TOPIC PERCEPTION OF GHANAIAN HEALTH STUDENTS TOWARDS THE LEARNING OF SIGN LANGUAGE AS COURSE

Communication remains among the top barriers to healthcare for deaf people. One of the reasons is healthcare professionals lack the competence to communicate health information in sign language. Part of the measures to alleviate this challenge was the introduction of sign language into the curriculum of health students. The perceptions of health students on this initiative were assessed in this study. The study used cross-sectional online survey to collect data from 666 randomly sampled health students in Ghana. Participants were recruited through social media platforms. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square was used to analyze the differences between categorical variables at the rate of 95% confidence intervals (p=0.05), and binary logistic was performed to ascertain predictors of health student’s perception about hospital should provide professional interpreters than students learning GSL. The study found that about 9 in 10 of all health students support the introduction of GSL as acourse. Student nurses perceive more benefits of learning GSL to the deaf community than all health students. Logistic regression revealed that students’ midwives were 2.183 times significantly more likely to support the view that hospitals should provide professional interpreters instead of health students learning GSL as compared with students who study Nursing (AOR: 2.183, CI: 1.104-4.316, p=0.025). To sustain the interest of students in the learning of GSl. Appropriate teaching and learning materials should be made available. Likewise, competent instructors should be recruited in the teaching of GSl. This can be done through a collaborative effort between stakeholders including KNUST, NMC, and the ministry of health.

沟通仍是听障人群获取医疗服务的主要障碍之一。究其原因，医疗从业者普遍缺乏使用手语传递医疗信息的专业能力。为缓解这一困境，相关举措之一便是将手语纳入医学生的培养课程体系。本研究针对医学生对该举措的认知态度开展评估。

本研究采用横断面在线调查（cross-sectional online survey）的方式，从加纳随机抽取的666名医学生中收集数据，研究对象通过社交媒体平台招募。本研究运用描述性统计（descriptive statistics）、卡方检验（Chi-square）（以95%置信区间、p=0.05为检验标准）分析分类变量间的差异，并通过二元logistic回归（binary logistic）分析，探究影响医学生对「医院应配备专业口译人员而非让医学生学习加纳手语（GSL）」这一观点的认知的预测因素。

研究结果显示，约九成医学生支持将加纳手语（GSL）作为课程纳入培养体系。相较于全体医学生，护理专业学生更能感知到学习加纳手语对听障群体的益处。二元logistic回归分析结果显示，与护理专业学生相比，助产学专业学生支持「医院应配备专业口译人员而非让医学生学习加纳手语」这一观点的概率显著高出2.183倍（调整后优势比[AOR]=2.183，95%置信区间[CI]=1.104~4.316，p=0.025）。

为维持学生学习加纳手语的积极性，应为其配备适配的教学与学习材料；同时，应聘请具备专业资质的手语教师开展教学工作。这一目标可通过包括夸梅·恩克鲁玛科技大学（KNUST）、护理与助产士委员会（NMC）以及加纳卫生部在内的多方利益相关者协同合作来实现。