Women's preference for traditional birth attendants and modern health care practitioners in Akpabuyo community of Cross River State, Nigeria.

The proportion of women who patronized traditional birth attendants (TBAs) or modern health care practitioners (MHCPs) was compared, including reasons for their choices. A comparative design was adopted to study 300 respondents selected through a multistage systematic random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a validated 21-item structured questionnaire. We observed that 75 (25%) patronized and 80 (27%) preferred TBAs, and 206 (69%) patronized and 220 (75%) preferred MHCPs, while 19 (6%) patronized both. The view that TBAs prayed before conducting deliveries was supported by a majority 75 (94%) of the respondents who preferred them. Factors associated with preference for TBAs should be addressed.

Influence of marital and educational status on clients' psychosocial adjustment to HIV/AIDS in Calabar, Nigeria.

A comparative descriptive design and a stratified random sampling technique were adopted to study the influence of marital and educational status on the psychological, social, and spiritual adjustment of 280 respondents living with HIV/AIDS in two randomly selected clinics within Calabar, Nigeria. A 30 item questionnaire, with a content validity index of 0.92 and a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.94, was used for data collection, with due attention to ethical considerations. The findings showed that marital status had a significant influence on the respondents' psychological and social adjustment but not on their spiritual adjustment. Those that were married and those with higher educational qualifications had better psychological adjustment than those who had never married. The marital and educational status of clients should be considered when conducting education or counseling, making recommendations, or organizing support groups for living with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, advocacy aimed at meeting the psychosocial needs of single and less-educated clients could enhance their psychosocial adjustment.

Problems and challenges of school health nursing in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, Nigeria

Purpose: This study evaluated the problems and challenges associated with school nursing in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States of Nigeria in terms of coverage; services rendered; adequacy of equipments and supplies; and involvement of other relevant professionals in school health programmes. Materials and methods: A descriptive design was adopted; and sixty schools were randomly selected from the two states. In each school; one nurse was conveniently selected to give a total of sixty respondents from a population of 171 school nurses from both states. Rustia's school health promotion model guided the study. Validated questionnaire; interviews and review of records were the instruments for data collection. Research questions were analyzed using frequencies and percentages while the Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient Statistics was used to test the hypotheses determined at a significant level of 0.05. Results: Results showed low coverage of school health programme in Cross River (3) and Akwa Ibom (7.2) states. The scopes of the practice were limited to treatment of minor ailments (100); referral services (81.7) health education (41.7) and first aid (16.7). Only (18.3) of the respondents were satisfied with equipments available for school health programme. Furthermore; health services provided by the nurses were positively and significantly related to their knowledge of roles (r=.532; df=59; p0.05) but not on availability of material resources r0.05). Recommendations: It was recommended that school nurses should be well educated on the roles expected of them

Effects of school health nursing education interventions on HIV/AIDS-related attitudes of students in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

PURPOSE: One of the greatest challenges facing school nurses is that of identifying and using appropriate strategies to meet the health education needs of adolescents in regard to prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This study examined the effects of HIV/AIDS preventive health education with parental involvement on students' attitude toward HIV/AIDS prevention in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. METHODS: The study population comprised students from three of nine secondary schools in the study area. The three schools were randomly assigned as Intervention Group 1 (IG1), involving nurses only; Intervention Group 2 (IG2), involving both nurses and parents (IG2); and a control group. A pretest/post-test intervention design was used. A 29-item, validated questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Sampling involved multistage and stratified random technique to select 120 subjects from each of the three selected schools, with a total of 360 subjects representing 8.3% of the study population. From this number, 339 (94.2%) provided sufficient data for analysis. Data analysis involved analysis of covariance and the Scheffé post hoc test determined at the .05 significance level. RESULTS: Results show significant effect of intervention on students attitudes toward preventive measures (F = 234.27, p < .001 *). The intervention that involved nurses only was found to be a more potent strategy in providing favorable attitudes toward HIV/AIDS prevention (IG1 mean, 20.59; IG2 mean, 19.20; control mean, 12.34). Attitudes were influenced by older age but not by gender. CONCLUSION: Health education efforts aimed at improving HIV/AIDS-related attitudes should not only focus on children but also on parents so that they in turn could assist to improve on health workers' efforts in educating the children.