A study to assess the effectiveness of clinical teaching on the level of knowledge regarding nursing care bundle to prevent ventilator associated pneumonia among ICU nursing officers at AIIMS Bhopal

Background: Healthcare is a professional area bound to the ethical foundation of “do no harm.”, But in the current scenario, a rush to promote the curative scenario has led to the total downplay of the preventive aspect of care. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge regarding nursing care bundle for the prevention of VAP among nursing officers before and after clinical teaching and to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical teaching. Methods: This pretest-post-test study was conducted on nursing officers working in the ICU of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. 100 nursing officers were enrolled in the study via convenience sampling technique. The self-structured tool was validated by 10 experts with a mean CVI value of 0.94. The reliability of the self-structured knowledge questionnaire was determined by the test-retest method and found to be 0.87. The collected data was analysed for frequency, mean, standard deviation, t-test, and association. Results: Findings showed that the mean knowledge score was 18.46±3.543 before intervention. After the intervention of video-assisted clinical teaching, a post-test was conducted, and the mean post-test knowledge scores was 25.07±2.801 at the p value <0.01. Knowledge of subjects about nursing care bundle for prevention of VAP was found to have a significant association with only educational qualification. Conclusions: This study's findings concluded that educational interventions are necessary for the enhancement of knowledge and better compliance of nursing officers with guidelines regarding the bundle of care for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia

Resting and feeding preferences of Anopheles stephensi in an urban setting, perennial for malaria

Background: The Indian city of Chennai is endemic for malaria and the known local malaria vector is Anopheles stephensi. Plasmodium vivax is the predominant malaria parasite species, though Plasmodium falciparum is present at low levels. The urban ecotype of malaria prevails in Chennai with perennial transmission despite vector surveillance by the Urban Malaria Scheme (UMS) of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP). Understanding the feeding and resting preferences, together with the transmission potential of adult vectors in the area is essential in effective planning and execution of improved vector control measures. Methods: A yearlong survey was carried out in cattle sheds and human dwellings to check the resting, feeding preferences and transmission potential of An. stephensi. The gonotrophic status, age structure, resting and host seeking preferences were studied. The infection rate in An. stephensi and Anopheles subpictus were analysed by circumsporozoite ELISA (CS-ELISA). Results: Adult vectors were found more frequently and at higher densities in cattle sheds than human dwellings. The overall Human Blood Index (HBI) was 0.009 indicating the vectors to be strongly zoophilic. Among the vectors collected from human dwellings, 94.2% were from thatched structures and the remaining 5.8% from tiled and asbestos structures. 57.75% of the dissected vectors were nulliparous whereas, 35.83% were monoparous and the rest 6.42% biparous. Sporozoite positivity rate was 0.55% (4/720) and 1.92% (1/52) for An. stephensi collected from cattle sheds and human dwellings, respectively. One adult An. subpictus (1/155) was also found to be infected with P. falciparum. Conclusions: Control of the adult vector populations can be successful only by understanding the resting and feeding preferences. The present study indicates that adult vectors predominantly feed on cattle and cattle sheds are the preferred resting place, possibly due to easy availability of blood meal source and lack of any insecticide or repellent pressure. Hence targeting these resting sites with cost effective, socially acceptable intervention tools, together with effective larval source management to reduce vector breeding, could provide an improved integrated vector management strategy to help drive down malaria transmission and assist in India's plan to eliminate malaria by 2030

Characteristics of Organic Manures and Its Effect on Physical Properties of Soil in Pearl Millet

Organic manures are rich source of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, which are essential for plants. It also contains organic matter that improves soil structure, water-holding capacity, and aeration. The study focused on evaluating two types of organic manures, i.e. Farmyard manure (FYM) and vermicompost. Results showed that vermicompost had higher nutrient content them FYM. A field experiment was conducted during kharif season 2018 at Agronomy farm, S.K.N. College of Agriculture Jobner (Rajasthan). The design of experiment was factorial randomized block design with three replications. The experiment comprised five treatments of organic manures (Control, vermicompost @ 2.5 t ha-1, vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1, FYM @ 5 t ha-1 and FYM @ 10 t ha-1) and four treatments of fertility levels (Control, 50 per cent RDF (recommended dose of fertilizer), 75 per cent RDF  and 100 per cent RDF). The variety used for experiment was RHB-173 of pearl millet. Results showed that the application of FYM @ 10 t ha -1 significantly decreased the bulk density and increased the saturated hydraulic conductivity over control. The maximum water retention of soil (12.86 per cent and 3.28 per cent) at 33kPa and 1500 kPa were recorded under the treatment vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1 being at par with FYM @ 10 t ha -1. Thus, addition of FYM @ 10 t ha -1 improves the physical soil properties