Aim: With the aim towards better education of junior medical staff on chest tube management, we designed a questionnaire to survey their practice and at the same time to assess their level of understanding of the physical principles of chest tube and its drainage system.
Methods: The questionnaire was distributed to 130 junior medical staff (house officers, medical officers, trainee medical officers and specialist medical officers) from 7 Medical and Surgical Departments in Singapore General Hospital. Eighty-seven (66.9%) candidates responded. The mean age of the respondents was 27 +/- 2.1. They had an average of 3.2 +/- 1.9 years after basic medical qualification and 5 hospital postings. Nine respondents had obtained higher medical qualifications.
Results: About a quarter of the respondents, and 40% of those with higher medical qualifications gave appropriate answers. Ninety percent indicated that they received no lectures on chest tube management. Incomplete response ranged from 0% to 6%.
Conclusion: To improve education on chest tube management, our results and the feedback we obtained from the respondents, suggest that lectures on important physical principles of chest tube and its drainage system should be delivered to all junior medical staff.