Value of Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester Pretreatment in Experimental Sepsis Model in Rats

Background and Aim. The aim of this study was to determine the actions of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on the changes of endothelin-1 (ET-1) level, tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) alpha, and oxidative stress parameters such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in experimental sepsis model in rats. Materials and Methods. Twenty-four rats were randomly divided into three experimental groups: sham (group 1), sepsis (group 2), and sepsis + CAPE (group 3), n = 8 each. CAPE was administered (10 µmol/kg) intraperitoneally to group 3 before sepsis induction. Serum ET-1, serum TNF-alpha, tissue SOD activity, and tissue MDA levels were measured in all groups. Results. Pretreatment with CAPE decreased ET-1, TNF-alpha, and MDA levels in sepsis induced rats. Additionally SOD activities were higher in rats pretreated with CAPE after sepsis induction. Conclusion. Our results demonstrate that CAPE may have a beneficial effect on ET and TNF-alpha levels and oxidative stress parameters induced by sepsis in experimental rat models. Therefore treatment with CAPE can be used to avoid devastating effects of sepsis

Imipenem-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Risk Factors for Nosocomial Infections

The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors for nosocomial infections of imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (IRPA). A prospective case-control study was performed at a tertiary care hospital in Ankara from January to December 2004. The patients with nosocomial P. aeruginosa infection were included in the study. The features of the patients with IRPA infections were compared to those with imipenem-sensitive P. aeruginosa (ISPA) infections. Only the first isolation of P. aeruginosa was considered. Nosocomial infections were defined according to Center for Disease Control (CDC) criteria. IRPA was isolated from 75 (44.1%) patients, and ISPA was isolated from 95 (55.9%) patients during the study period. IRPA were most frequently isolated from endotracheal aspirate (19%) cultures (p=0.048), whereas ISPA were most frequently isolated from urine (28%) cultures (p=0.023). In multivariate analysis, a longer duration of hospital stay until P. aeruginosa isolation (odds ratio [OR], 1.027; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.002-1.054, p=0.034), arterial catheter administration (OR, 2.508; 95% CI, 1.062-5.920, p=0.036), vancomycin (OR, 2.882; 95% CI, 1.130-7.349, p=0.027), piperacillin-tazobactam (OR, 6.425; 95% CI, 2.187-18.875, p=0.001), and imipenem (OR, 3.580; 95% CI, 1.252-10.245, p=0.017) treatment within the 14 days before isolation of IRPA were independently associated with imipenem resistance. It was concluded that treatment with imipenem, vancomycin and piperacillin-tazobactam were major risk factors for IRPA infections in hospitalized patients. The nosocomial occurrence of IRPA was also strongly related to the duration of hospital stay, arterial catheter administration

Determination of Accuracy of Nursing Diagnoses Used by Nursing Students in their Nursing Care Plans

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine and evaluate appropriateness of nursing diagnoses with NANDA taxonomy used by second year nursing students in their nursing care plans.Methods: Retrospective design.Findings: While care plans included 42 nursing diagnoses appropriate to NANDA II taxonomy, some phrases (n=30)were used as nursing diagnoses. Risks for infection, pain, activity intolerance, anxiety were the most frequently used diagnoses while nursing diagnoses in domains of cognitive-perceptive, self perception and role relations are very few.Conclusio: Performing case studies in clinical settings by using NANDA diagnoses, specifying difficulties experienced by nursing students’ and determining levels of discomfort while assessing the patients and determining the perceptions of nursing students by doing qualitative studies are recommended

The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Follow-Up and Treatment Process of Gynecological Cancers and Breast Cancer

The present review was written to describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on followup and treatment process of gynecological cancers and breast cancer in accordance with current literature, guidelines from national and international cancer associations. Recommendations were provided based on the consensus conference model. In the follow-up and treatment process of gynecological cancers and breast cancer, there are many factors, such as the clinical course of patient, the possibility of an emergency of the patient, the stage of the cancer and the current status of the chemotherapies. Although opinions in all types of cancer differ among themselves, general beliefs are postponement of non-urgent surgical operations, re-evaluation of chemotherapy processes, postponing appointments for new non-urgent diagnoses, reducing the length of hospital stay of patients in emergency procedures, conducting consultations by telemedicine or telephone, treatment of patients with COVID-19 suspicions after 15 days, planning biopsies or surgeries according to the staging status of cancers and planning conferences as video conferences in cases that require a multidisciplinary approach. Patients diagnosed with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic should not be lost, followup and treatment should be continued without disruption, patients should be remembered to be in the high-risk group in this process and necessary hygiene measures should be taken in both follow-up and treatment concerning risks and COVID-19 pandemics

