Application of a proposed graphic chart for pain as fifth vital sign in nursing practice

The American pain society considered pain [the fifth vital sign] to be assessed as important as assessment of the standard four vital signs, careful and regular assessment of pain improves the perception of nurses concerning the impact of pain on their patients lives to enhance the quality of its management .Therefore, the present study aimed at examining the applicability of a proposed graphic chart for pain as fifth vital sign in nursing practice in Taif hospitals KSA. An exploratory descriptive research design was carried out in seven units including]medical, two surgical, obstetric and gynecologic, cardiac, orthopedic and chest observation units] in three governmental hospitals in Taif. The study subjects consisted of 59 nurses available at the time of the study. An interview questiormaire, nurses' opinionnaire scale, nurses' audit and proposed five vital signs graphic chart were used for data collection. Results revealed that nurse's mean age was 22.5 [SD.6.71] years, experience was 4.76 [SD.3.32] years and the highest proportion of participants 74.58% were non Saudi. The majority of nurses agreed upon chart feasibility [74.5%]and quality of pain care [69.4 and]. Overall 72.8% of the nurses agreed upon the proposed graphic chart. Auditing of patients files revealed full application of the new change by 76.27%, 70.62% of nurses for graphic part and 75.14% for pain assessment part. It is concluded that the majority of the nurses had full application of the proposed change and it is recommended to be implemented in nursing practice in different health settings

Comparison of caries in 6-7 year old Saudi girls attending public and armed forces schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the prevalence of caries among 6-7 year old Saudi school girls attending the public and Armed Forces schools in Riyadh and to provide baseline data for future Interventions in the development of oral health care. Three public and three Armed Forces schools were randomly selected and 100 children from each type of school were examined. Mean dmft for girls attending public schools was 6.0 [SD +/- 3.7] and was 8.1 [SD +/- 4.1] for Armed Forces schools while caries-free dentitions were 7.1% and 3.0%, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the means for dmft [P<0.01] and those for caries-free children [P<0.05], among the two types of schools examined. Clearly, there is a real need for oral health promotion and care for the Saudi school girls 6-7 years of age