African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery

African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery ISSN 2198-4638 Vol. 2 (6), pp. 295-299, August, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A study of Caesarian Sections in Cyprus: The direct and indirect costs of scheduled caesarian sections among pregnant women

*Tassos R. T, Demetris P. Akinci and Rauf Clerides

Department of Pediatric Nursing Health Management, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.

*Corresponding Authors E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 19 July, 2015

Abstract

The increase in the number of Caesarian Sections is an important public health issue both in terms of health and economic effects. Our aim was to illustrate their actual financial cost and to determine their frequency. The study was done in a public hospital. We measured the direct and indirect costs of scheduled caesarian sections among a convenience sample of 13 pregnant women in August 2013, using micro-costing “bottom-up” approach. This included salaries, pharmaceuticals, consumables, laboratory tests as well as the indirect cost of supporting services. For each patient a separate sheet was created. The hospital stay was on average 7 days. We performed a quantitative analysis and processed the data using the program Microsoft Excel. According to the findings, the financial cost amounted to €2,654.60 on average. The research revealed an increase in the caesarians from 4.11% in 1980 rose to 40.07% in 2012 with a total cost at about 14 million (2.5%) of the health budget. These finding will help informed decisions on introducing policies for the diminishing of the caesarian sections in the country

Keywords: Caesarean section, rates, trends, financial cost, Cyprus

African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery ISSN 2198-4638 Vol. 2 (5), pp. 131-138, May, 2015. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

An assessment of the knowledge and attitude of men towards vasectomy as a method of family planning in okada community, Edo state

*Alex T. Okri, Bimbo H. Akintola and Sade V. Tosin

Faculty of Nursing, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Accepted 19 April, 2015

Abstract

In the past, family-planning programs have focused attention primarily on women, because of the need to free women from excessive child-bearing, and to reduce maternal and infant mortality through the use of modern methods of contraception. Most of the family-planning services were offered within maternal and child health (MCH) centers, most research and information campaigns focused on women and this has reinforced the misconception that family planning is largely a woman’s business, with the man playing a very peripheral role especially in a society where male supremacy and virility is very important and is marked by Procreation. Hence, this is a descriptive study designed to assess the knowledge and attitude of men towards vasectomy as a method of family planning in okada community, Edo state. Accidental sampling technique was used to select 140 married men and questionnaire was administered. However only 136 of the questionnaire was retrieved and same analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with level of significance set at 5% (0.05). The study revealed that majority of the respondents was between the ages of 28 – 37 years and have at least one sexual partner. Despite the respondents’ knowledge of at least one form of male family planning methods, majority 85 (62.5%) had no knowledge of vasectomy while out of the 51 (37.5%) who claimed to have knowledge, only 18 (13.2%) had high knowledge the remaining 33(24.3%) had poor few knowledge of vasectomy. Most of the respondents also showed negative attitude towards vasectomy and believed that vasectomy should not be done by men and that females should be responsible for family planning but the decision on the method to use should be demanded from them as the head of the family. Cultural acceptance112 (82.4%), religious acceptance98 (72.1%), ignorance 96 (70.6%) and accessibility of family planning clinic 90 (66.2%) were the major factors influencing attitude of men towards vasectomy. The study also revealed that there was no significant association between academic attainment of respondents under study and their attitude towards vasectomy [X²⁼3.534, P-value = 0.171], as well as between marital status between and their attitude towards vasectomy [X²=0.436 P-value =0.804], with p > 0.05; however, significant association was found between the level of knowledge of respondents under study and their attitude towards vasectomy [X²= 4.918 P-value = 0.047] with p < 0.05. It was recommended that there is need to design effective information, education and communication strategies to reach men in every part of the federation on the need to actively participate in family planning, as well as intense value clarification and attitude transformation in order to improve men's attitudes towards vasectomy.

Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, men, vasectomy.

African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery ISSN 2198-4638 Vol. 2 (7), pp. 436-442, September, 2015.  © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Papers

A study to explore the perceptions of registered nursing staff towards the efficacy of clinical incident reporting in Ireland                                                                   

*Jonathan Little, Oscar Courtney, Eamon Stoker and Eoin Henr Williams

¹Department of Nursing Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Dublin, Ireland.

²Department of Nursing and Health Science, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Republic of Ireland.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 8 August, 2015

Abstract

Clinical incident reporting identifies actual and potential risks to patient safety and then eliminates those risks through a system of procedural changes, policy enactment or changes in staff education. This constitutes the first study to explore perceptions of registered nursing staff towards efficacy of clinical incident reporting in Ireland since the launch of the national “STARSweb” incident reporting system in 2004. A survey of 210 nurses using open and closed questions was conducted across three separate acute hospitals in the Irish midlands region. While the majority of participants (90%) had submitted at least one clinical incident report, few received prompt feedback (12%) or prior appropriate training (30%) on this topic. A clear definition of what participants understood of the term “clinical incident” was not evident. However, fear of repercussion or disciplinary action from management was not considered an issue in terms of barriers to reporting. However it is evident that further training in clinical incident reporting is required and modifications to reporting systems at governance level within hospitals are necessary in supporting staff in their work. When considering effective management of clinical incident reporting, managers should ensure that staff nurses receive appropriate feedback and promote the importance of this feedback to enhance clinical incident reporting.

Key words: Incident reporting, near miss, risk management, adverse event, clinical, human error.