The Health care Professionals (HCPs) are the healthcare providers and researchers in the health institutions.Investing in HCPs' research potential will benefit society and improve the quality of health. A cross-sectional descriptive study was used with electronic surveys among 100 health care professionals (HCPs) to assess their perception on research utilization using a modified Barriers of Research Utilization (BRU) Scale. The majority of respondents were staff nurses (59%), followed by physiotherapists (22%), pharmacists (10%) and dieticians (9%). The results show that top two barriers were that "I feel I don’t have enough authority to change patient care procedures" and that "statistical analyses are not understandable". The respondents indicated that they needed managerial support, time, cooperation and support from colleagues, enthusiastic staff, access to research findings and training/ education as facilitators for research utilization.The present study also concludes that when compared to the other domains, organizational barriers scored the highest (P<0.01) as well as age, employment experience, and place of work were all associated with barriers to research utilization (P<0.05). The study concludes that a comprehensive approach should be developed to boost research utilization among HCPs.
Premalatha Paulsamy*, Krishnaraju Venkatesan, Absar Ahmed Qureshi, KalpanaKrishnaraju.
Lower academic performance, stress and behavioural issues are common among school students, contributing to dropouts. In recent findings, yoga as a mind-body intervention has been found to improve performance. A quasi-experimental research design was used with 520 and 485 students in study and control group. The study's participants were given mind-body intervention including simple yoga postures, pranayama and meditation for 40 minutes per day for 12 weeks, while the control group performed regular physical exercises like running, jumping, cycling etc.The findings show that there was a substantial improvement in their average mathematical solving capacities (43.01 ± 8.19 and 67.23 ±11.27) and language learning capacities in pre and post-test respectively at p<0.001. There is also a significant relationship among BMI and academic performance of study group (p<0.001). The study concludes that the mind body intervention improves the academic performance of school children and recommends to adopt it in the regular school curriculum.
Antiepileptic medications (AEDs) have been known to cause detrimental fetal consequences during pregnancy.Because of their epilepsy, one-third of women of reproductive age did not consider having children as they don’t get adequate education and access to health care. In this pre experimental study, one group pre and post-test only design was adopted and the data was collected among 23 women with epilepsy (WWE) who attend the neuro clinic at selected hospitals at Chennai. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the study samples. The teaching material about preconception counselling on epilepsy and the tool had been prepared after an extensive literature review which was validated by experts. The study results showed that the prospective mothers did not have adequate knowledge before counselling which is evident by the pre and post-test mean knowledge (5.76 ±1.19 and 13.08±2.11) respectively. After counselling, the WWE gained adequate knowledge which is significant at p<0.05. The study concludes that women are not getting adequate critical information regarding their illness and potential AED treatment side effects, which might have serious consequences on their health and that of their unborn child. Women with epilepsy should be evaluated on a regular basis and given timely information regarding the effects of their treatment and should be given chance to take informed choices about the pregnancy.
Life style changes in diabetic patients are mandatory in the management of the disease to maintain the blood glucose levels within normal limits and prevent complications. Self-efficacy of the DM patients will persuade them in making decisions about their self-care management. This study was aimed to determine the DM patients’ self-efficacy and its’ relationship with quality of life of them. A cross sectional, descriptive design was adopted and data was collected from 100DM patients using a self-administered Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale (DMSES) and the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36) Health Survey is used to assess quality of life. The results showed that 84% of patients with good self-efficacy have a good quality of life, the chi-square test revealed a positive correlation with self-efficacy and quality of life (p<0.01), which says that the DM patients with good self-efficacy have good quality of life. Appropriate and systematic education is essential to improve self-efficacy and improve the quality of life of diabetic patients.
Hypoglycemia is a dangerous consequence of diabetes. All diabetes patients should be aware of how to recognize hypoglycemia and how to treat it immediately so that treatment of hypoglycemia is not delayed, hospitalization is avoided, and life-threatening consequences from hypoglycemia are avoided. The aim of the present study is to assess effect the Provider - Patient communication (PPC) on knowledge on hypoglycemia among DM patients. A quasi experimental study design was adopted and initial 100 patients who attended the OPD were selected as control group and the pre and post-test were conducted as per protocol. The next 100 patients were selected for study group and pre-test, PPC and post test was conducted and both results were compared. After PPC, 71% of the study group had adequate level of knowledge compared to 4% in the pre-test. The pre-test mean score of knowledge of study group was 8.87±1.85 and the post-test mean score of knowledge was 23.71±4.12. The mean improvement score was 14.48 and the paired ‘t’ value of t = 18.637, which was found to be statistically highly significant at p<0.001 level. The study concludes that the DM patients should be given adequate knowledge regarding recognition and management of hypoglycaemia.
Premalatha Paulsamy*, Krishnaraju Venkatesan, L. Mahalakshmi, Ester Mary Pappiya, Pranave Sethuraj.
