High institute of nursing students perception of nursing as a career choice

The present study was done to assess the perception of the students of the first year, of the High Institutes of Nursing of the universities of Alexandria and Tanta of nursing as a career choice. The sample consisted of 200 students, 100 students randomly selected from each institute. A questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary data about the study subjects as well as their perception of nursing as a career choice, reasons for choosing it, their opinions regarding the advantages of nursing as a career, their opinions about reasons that induce "active nurses" to leave the profession, and their opinions regarding encouragement of a return to nursing profession. The findings revealed that the majority of the study sample in Alexandria and Tanta Universities [85%] perceived nursing as a career, while the minority of them did not perceive it as such. Nursing offers opportunities to manage a large group of people and to care for individuals, families and communities. Some students had misperception about nursing in the areas of considering nursing as a prestigious profession and designing and directing health programs. The findings also revealed that most of the study sample, both in Alexandria and Tanta choose nursing because they want to work with people. It is a job without a routine and a job with responsibility. The whole sample in Alexandria and Tanta stressed that they were put in the institute according to their total of marks attained in their GCE. They thought that the bad image of nursing, the nurses poor self-image, their low salary levels and other reasons induced "active nurses" to leave the nursing profession. Furthermore, the findings illustrated that it is very important to improve the nursing image both in hospitals and the community and to encourage a return to nursing profession

High Institute of Nursing [HIN] graduates' awareness regarding genetic counseling

The aim of this study is to assess graduate nurses awareness about genetic counseling. The sample consisted of 100 nurses from the University Maternity and Pediatric hospitals. A questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary data about the study subjects as well as about their awareness regarding genetic counseling, its definition, objectives, types, who seek help through genetic counseling, the proper time to diagnose genetic defects, where genetic counseling should be done, high risk groups, and role of the nurse in preventive intervention. The findings revealed that the H.I.N. graduates lacked the basic and essential information about genetic counseling as none of them had fair scores and 70% of nurses had poor scores. The lack of knowledge was great in certain aspects such as the objectives of genetic counseling, settings, high risk groups and finally the role of the H.I.N. graduate in preventive intervention. The factors that were significantly related to the H.I.N. nurses knowledge were age, occupation, marital status and years of experience. Discussion of results was done in the light of current literature and recommendations were made

Effect of a training programme on nurses knowledge of aspects of maternity care

The study was done to inquire about nurse knowledge, attitudes and practices that tanta nurse have regarding the preventive aspects of maternity care [BSE, pap smear and pelvic examination] and to find out the effect of training programme on their knowledge and attitides. The study was conducted on a selective basis, 50 nurses of different categories were selected for this study. The samples covered the different hospitals in Tanta and El Mahalla El Kobra. Of the fifty nurses who attended this programme, 26 were working in El Mabarrah hospital in El Mahalla El Kobra. The rest [24] were working in El Mabarrah and El Helal hospital and its related O.P. clinics in Tanta. They were equally divided into two groups. A structured pretest was designed and administrated to the nurses at the begining of the programme to collect hasic data, nurse's knowledge attitude and practices of BSE, pap smear and pelvic examination. The post test was administrated immediately after conducting the training programme to test the improvement in their knowledge and attitudes. The study revealed that most of nurses lacked the basic and essential knowledge in relation to BSE, pap smear and pelvic examination especially before the training programme. It also revealed that giving information and demonstration was significantly effective. It was also noticed that nurses who had correct and complete knowledge had favourable attitude toward BSE especially after performing the programme. The study also revealed that the main source of nurses' knowledge was gynaecologist, friends magazine, study and T.V.

Prevalence of premenstrual symptoms among HIN graduates

This study was done to find out the prevalence of perimenstrual symptoms among nurses and to find out the extent to which perimenstrual symptoms affect their work capacity and performance. The study was carried out at two different settings, on a randomly selected sample of 112 Higher Institute of Nursing graduates. They were interviewed according to a predesigned interview schedule. The results of this study revealed that premenstrual physical symptoms were quite prevalent and more severe among the study sample than psychologjcal perimenstrual symptoms. It was also observed that severe physical and psychological perimenstrual symptoms lead to undesirable consequences as lack of concentration and decreased work capacity and performance among nurses