Food Safety Awareness and Opinions of the Nursing and Medical Students at Gaziantep University

AIM: Food safety is defined as the prevention of any decay or contamination in food substances until they are ready for consumption. Foodborne diseases are a growing public health problem. Our research was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the food awareness and associated opinions of the students at the Faculty of Medicine and the Nursing Department of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Gaziantep University. METHOD: The research was conducted with the students at the Faculty of Medicine and the Nursing Department of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Gaziantep University between 8 March and 26 March 2010 and with 175 students who accepted to participate in the research. Verbal consent was obtained from the students before the initiation of the research. Data were collected by the researchers by face-to-face interview technique and by using a questionnaire of 20 questions which was prepared after a review of literature. Collected data were evaluated by using chi-square and student t-test analysis assessed by SPSS 11.0 program. RESULTS: Approximately 62.9% of the students were between 18-20 years of age. It was determined that 56.0% of the students were interested in food safety, 50.9% did not think that the food they consumed was safe, 41.7% paid attention to brand and nutrition values and whether the food is organic when they do food shopping. All students considered safety as a crucial factor in food consumption (100%), 60.0% paid attention to nutrition values, 58.3% paid attention to the expiry date and 41.8% paid attention to the brand on the package of food substances while shopping. Most of the students responded to the statement “food additives are carcinogen” as “yes” (70.9%); while 66.3% of the students responded as “I have no idea” to the statement “Additives with code E are not harmful to health”, and 55.4% of the students responded as “No” to the statement “all additives are harmful to human health”. It was also determined that 92.6% of the students agreed with the statement “spoiled food and meals should be discarded”. CONCLUSION: It was found that nursing students had a significantly greater interest in food safety [TAF Prev Med Bull 2012; 11(4.000): 438-446

The knowledge of doctors and nurses who are not working in clinics related with child health on breast feeding

yapıldı. Yöntem: Araştırma bir üniversite hastanesi ve devlet hastanesinde Nisan- Eylül 2006 tarihleri arasında yapılmış olup, örneklemini ise doğumhane, çocuk ve kadın-doğum servisleri dışında çalışan 200 hekim ve hemşire oluşturdu. Verilerin toplanmasında araştırmacıların geliştirdiği bilgi formu kullanıldı. Veriler SPSS for Windows 13.0 programında, Yüzdelik, Ki-kare, Fisher’s Exact, Kolmogorov-Simirnov Z testleri kullanılarak değerlendirildi. Bulgular: Araştırma bulgularında; araştırmaya katılanların %76’sının hemşire, %24’nün hekim olduğu ve %67,5’nin daha önce koruyucu sağlık hizmetlerinde çalışmadığı belirlendi. Araştırma sonucunda; araştırmaya katılanların yarısından daha azının öğrenim sonrası bebek ve çocuklarla ilgili kurs/sempozyum/seminerlere katıldığı belirlendi. Lisans ve lisansüstü eğitimi alan hemşirelerin ise lise ve ön lisans eğitimi alanlara göre; taurinin anne sütünde büyümeyi destekleyen önemli bir madde olduğuna daha fazla inandığı belirlendi. Anne sütünde; proteinlerin, yağların, laktozun ve kolesterolün miktarları konusunda, mama içeriğinden üstünlüğü ve ek gıdaya başlama zamanı hakkındaki bilgi düzeyleri karşılaştırıldığında, meslekler arasında anlamlı fark bulunmadı. Sonuç: Bu sonuçlardan yola çıkarak; hekim ve hemşirelerin anne sütü ile ilgili kurs/sempozyum/seminerlere katılımı teşvik edilmesi ve Anne sütüyle ilgili değişen ve gelişen bilgilerden haberdar edilmesi, ayrıca hemşirelerin, teorik donanımlarını kolaylıkla ortaya koyabilecekleri uygulama alanlarının oluşturulması önerilebilir.Aim: Regardless of their department they work, all doctors and nurses were consulted for their experiences about every point on health due to being an health proffesional. Method: For this reason, this study is a descriptive study that aims to determine the knowledge of doctors and nurses who are not working in clinics related with child health on breast feeding. This study was performed in an university hospital and a national hospital between April 2006 and September 2006. The total of 200 samples were selected from doctors and nurses who were not study in delivery room, pediatric clinics or obstetric-gynecologist clinics. The datas were collected by a form that was developed by researchers. These datas were evaluated by percentage, chi-square, Fisher’s exact, Kolmogorov-Simirnov Z tests in SPSS for Windows 13.0. Results: In this study, it was determined that 76% of participants were nurse, 24% of participants were doctor and 67.5 % of participants hadn’t worked in a preventive (primary) health services. It was determined that less than half of participants had attended to course/seminar/symposiums after their education. Therefore, it was also determined that the nurses who were undergraduate or master students believed that taurin; is an importat molecule present in breast milk; supports the growth of babies more commonly than the nurses who were high school graduated. There was no difference between the professions in comparisions of levels of knowledge about the amounts of protein,lipid, lactose and cholesterol in breast milk, the superiority of breast milk over formula and time of beginning of additional nutrition. Conclusions: According to these findings, it can be suggested that doctors and nurses should be incited to participate in course/seminar/symposiums about breast feeding, they should be informed for new informations about breast feeding and it should be created practice areas where nurses can easily perform their theoretical knowledges

