Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and environmental health hazards among tea pluckers of Maddekanda tea estate in Balangoda Pradeshiya Saba Division, Sri Lanka

Background: Tea pluckers in Sri Lanka play a prominent role in supplying tea for the local and foreign demand. Long standing, bearing weight on back, repetitive hand movements, slip and falls due to walking on uneven grounds lead to various health problems among them. Thus, this study was aimed to assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and environmental health hazards among tea pluckers of Maddekanda tea estate in Balangoda area, Sri Lanka. Design and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 378 tea pluckers, recruited using simple random sampling method. Data were collected by validated, pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire and descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS v20.Results: The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in any region of the body was 68.5% (95% CI 63.6-73.2) among all participants and prevalence of lower back pain 43.4% (95% CI 38.3-48.8) was high compared to other site of pain. Nearly 98.4% had experienced of leech biting during their work as a main health hazard. Participants who had experienced stress (OR=2.12, 95% CI: 1.119-3.764), and worked for more than 20 years (OR=2.28, 95% CI: 1.37- 3.81) were nearly 2 times more likely to have musculoskeletal pain when compared to their counterparts.Conclusions: Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain were high among tea pluckers and lower back region was the common site of pain. Leech bite was the other dominant health problem faced by them. Stress, duration of work and age were associated with musculoskeletal pain

COVID-19: Impact on undergraduate nursing education in Sri Lanka

“Novel Corona Virus” (COVID-19) is a new infectious disease spreading all around the world that has a globally significant morbidity and mortality at present. Nurses as frontline care providers in hospitals and community are exposed to a major risk. This brief report aims at providing an overview of COVID-19 impacts on Sri Lanka and to highlight educational implications from the perspective of nursing degree programs. The major impacts of COVID-19 on nursing education were unequal access to online distance learning, disruption of academic calendars, cancellation of clinical placements, teaching and learning gap, lack of facilities for online learning, disruption towards professional development, and inability to conduct proper clinical assessments and standard operationalization procedures. It suggests that higher education institutions should take actions to provide material support for students from low-income households to close the gap between teaching and learning and training academics on different online teaching and learning strategies and assessments

Knowledge and Practices Regarding Self-Management of Minor Ailments among Pregnant Mothers

Background:  During pregnancy, mother faces many minor discomforts due to physiological, ana­tomical, psychological, biochemical and immunological adaptations occurs in their body. The wellbeing of pregnant mothers is threatened due to these minor discomforts and lead to un­neces­sary hospitalization. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge and practices regarding self-management of minor discomforts among preg­nant mothers attending to selected Antenatal Clinics (ANC), Medical Officer of Health (MOH) area, Batticaloa.     Subjects and Method: A cross sectional des­crip­tive study was conducted in selected ante­natal clinics among all registered antenatal mot­hers (n=238) attending to these ANCs. A vali­dated and pretested interviewer administered ques­­­­tionnaire was used to collect the data. Know­ledge on self-management of minor dis­orders was dependent variable and independent vari­ables were the sociodemographic status, eco­no­mic status and obstetric details of pregnant mot­hers. Descriptive and inferential statistic was per­form­ed to analyze the relevant data.   Results: Nearly half of the participants (54.6%) were in 20–29 years and 62% of them were primiparous mot­hers. Around 93% of them were experienced nausea and vomiting during their pregnancy and among them all were reported nausea and vomit­ing has been occurred during their 1st trimester. About 75% of them mentioned that home reme­dies are the best way to self-manage the minor dis­­­com­forts. The mean know­ledge score on minor discomforts and self-management was 12.16 (SD= 14.64). Majority of participants (94.1%) scored less than 50%. Knowledge score was sig­ni­fi­cantly associated with participant’s ethnicity, reli­gion, monthly income, educational level and their parity.Conclusion: The prevalence of minor dis­com­forts among pregnant mothers was high and preg­nant mothers have expressed that minor dis­comforts can be managed with home remedies. Further, knowledge level regarding minor dis­com­forts and their self-management was in­ade­quate.Keywords: Antenatal mothers, minor discomforts, knowledge, self-management, Sri LankaCorrespondence: Gnanaselvam Kisokanth. Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Email: [email protected]  Mobile: +94772228330Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2020), 05(03): 303-312https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2020.05.03.09 

Perceived work-related stress and coping strategies among critical care nurses – A preliminary study from Sri Lanka

Introduction: Work-related stress has become a major concern among the nurses over the years. Nurses experience a high level of work-related stress when work demands exceed their ability to cope. The study aimed to assess the perceived work-related stress level and coping strategies among nurses working in Critical Care Units at a Base Hospital in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among all staff nurses (105) working in critical care units. Data were collected using a validated and pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. A Perceived Stress Scale developed by Cohen et al. (1983) and validated in Sri Lanka was used to assess the work-related stress, along with coping strategies. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS version 21. Results: Around 30% of nurses had higher level of perceived stress while 45% had moderate level of perceived stress. Nearly 81% of nurses stated that religious activities are used as a common coping strategy. In addition, 96% of them used ‘positive thinking’ while 70% of them used ‘time management’ as the main coping strategy. Conclusion: The prevalence of work-related perceived stress among critical care nurses was high. Further, nurses use various emotion focused coping strategies such as regular engagement in religious activities and positive thinking and problem focused coping strategies such as time management and talk with friends/loved ones to overcome the work-related stress