To Compare Perceived Stress In Shift Duty Health Professionals

Background:Shift work is common in modern society, and includes several professions responsible for the health and safety of others e.g. health care, police, and fire response. Perceived stress in Health Professionals could be regarded as being of special concern. Indeed, it is thought that level of psychological stress may be higher in Health Professionals than in other occupational groups. Objectives- To compare Perceived stress in shift duty health professionals. Methods: This was an observational, cross sectional study conducted at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. The socio demographic profile of subjects was recorded and they were subjected to perceived stress scale. The observations and data obtained were statistically analysed using the software statistica 7.0 and SPSS 20. Results andConclusion: Results revealed that junior residents had more perceived stress as compared to staff nurses, interns, pharmacists and other health professionals. Our study has concluded that periodic assessment and evaluation of health professionals is essential to know their perceived stress.

An Epidemiological Survey of Alcohol and Drug Dependence in a Village of district Sangrur, Punjab.

Background: Drug abuse has become a curse affecting almost every country though the extent and characteristics vary in different countries. The non medical use of habit forming drugs is not a new phenomenon. About 190 million people all over the world consume one drug or the other. Drug addiction causes immense human distress and illegal production and distribution of drugs have spawned crime and violence worldwide. According to world drug report, 2009 there were 25,71,52582 alcohol users, 8,22,88826 alcohol dependents, 82,28,883 cannabis users and 2,057,221 opiate users in India. Material and method: This Study was conducted in the Village Chhajli in District Sangrur of Punjab having a population of 10939 and having 2124 houses, from 15th February to 30th March 2009. Houses were marked randomly. Udai-Pareek scale,, Detailed drug abuse Schedule, 22 question Michigan Addiction Screening Test and 20 question drug addiction screening Test by Harvey was used n interview., ICD-10 criteria was applied to make diagnosis of substance dependence. The data collected was statistically analyzed. Results: Prevalence of substance abuse in this rural population was 39.3% out of which single substance abuse was 32.1%, two substances 4.9%, three substance 1.3% and four substances 1% of the surveyed population. 17.9% of population were single substance dependent while 3.7% of population was two substance dependent. 0.4% and 0.6% of the population were dependent on three and four substances respectively. Average age of onset of substance abuse was during the age 15-24 years. Maximal substance abuse was seen in illiterate patients. Socio-economic status was also a determinant of the type of substance abused with lower classes showed a preference for alcohol and tobacco, while opium was favored by the higher classes. Duration of use was 6-10 years for both alcohol and opioids. Conclusion: As a lot of development and changes have occurred in last two decades in terms of newer substances and newer routes of consumption, the findings of old studies may not be of much relevance in the present scenario. Hence the present study was carried out to assess the prevalence and pattern of alcohol and drug dependence in rural areas of Punjab.

Methane emission from rice fields in relation to management of irrigation water.

A field experiment was conducted for two years to find out best water management practice to mitigate methane emission from the rice-fields. Continuously flooded conditions yielded two major flushes of methane emission and on an average resulted in relatively higher rate of methane emission (2.20 and 1.30 mg m-2 hr-1, respectively in 2005 and 2006) during the kharif season. The methane flux was reduced to half (1.02 and 0.47 mg m-2 hr-1, respectively in 2005 and 2006) when rice fields were irrigated 2-3 days after infiltration of flood water into the soil. Irrigating the field at 0.15 bar matric potential reduced seasonal methane flux by 60% (0.99 and 0.41 mg m-2 hr-1, respectively in 2005 and 2006) as compared to completely flooded conditions, without any decline in grain yield (60 q ha-1).

Effect of organic materials and rice cultivars on methane emission from rice field.

A field experiment was conducted for two years on a sandy loam (Typic Ustochrept) soil of Punjab to study the effect of organic materials and rice cultivars on methane emission from rice fields. The methane flux varied between 0.04 and 0.93 mg m-2 hr-1 in bare soil and transplanting of rice crop doubled the methane flux (0.07 to 2.06 mg m-2 hr-1). Among rice cultivars, significantly (p < 0.05) higher amount of methane was emitted from Pusa 44 compared to PR 118 and PR 111. Application of organic materials enhanced methane emission from rice fields and resulted in increased soil organic carbon content. The greatest seasonal methane flux was observed in wheat straw amended plots (229.6 kg ha-1) followed by farmyard manure (111.6 kg ha-1), green manure (85.4 kg ha-1) and the least from rice straw compost amended plots (36.9 kg ha-1) as compared to control (21.5 kg ha-1). The differential effect of organic materials in enhancing methane flux was related to total carbon or C:N ratio of the material. The results showed that incorporation of humified organic matter such as rice straw compost could minimize methane emission from rice fields with co-benefits of increased soil fertility and crop productivity.

Isolated tubercular splenic abscess.

Splenic abscess due to tuberculosis is extremely rare in immunocompetent individuals. We report a case of tubercular splenic abscess (TSA) in an immunocompetent individual for its rarity.

Comparative evaluation of intramuscular buprenorphine, pentazocine and nefopam in post-operative pain relief.

In immediate postoperative period, many injectable analgesics are being used with diverse side effects. The present study was conducted on 75 patients of both sexes, who underwent various types of surgery, to evaluate pain relief in immediate postoperative period. The drugs used for producing postoperative analgesia are buprenorphine, pentazocine and nefopam, all by intramuscular route.