appropriateness of educational programs' objectives for professional needs: the viewpoints of Khorramabad school of nursing and midwifery graduates

Evaluating the educational programs from the viewpoints of graduates may identify the weaknesses of such programs and provide the opportunity for their improvement. This study was performed to determine the appropriateness of educational programs for professional needs from the viewpoints of graduates of Khorramabad School of Nursing and Midwifery. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in the years 2006-2007 on 407 nursing and midwifery graduates who had graduated during 1999-2005. A questionnaire containing items about demographic data, appropriateness of educational programs objectives for professional needs, and factors influencing the quality of educational programs was sent to participants by mail and completed by them. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and Chi-square. Most of the nursing [72.9%] and midwifery [72.4%] graduates evaluated their competencies in taking care of patients as high. They also evaluated the training courses more effective on professional efficacy compared to practical and theoretical courses. From the graduates' points of view, the acquired skills during their academic years fulfilled their professional needs moderately, and lacking the essential skills made the nurses more strained than the midwives [37.1% and 22.4%, respectively]. Factors affecting the quality of educational programs were reported by the graduates to be qualified faculty members and instructors, facilities for clinical education, educational environment, used teaching methods, educational facilities of the school, and the availability of scientific resources. Professional needs of nursing and midwifery graduates are not fully covered by educational programs. It seems necessary to change the educational programs and provide required means and facilities in order to achieve the professional objectives and train skilled and productive human resources

[ effect of water birth on the duration of labor and pain level in comparison with land birth]

Due to the objectives of the World Health Organization and ministry of health concerning decreasing the rate of cesarean section, elective cesarean substitutes have to be investigated. Consequently, this study tried to evaluate the effect of water birth as a vaginal delivery method without the physician intervention on decreasing the pain level and the labor duration. This clinical trial study was carried out on 100 G1 and G2 pregnant women of 38 to 42-week pregnancy referring to Assalian Clinic. The samples were divided into two 50-member groups undergoing either water birth or land birth. The labor duration, as well as the pain level were evaluated and analyzed statistically using Chi-Square, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Mann-Whitney test, and the p< 0.05 criterion was considered to be significant. We found that the average duration of the active phase of pregnancy for water birth was 3.1 +/- 0.8 hours compared to the same duration in the opposite group which was 4.7 +/- 0.8 hours showing a statistically significant decrease [p<0.05]. Moreover, the duration of the second stage of water birth group was 0.53 +/- 0.22 hours in comparison with 0.88 +/- 0.43 hours for the second group. Based on the p<0.05 criterion, the duration of the second stage of labor significantly decreased for water birth. The pain levels were determined in both groups using Visual Analog Score, which are: 3.53 +/- 0.79 and 6.96 +/- 1.7 for water birth and land birth respectively based on the criterion, and the decrease in the pain level was considered to be significant for water birth. Results of the study suggested that the water birth may have been a non-pharmaceutical and non-invasive substitute for the selected cesarean cases due to the shorter labor, the lower pain level, and the lowered physician intervention