[Assessing clinical education fields from the viewpoints of nursing and midwifery instructors in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 2006]

Promoting clinical education quality, requires continuous assessment of the current situations in clinical education fields, identifying the strengths, and improving the weaknesses. The aim of this study was to assess clinical education fields of School of Nursing and Midwifery from the viewpoints of its faculty members. This study which is a description of current situation in clinical education fields, was carried out during the second semester of 2004-2005 academic year. The study population included clinical education teachers of school of nursing who were selected by census sampling method through 4 sessions held with the members of different departments of medical surgical, midwifery, pediatrics, health and psychiatric nursing. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire consisted of two parts: Clinical teachers' demographic data and the characteristics of clinical education field including 5 parts of the feAutres of compiled education program in the field, appropriate learning fields, method of education, method of evaluation, and other indices. Clinical teachers assessed educational departments of pediatrics [54.2 percent], medical-surgical [43.8 percent], midwifery [61.6 percent], and health and psychiatric nursing [57.5 percent] as good and excellent. Considering compiled program, clinical education fields were described as good and excellent by 74.9 percent of the participants. Some strength of this aspect included introducing the course objectives at the first day of clinical education as well as presenting references according to the references introduced by the related ministry. Appropriate position of nursing students and instructors in the field and also the unimportant role of the educational department in the management of the educational field were amongst weaknesses of this aspect. Although some aspects of clinical education field were good and excellent, improving positive aspects and modifying the weaknesses may be an effective step in clinical education quality promotion. Continuous assessment of clinical fields and comparing the current situation with the previous situation can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of clinical education

[Prevalence of cleft palate and cleft lip among 20000 Iranian neonates]

Cleft lip [CL], cleft palate [CP] and their combination [CLP] and are the most common congenital head and neck anomalies. However, there is no certain study in this regards in our country. We performed an epidemiologic study to analyze the association of potential risk factors with the occurrence of oral clefts. This descriptive study was performed applying of existing data. Medical records of 20000 consecutive live born neonates delivered between April 2000 and June 2005 in Mahdie hospital, were reviewed and prevalence rate and probable maternal risk factors for these anomalies were calculated. Prevalence rate of oral clefts was 0.6/1000. Moreover, we found a prevalence rate of 0.15/1000 for CL, 0.25/1000 for CLP and 0.2/1000 for CP, respectively. These results indicated that the prevalence of oral clefts among neonates in Tehran city is so close to that of negroid newborns. Compared with previous reports in Iran, the obvious decrease in prevalence of oral clefts in our study may correspond that the mothers' anxiety is a major risk factor in development of oral cleft in newborns

[Comparing dressing with silver sulfadiazine and nitrofurazone on burn wound infection among the patients admitted to the pediatric burn ward in Tabriz, 2005]

Introduction: Burns are among the main public health problems throughout the world especially in the developing countries. In Iran burn injuries causes significant morbidity and mortality, especially among the pediatric population. Infection remains the most common cause of death in the severely burned patients. The proper use of topical antimicrobial agents decreases the occurrence of bacterial resistance and sepsis

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare two topical antimicrobial agents, Silver Sulfadiazine and Nitrofurazone, with respect to the rate of healing, infection and their treatment

Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study that used convenience sampling for 5 months on 60 cases that were admitted in the pediatric burn ward at the burn center of the Sina hospital, Tabriz, East Azarbijan, in 2005. Research population consisted of children who were admitted in this center and from among them; the patients who met the characteristics of research samples were selected after explaining the study to their parents and receiving their permission. They were allocated in random into two groups [control and experimental]. The tools were a questionnaire and a checklist. In this research one group was dressed with Silver Sulfadiazine cream and another group with Nitrofurazone and they were replaced once per day. For burn status assessment, in dressing change time, the wounds were considered regarding to the infection criteria and presence of epithelialization and granulation tissue. Also for each patient, bacterial cultures were taken three times by a swab. Descriptive and analytical statistics were performed using the X[2]-test and T-test by means of SPSS software [version 11.5]

Results: Statistical analysis didn't show any significant difference between the two groups with regard to clinical signs of infection [P= 1.000] and microbiological study [P= 0.739]. Also there wasn't any significant difference between two groups with regard to re- epithelialization time [P= 0.763], hospitalization days [P=0.818] and cost of confinement [P= 0.969]

Conclusion: In this study, our hypothesis based on a difference between two topical antibacterial agents was rejected and it was seen that the efficacy of two drugs [Silver Sulfadiazine 1% cream and Nitrofurazone] were parallel. It indicated that over use of one drug can't be a reason for its efficacy. It seems that more attention should be paid on selecting the drug for burned patient treatment