Menopausal health is becoming more important in India as life expectancy rises and the population of menopausal women grows. Most women in their midlife are either unaware of these signs or do not pay enough attention to them. The aim of the present study is to find the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and perceptions regarding menopause among menopausal women in a selected rural area. A cross sectional study was carried out among seventy five peri and post-menopausal women, who were selected using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected by interview technique using a modified Menopause Rating Scale (MRS). The most common somatic subscale symptom reported by both peri and postmenopausal women was hot flush as 54.1% and 81.0% of women, respectively. In terms of psychological subscale symptoms, 34% of postmenopausal women reported the greatest depressive mood. There was a significant association between employment status as well as religion with the perception of correct cause of menopause at p=0.05 and p=0.001 respectively. The study concludes that there were many misunderstandings regarding menopausal symptoms among the rural women and highlighted a need for more information and education about menopause to the women in their midlife to face this transition more effectively.
Medication errors can lead to adverse outcomes such as increased mortality, increased duration of hospitalization, and increased medical expenses. Thegoal of this study was to assess the level of knowledge among nurses on medication errors and their perception on the contributing factors to medication errors. A descriptive cross-sectional study with a self-administered questionnaire was used in this study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 50 registered nurses from 2 selected hospitals. The study results showed that the overall level of knowledge of nurses on medications was good that 56% nurses had medium level of knowledge, and 44 % had good level of knowledge and 10% of them had very good level of knowledge. The wrong infusion rate (30%) and administration of two doses of medicine instead of one (22%) were identified as the most common medication errors by the nurses.The complicated orders from the physicians is the significant factor (p=0.05) for the medication errors. The study concluded that though the nurses have good level of knowledge on medications, the continuous education on medication trends, is mandate to decrease the medication errors.
In hospital settings, “patient fall” has become a huge concern. Clients must be assessed on a regular basis to identify vulnerable patients who are at risk of falling. As a result, "fall risk assessment" aids in the planning of suitable preventive actions to reduce the chance of patients falling. Hence, the aim of the study is to assess the effect of a video assisted teaching (VAT) regarding fall risk assessment on knowledge and skills of nurses in selected hospitals. A Quasi- experimental, one group pre and post-test design was conducted with 66 randomly selected ICU nurses from two general hospitals. The training module and the tool were developed by the investigators and the reliability value is r = 0.79. The tool comprised of dichotomous questions (Yes/No) on knowledge and skills on falls risk assessment. Pre-test, Video assisted teaching followed by post-test after 2 weeks which showed that the knowledge and skills of the nurses improved significantly after VAT (p=0.05). The professional qualification and experience had significant association with the level of skills scores at p=0.05 level. The study concluded that the VAT is effective in improving the knowledge and skills of nurses on fall risk assessment.
Premalatha Paulsamy*, Krishnaraju Venkatesan, Pranave Sethuraj, M. D. Zaheen Hassan Ansari.
The achievement of ideal weight is one of the parameters taken into account when preterm new-borns are discharged from the hospital. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of massage, with or without kinesthetic stimulation, on weight gain of the preterm neonates. A randomized clinical trial with a quasi-experimental design was conducted to assess the effect of massage with or without kinesthetic stimulation (KS) on weight gain in medically stable premature (>2000 g and/or >34 weeks gestational age) neonates.Infants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: no intervention (control), massage therapy alone (massage), or massage therapy combined with KS (MKS). After controlling for variables, linear regression analysis was used to assess differences in average daily weight increase across the groups.For this study, a total of 60 preterm new-borns were enrolled, with 20 new-borns in each group. The findings show that in the intervention groups, average daily weight gain was higher than in the control groups especially in MKS. The massage therapy can endorse weight gain in low birth weight neonates and also leads to earlier discharge.
Premalatha Paulsamy*, Krishnaraju Venkatesan, Pranave Sethuraj, Absar Ahmed Qureshi.
Mental disease is often, but not always, the cause of psychiatric emergency. They necessitate immediate action to preserve the patient and others from death or other dire effects. Immediate treatment aimed at the acute manifestations is required, both to ease the patient's subjective symptoms and to prevent potentially harmful behaviour. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the effect of Social Media Assisted training (SMAT) on knowledge regarding management of psychiatric emergencies among nurses from selected hospital. A pre-experimental, one group pre and post-test design was adopted with sixty nurses who were selected using non-probability purposive sampling technique. In addition to demographic information, a self-administered questionnaire with 20 questions to assess the knowledge on management of psychiatric emergencies and teaching material was developed by the researchers. Pre-test, SMAT followed by post-test after 2 weeks was done. Regarding the knowledge of nurses on management of psychiatric emergencies, at the pre-test, 48% of the nurses had poor knowledge and 37% had fair knowledge on the management of psychiatric emergencies. But in the post-test, after STP, there were 73% of the nurses gained good knowledge and only 5% had poor knowledge which was significant at p= 0.01 level. The study concludes that there must be SMAT like training should be given during this pandemic which can empower the nurses to handle the psychiatric emergencies.
Premalatha Paulsamy*, Krishnaraju Venkatesan, Pranave Sethuraj, Absar Ahmed Qureshi.