[Assessing Stages of dietary change and nutrition attitudes in nursing and midwifery students in fatemeh faculty of nursing and midwifery in 2006, Shiraz]

Nutrition plays an important role in maintaining health and preventing diseases. Students' attitude toward foods can also have an important role in their nutritional behaviors. The study aimed at exploring the stages of dietary change with regard to socio-demographic variables [age, sex, marital status, year/field of education and BMI] and the nutrition attitudes of nursing and midwifery students of Fatemeh faculty of nursing and midwifery in Shiraz. This descriptive study was conducted on 300 freshmen to senior students of nursing and midwifery who were studying varyingly in first year of education to four. Trained interviewers interviewed the subjects based on the transtheoretical Prochaska model, by which the subjects are classified in six stages of changes in nutritional behaviors. Nutrition attitudes were assessed by three questions. All statistics were computed by the SPSS software data. It was found that 29.3% of the students were in the precontemplation stage and 50.3% of the students are in the dynamic stage [including contemplation, decision and action]. 11 and 9/3 percent of students were in the maintenance and relapse stages, respectively. Most of the students with average age of 21.5 were in the dynamic stage. Most men [48.8%] were in the precontemplation stage, and most women [53.6%] were in the dynamic stage. Most single and married subjects were in the dynamic stage [48.8%, 58.1% respectively]. Most freshmen to senior students [47.8%, 55.9%, 49.4%, 47.8% respectively] were in dynamic stage. Most of the subjects in the underweight, normal weight and overweight categories were in dynamic stage [53.9%, 49.6%, and 51.8% respectively]. Regarding eating attitude, the results demonstrated that most of the nursing [51%] and midwifery students [59%] feel a need to change their diet. Moreover, they think about the dietary aspects of their food [78.4%, 82% respectively]. In addition, they expressed their agreement to the item of seeking information regarding healthy diet [83.3%, 85.9% respectively]. The status of nursing and midwifery students considering stages of dietary change and their nutrition attitudes were positively appropriate. To consider nutrition principles for teaching to students, who are educating to manage patients' issues regarding their nutrition, seems to be an important factor in achieving such results. The study recommends duplicating the study on other nursing and midwifery students as well as in other university programmes

[Facilitating and preventing factors in learning clinical skills from the viewpoints of the third year students of Fatemeh School of Nursing and Midwifery]

Investigating the problems and barriers in learning clinical skills has been regarded in so many studies but the factors facilitating this process have not been taken into consideration. This study was performed with the aim to determine the facilitating and preventing factors in learning clinical skills from the viewpoints of third year students of Fatemeh School of Nursing and Midwifery in Shiraz. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 54 nursing students in their sixth semester were selected through convenience sampling method. A researcher made questionnaire including questions about demogra-phic characteristics and 67 questions about facilitating and preventing factors in learning clinical skills was distributed among the samples. The questions included the areas of the relationships between the student, staff, instructor and the patient; student's satisfaction with the teaching methods of instructors and staff; teaching methods of theoretical and practical lessons; the facilities provided by the hospital and university; and instructors' characteristics. The data was analyzed by SPSS software through descriptive statistics. The most facilitating factors in learning clinical skills belonged to Instructors' educational and scientific experiences in developing educational affairs [77.8%], the educational environment provided by the instructors for experiencing clinical skills by students [77.8%], paying attention to the patient's rights and needs [76%], and instructors' responsibility toward education [76%]. The most preventing factors in learning clinical skills were the stress felt in the ward [83.3%], lack of students' support by staff [66.6%], and staff's bad temperedness [64.8%]. Students were satisfied with the items in different areas but they were unsatisfied with the relationship between staff and students, and also the way that instructors presented the practical and theoreti-cal lessons. They mentioned these factors as the ones prevented their clinical learning. It is recommended to revise clinical education and take some appropriate action in order to provide a proper clinical education environment

[Comparison of post extubation complications in 3 different states of filling endotracheal tube cuff with lidocaine 4% in elective surgery patients]

Endotracheal intubation during general anesthesia is necessary to control the ventilation of patients during surgery. Nevertheless, the endotracheal tube as an external object can stimulate the patient's airway during the emergence from general anesthesia and create different reactions and complications. To prevent these reactions, a wide variety of interventions have been examined. In this study, post-extubation endotracheal tube complications are investigated in 3 different states of lidocaine 4% for filling endotracheal tube cuffs. In this quasi-experimental clinical trial study executed in one of Shiraz hospitals during 2005-2006, 200 candidates of elective surgery being in class1 and 2 ASA were randomly divided into 4 groups [N=50]. The endotracheal tube cuffs of each group members were filled with [5-10mI] distilled water, lidocaine 4%, alkalized lidocaine 4% and warmed alkalized lidocaine 4%, respectively. The patients were observed for complications such as cough [for 6 hrs], sore throat, hoarseness [for 24 hrs] and laryngospasm [immediately] after extubation. The data were analyzed by chi square and logistic regression using SPSS. The findings revealed that the frequency of cough, sore throat and hoarseness was more in the control [distilled water] group as compared to the 2 groups of the study [alkalized lidocaine 4% and warmed alkalized lidocaine 4%]. Distilled water and lidocaine 4% groups differed significantly in only the frequency of sore throat. The odds ratio of cough, sore throat and hoarseness was just significant for the distilled water group in comparison to warmed alkalized lidocaine 4%. Furthermore the odds ratio of the above-mentioned complications was significant for the distilled water and lidocaine 4% groups in comparison to the warmed alkalized lidocaine 4% group. Among all the considered variables, the duration of tube existence in trachea was significantly effective in the frequency of complications. Filling endotracheal tube cuffs with alkalized lidocaine 4% and warmed alkalized lidocaine 4% decreases the frequency of the post-extubation complications [cough, sore throat and hoarseness]. The odds ratio for the observed complications is less in the warmed alkalized lidocaine 4% group as compared to other groups