Effects of Planned HIV/AIDS Education on Attitudes towards AIDS in Beginning Level Nursing Students

Purpose: The aim of this study is to describe nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes towards people with AIDS anddetermine effects of planned education on perceptions of students towards AIDS.Sample: The sample of this study consisted of first year undergraduate nursing students (n=88). Data were collected using aquestionnaire; related to socio demographic variables, sources of knowledge about HIV/ AIDS and the ways of AIDStransmission, willingness of students to provide care for patients with AIDS. Attitude Scale (AAS) was used to determineattitudes of students towards AIDS.Results: Close to half of the students believed that taking care of AIDS patients makes their job high risk occupation andthey also feel angry to homosexuals because they increase the risk of AIDS. Getting infected is one of the biggest fears ofnursing students while caring AIDS patients (67%). Although introduction of education did not change nursing students’intentions to give care for AIDS patients, statistical differences were found on students’ level of knowledge about AIDS aftereducation (p <0.001).Conclusion and implications Findings of this study have strong implications in methods used for AIDS education and needfor special and detailed education program on AIDS

Epidemiological study of self-reported sleep problems in Turkish high school adolescents

BackgroundThe aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency and correlates of a variety of sleep problems in adolescents

Mokken scaling of the Caring Dimensions Inventory (CDI-25)

Aims and objectives. To validate a Turkish version of the Caring Dimensions Inventory in a group of Turkish nursing students. Background. There are no studies about how nurses or nursing students perceive caring in nursing in Turkey. There is also no valid and reliable instrument in Turkey for evaluating caring in nursing. Design. Descriptive study design. Methods. Using a convenience sample of nursing students (n=266), standard forward-back translation techniques were used with the Caring Dimensions Inventory. An expert panel considered the translations and provided content validation. A final version of the Caring Dimensions Inventory was tested with 10 nursing students, and we found no difficulties with the items in the instrument. Mokken Scaling analysis of the Caring Dimensions Inventory was used. Results. A range of psychosocial and professional/technical items was included in the Mokken scale with 'Providing privacy for a patient' as the most endorsed (mean=4•66) item and 'Being with a patient during a clinical procedure' being the least endorsed (mean=3•87). There is a tendency for the most endorsed items to be psychosocial with the professional/technical items being less endorsed, with the exception of the least endorsed item 'Being with a patient during a clinical procedure' which is a psychosocial item. Conclusion. The Turkish version of the Caring Dimensions Inventory is a reliable instrument for measuring nurses' perceptions about caring. Relevance to clinical practice. The results using the Caring Dimensions Inventory will help to identify how caring in nursing is perceived by nursing students in Turkey. Repeating this study in different groups such as working nurses will help to determine nurses who work in clinical settings perceive caring in nursing