On a medical mission into rural mountainous regions of Haiti, the authors were charged with teaching safer childbirth practices to untrained, mostly illiterate traditional birth attendants (TBA) who ...spoke Haitian Creole. In this isolated region with no physician or accessible hospital, almost all births occur at home. With no electricity, safe water supply, or sanitation facilities, childbirth education was a challenge. Accustomed to electronic, high-tech teaching aids, these childbirth educators had to modify educational strategies for these extraordinary circumstances. A successful solution was to revive decades-old teaching techniques and visual aids once used in Lamaze classes. The purpose of this article is to describe the teaching environment, the target audience, and the low-tech approach to childbirth education in Haiti.
This study explores the Latina Paradox, a phenomenon that purports that newly immigrated Mexican women have little prenatal care, but have birth outcomes similar to their non-Hispanic White ...counterparts who have prenatal care. A convenience sampling technique recruited 138 Mexican or Mexican-American women from a hospital, local Women's, Infant's, and Children's Office, and two obstetrician's offices. They were at least 18 years of age and either pregnant at the time of the survey or been pregnant within the last 12 months. The participants filed out an anonymous survey which included demographic data, questions were taken from the Maternal Social Support Index and the Religious Commitment-10 Scale. Data was entered into an Excel database and then analyzed using PASW (version 18.0). T-tests, binary regression, and discriminate analyses were used to determine results. Higher levels of support were not indicative of healthy prenatal behaviors in mothers with children in the home, whereas, higher levels of support prompted women with no children in the home to practice healthier prenatal behaviors. Being born in Mexico, being Catholic, and having a high school education predicted the use of folic acid, scheduling a dental appointment during pregnancy and not using unhealthy substances. Being in the United States longer than 10 years, married, and between the ages of 18-24 were more predictive of maintaining a healthy diet and exercise during pregnancy Those women reporting higher levels of religious commitment were more likely to practice healthier prenatal behaviors than those with lower levels of religious commitment. Findings of this study emphasize the importance of obtaining a prenatal health assessment by the community health educator and healthcare providers. It is important to include a thorough cultural assessment at the same time in order to ensure a holistic approach to meeting the needs of the Mexican- American woman during the child-bearing years.
This study examines the perceived level of stress and burnout among health science educators related to smart device use.
An interdisciplinary health science research team was created to perform a ...literature review and design a survey and assessment instrument to investigate the level of stress and burnout among health science educators as a result of excessive connectivity to the workplace through smart device use. A total of 977 assessments were completed through distribution by program directors in athletic training, nursing, radiologic sciences, and respiratory care.
Participants in the study, who represented program directors and educators in the allied health sciences, reported 70% of their smart device use taking place between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm, followed by 30% between 6 pm and 12 am. Slightly more than 60% of participants reported feeling connected to the workplace at all hours of the day. Emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment scores for participants were stronger than the norm as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory.
There appears to be a strong feeling of connectedness to the workplace caused by the use of smart devices (60.7%). Some surveyed educators appear to manage their smart device use better than others because 55% of participants indicated they sometimes ignore work-related items after hours. Although several participants demonstrated physical signs of stress and burnout, a causal relationship between use of smart devices or work connectedness could not be established.
Based on the findings of this study, the null hypothesis was rejected. Significant levels of emotional exhaustion were seen in a subset of study participants. Our findings indicate that emotional exhaustion occurs when healthy boundaries are not maintained for smart device use for work purposes after hours.
The intrapartum period is a crucial time for implementing steps to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. Labor and delivery nurses may be more concerned with the immediate safety of the mother ...and fetus than with future implications for breastfeeding. The purpose of this article
is to review the potential effects that prenatal education and intrapartum practices and interventions have on lactation, and to encourage nurses to thoughtfully consider these effects in their clinical practices. By implementing these recommendations they can better educate the mother, empower
her to make informed choices, avoid unnecessary intrusion into the normal birth process, and maximize the potential for meeting her breastfeeding goals.
This research study examined the academic impact of extracurricular activities on middle school students. This study investigated a possible relationship between the amount of hours that students ...spent participating in extracurricular activities and their academic achievement, as well as the amount of hours that students spent participating in in-school extracurricular activities and their academic achievement. This study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to reach its results. The quantitative data ultimately did not show a statistically significant correlation between the hours that students spent in extracurricular activities in general or in in-school activities and academic achievement. However, there was an upward trend in the data for hours that students spent in extracurricular activities in general and their academic achievement. The qualitative component drew upon the prior research on traits that contribute to the success of middle school students academically, and found a pattern consistent with the evidence of these traits through the results of a survey and interviews. Therefore, the qualitative component showed that through connecting these answers to and relying on the prior research, middle school students most likely benefitted academically from being involved in extracurricular activities, especially in-school activities that met these needs. The researcher also reflected on the study and made several recommendations for future research on the topic, ranging from survey and sampling augmentations to suggestions of sub-topics worthy of further exploration.
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