sheet and health status measured by the health-related quality of life (HRQOL). In the qualitative part, the reasons of using medical services were collected by asking participants to state what conditions they needed to see a doctor. Finding: The aboriginal nursing students were likely to be uninsured than non-aboriginal students. Uninsured participants more frequently reported living with a single parent than did the insured students. The insured nursing students had a slightly higher monthly household income than those uninsured. Participants reported 193 statements regarding the needs on seeing a doctor. These statements were grouped into four categories: (1) impaired physical health, (2) impaired mental health, (3) intolerance, and (4) preventive health. Impaired physical health and intolerance were the two most frequently reported reasons for the use of medical services by both insured and uninsured students. Only 3 students reported using medical services for preventive health.

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