ABSTRACT
Background: The death of a fetus is emotionally traumatic for the parents. It is also distressing for the treating obstetrician. Besides being emotionally challenging, fetal demise raises a lot of questions and increases an obstetrician’s medicolegal risk. The aim of this study was to identify various maternal conditions and socio-demographic factors associated with fetal death and to find the preventable causes of fetal death.Methods: A retrospective observational study was undertaken at Lalla Ded Hospital, Srinagar, Kashmir - a tertiary care centre. The cases of singleton intrauterine fetal deaths (IUFD) with either ultrasound reports proving IUFD or diagnosed on clinical examination by absence of fetal heart sound with gestational age >28 weeks were included. Exclusion criteria includes molar pregnancy and multiple pregnancy.Results: Still birth rate in our study was 19.6 per 1000. Most of the patients with stillbirth belonged to age group of 21-30 years accounting for 67.1% of all cases. Unbooked cases comprised of 58.9%. Most of the study patients i.e. 74.7% belonged to lower middle class. In our study 39% of stillbirth cases were in the range of 28-32 gestational weeks followed by 33.6% cases in 33-37 gestational weeks. Maternal hypertensive disorders had a strong association with IUFD 33.6% (pre-eclampsia 27.4%, eclampsia 6.2%). This was followed by placental abruption comprising 11.7%. Gestational diabetes and severe anaemia accounted for 6.2% and 3.4% respectively. Gross congenital anomalies and fetal infections contributed 2.7% and 2% respectively.Conclusions: Routine antenatal checkups with identification of high risk pregnancies, better access to emergency obstetric care especially during labor, emphasis on institutional deliveries community birth attendant training should help in reducing stillbirth rates in developing countries. Optimal evaluation for future pregnancy is necessary. Counseling and support group should be involved.
ABSTRACT
As focus has shifted from the healthcare providers to the healthcare consumers; patient satisfaction is being increasingly used worldwide for the assessment of quality of services provided by healthcare institutions. To understand patient satisfaction, [patient's perception] of care must first be understood. Of all the healthcare workers nurses spend maximum time with the patients. Therefore, the nurse is in a unique position to influence and promote effective consumer relationships. Though patient satisfaction surveys with nursing care are routinely conducted in the developed world to monitor and improve the quality of care, the same is not true for the developing world especially in the Indian subcontinent. To conduct a study of patient's perception of nursing care in a large teaching hospital. A prospective study spread over a period of one year was carried out. Sample size consisted of seven percent of patients each admitted as emergency and routine. All the randomly selected patients were administered questionnaires, thus obtaining a sample size of 2600. Of these 2500 questionnaires were usable for data analysis [valid response rate of 81.65]. The results of the study revealed a relatively higher percentage of patients with poor perception regarding [explanation and information], and [caring attitude] aspects of nursing care [31.6% and 11.5% respectively]. However more than 95% patients had good perception of [responsiveness], [availability] and [ward organization] capability of the nurse. Patient satisfaction surveys should become a regular outcome monitoring feature in all the hospitals. Also in-service training programs for nurses, with special emphasis on communication are need of the hour and should become a regular exercise