Children's conceptions of their illnesses

Conceptions of illness of 40 children aged from five to twelve years were explored, using a semistructured interview guide. Areas of interest included children's conceptions of causality of illness, children's perceptions of intent of treatment, and children's reaction to their hospital experience. Subjects' verbal responses to 30 questions were obtained, summarized, and grouped to compare conceptions according to age [younger and older] as well as sex [boys and girls]. There was statistically significant difference for age in relation to causality of illness. The majority had favorable reaction to their hospital experiences, nurses, physicians and treatment. However, Chi-square revealed no significant differences by age or sex, except for children's reaction to nurses according to age. It is recommended that children's conceptions of illness should be taken into consideration in planning their medical and nursing care

Does different mouth positions affect the accuracy of temperature measurement?

One of the important concerns in clinical nursing is the accuracy of temperature measurement. As regarding oral temperature, the thermometer is usually placed front sublingual while recent researches documented that right or left posterior sublingual are most accurate. Literature supports that the thermometer should be placed deep in the mouth to the right or left posterior sublingual, so that thermometer its surrounded by and in contact with tissue that has an abundant blood supply which transports heat. Therefore, the aim of the study is to evaluate the different mouth positions on the accuracy of oral temperature. Fifty nursing students were the subject of this study; oral temperature was measured for them in the three different positions. Show that right and left posterior sublingual are equal in readings and higher than the front sublingual by 0.4°C