Staff and professional development methods: facilities available and used by hospital nurses of north India.

Self prepared questionnaires and opinionnaire after checking their validity and reliability were administered to 172 Nursing staff comprising of four Nursing Administrators, 33 Nursing sisters and 135 bedside Nurses of randomly selected four district hospitals, representing four Northern states of India. The data revealed that staff and professional development methods including orientation to newly joined staff was negligible. Whereas skill training programs, management training, conferences and seminars were attended only by few Nurses. Other methods like case discussions supervisory rounds, demonstrations used by their hospitals as learning methods were reported by 15.5% Nurses. However, all Nursing staff desired to have in service education at their working place. Hence, there is need for the provision of on the job and off the job training methods.

Health awareness and treatment compliance of high blood pressure among women in a peri-urban colony of Chandigarh, India.

Health awareness is a central issue in the control of hypertension. In a cross-sectional survey among 1727 women of > 30 years, 2 blood pressure recordings were done in 1686 cases. The prevalence of hypertension was found to be 13.1% (221 out of 1686 cases). A random sub sample of 72 hypertensive women above 30 years of age from a peri-urban colony of Chandigarh was selected to find out health awareness and treatment compliance of hypertension. Sixty-three (87.5%) of the selected women were aware of their high blood pressure. However, only 12 women (16.7%) who were on treatment had achieved control of blood pressure (< 140/90 mm Hg). Main reasons for discontinuing the treatment were ignorance about the need of regular treatment (33.3%), high cost of medicines (19.44%) and non-availability of a family member who can go with the patient to hospital (9.72%). Twenty-six (36.1%) hypertensive women did not know the importance of weight reduction for controlling high blood pressure. Twenty-three (31.9%) hypertensive women were currently smoking. A comprehensive health education approach involving health care professionals, patients and general population should be launched to improve the care of hypertensives in the community.

Breast self examination for early detection of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the commonest form of cancer in women in Western countries and second most common in women of developing countries like India. In the absence of an exact aetiological agent for breast cancer, the most appropriate way of controlling it is by early detection and treatment. Of the various methods of screening for breast cancer, mammography is the method of choice but its use is limited due to high cost and unavailability. Considering this, breast self examination (BSE) is an ideal method which can be done by every woman at her leisure time with little training. Medical and paramedical professionals can act as trend setters in promoting BSE for control of breast cancer in the community.

Knowledge and self-care practices of diabetics in a resettlement colony of Chandigarh.

Self-care is an important component of diabetes control programme. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in a resettlement colony of Chandigarh and 60 diabetics aged 20 years and above were identified. Their knowledge and practices regarding diet, genital hygiene, care of foot, wound, complications of diabetes and medication was assessed using a semistructured interview schedule. Most of them (60%) opined that diabetic should consume whatever is cooked in the family. Forty eight diabetics knew that sweets and fatty foods should be avoided but only 18.3% were avoiding them. Genital hygiene was maintained by 51.7% and foot care was done by 63.3% through regular washing. Monitoring of blood sugar was poor (46.7%), only 3 knew and were continuing self testing of urine. Oral anti-diabetic drug compliance rate was 62.9%. None of the patients on insulin injections knew about self therapy. Knowledge regarding diabetic complications was partial. There is a need to reorient and motivate health personnels in educating diabetics about self-care.

Health status of nurses and yoga. I. Baseline data.

In this ongoing ICMR project on "Effect of Yoga on the Health of Nurses", some baseline data on the health of nurses of Nehru Hospital, P.G.I., Chandigarh are reported. This was obtained before the start of yoga therapy in selected cases and collected with the help of six psychological tools. Out of a total of 501 nurses, 452 (90.2%) could be contacted and studied. Mean age was 30.43 years and mean years of service 9.93 years. Mean scores on the psychological tests indicated poor health status of nurses, average neuroticism, depressive tendencies and role stress. Sense of Well-Being was high in them. The data is discussed in the light of researches in this area. This is the first of a series of three articles to be published in the Journal.