Nursing students' attitudes toward ageism in Turkey.

This research involved a descriptive study with the goal of examining the attitudes of 145 Turkish nursing students studying toward ageism and the factors affecting ageism views. A Student Description Form and the Ageism Attitude Scale (AAS) were the data collection instruments used in this study. Statistical evaluation of the data included percentage, median and Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann-Whitney U-test. The average age of student participants was 20.10 ± 3.52; further 37.9% of these students were 1st year nursing students, 25.5% of were 2nd year, 11.7% were 3rd year, and 24.8% were 4th year students. Of the students in this study 63.4% had completed coursework in elderly health as part of undergraduate study. Average scores on the AAS students were 84.01 ± 7.61 points. Most female students who completed classes related to elderly health, either lived with or planned to live with at least one elderly parent after starting a family or already experienced having an elderly relative in their home. These students tended to have positive attitudes toward aging.

The effects of giving pacifiers to premature infants and making them listen to lullabies on their transition period for total oral feeding and sucking success.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to assess the effect of giving pacifiers to premature infants and making them listen to lullabies on the transition period to total oral feeding, their sucking success and their vital signs (peak heart rate, respiration rate and oxygen saturation). BACKGROUND: It is very important that preterm infants start oral feeding as soon as possible to survive and get healthy quickly. Previous studies have shown that by using some external stimuli, premature babies can move to oral feeding at an earlier period than 34th gestational week, have increased daily weight gain and be discharged from hospital earlier. DESIGN: In this quasi-experimental and prospective study, 90 premature infants were studied with 30 premature infants allocated to each of pacifier, lullaby and control groups. METHOD: The research was conducted at a neonatal intensive care clinic and premature unit of a university hospital in the east of Turkey between December 2007-January 2009. The data were collected through demographic information form for premature infants, the LATCH Breastfeeding Charting System and patient monitoring. RESULTS: We found that the group who proceeded to the oral feeding in the shortest period was the pacifier group (p < 0·05), followed by the lullaby group and the control group, respectively (p > 0·05). We also found that the highest sucking success was achieved by infants in the pacifier group (p < 0·05) followed by the lullaby group (p > 0·05). CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that giving pacifiers to premature infants and making them listen to lullabies has a positive effect on their transition period to oral feeding, their sucking success and vital signs (peak heart rate and oxygen saturation). RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Neonatal intensive care nurses can accelerate premature infants' transition to oral feeding and develop their sucking success by using the methods of giving them pacifiers and making them listen to lullabies during gavage feeding.

The effect of the odor of breast milk on the time needed for transition from gavage to total oral feeding in preterm infants.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the application of the odor of breast milk in preterm infants during gavage feeding on the period of transition to total oral feeding. DESIGN: This prospective experimental study was performed on a total of 80 preterm infants: 40 infants in the study group and 40 in the control group. METHODS: This experimental study was performed in eastern Turkey at the Neonatal Intensive Care and Premature Unit of a university hospital between September 2007 and December 2008. The demographic data were collected via a questionnaire, and an intervention and follow-up table was prepared by the researcher based on relevant literature. The study was approved by the local institution, and written informed consent was obtained from all parents. FINDINGS: The findings of the study indicated that the preterm infants who were stimulated by the odor of breast milk during gavage feeding transitioned to oral feeding 3 days earlier than control subjects. Moreover, the mean hospitalization time of these infants was 4 days shorter. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that stimulation with breast milk odor is an effective method for decreasing transition of preterm infants from gavage to oral feeding. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Nurses can train mothers to pump their breast milk, stimulate their infants with the odor of their breast milk, and feed it to their infants in the premature unit. This may lead to a quicker transition to oral feeding.