Assessment of stress in the inclusion of nursing students in hospital practice.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the presence of stress among undergraduate nursing students in different stages of hospital practice. METHOD: Descriptive, cross-sectional study addressing 86 nursing students in their 6th, 7th, and 9th semesters in 2011. An instrument developed by Costa and Polak for the Assessment of Stress Among Nursing Students was used. It is composed of six domains: performance of practical activities, professional communication, time management, environment, professional training, and theoretical activity. RESULTS: Most participants were women (95%) and the average age was 23 years old. A total of 84% of students passed the program's courses and 91% participated in extracurricular activities. Stressors are present during the entire program but intensify when students are introduced to care practice with an emphasis on the domain of professional training; related stress was high in all the semesters. The scores concerning the practical activity domain were higher only in the 6th semester. There were statistically significant levels at 0.01 and 0.10 in the difference in the averages in the domains of training and time management, respectively, between the semesters. As the students advance in the program, scores obtained in the domains presented by AEEE change. As stress can interfere in the performance and learning of nursing students, coping strategies should be devised to enable them to deal with stress during the program.

[Identification of bacterial contamination in liquid soap for hospital use]. / Identificação de contaminação bacteriana no sabão líquido de uso hospitalar.

This study performed a bacteriological analysis of the liquid soap in dispensers that health professionals use for hand washing. This exploratory, cross-sectional study was developed at the hospitalization units of a medium-sized hospital in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Data were collected between May and July 2007. Fifty-nine liquid soap dispensers were analyzed, of which 33 contained the following microorganisms: Burkholderia cepacia (14), Pseudomonas putidas (9), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (3), Klebsiella pneumoniae (3), Enterobacter clocae (2), and Pseudomonas luteola (2). The units with the largest number of contaminated samples were the surgical (n=7) and the dermatological clinics (n=4). Contamination was also found in an original flask of the same lot of liquid soap used to fill up the dispensers. In conclusion, there is a need to regulate and control the quality of these products in the production lines as well as during use in hospital services, mainly because they are used to prevent hospital infection.