“Novel Corona Virus” (COVID-19) is a new infectious disease spreading all around the world which has a significant morbidity and mortality globally at present. Nurses as frontline care provider in hospitals and community are exposed to a major risk. This brief report aims at providing an overview of COVID-19 impacts on Sri Lanka and to highlight educational implications from the perspective of nursing degree programs. The major impacts of COVID-19 on nursing education were unequal access to online distance learning, disruption of academic calendars, cancellation of clinical placements, teaching and learning gap, lack of facilities for online learning, disruption towards professional development, and inability to conduct proper clinical assessments and standard operationalization procedures. It suggests that higher education institutions should take actions to provide material support for students from low-income households to close the gap between teaching and learning and training for academics on different online teaching strategies.

Background Hypertension is an important public health challenge and is a major risk factor for many other diseases. Lack of knowledge on the dangers of untreated hypertension, the benefits of better control and poor management practices are barriers for effective hypertensive care. Objective The aim of the study was to describe the level of knowledge on the disease, its complications and management strategies among hypertensive patients attending Medical Clinics at Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted mong 424 patients diagnosed with 'essential hypertension' attending medical clinics. A pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 15. A scoring system was used to assess the overall knowledge of the participants. Results The study population consisted of 174(41%) males and 250(59%) females. Nearly 43% stated that blood pressure of 120/80mmHg was normal. Only 3.3% were aware that hypertension may be asymptomatic. The main aggravating factors for hypertension identified by participants were stress (59.2%) and high salt intake (50.9%). Organs damaged by poorly controlled hypertension were identified as the heart (50%) and kidneys (26%). Sixty four percent said that both medication and lifestyle modifications are useful to control hypertension. Blood pressure lowering strategies identified were reducing body weight (76.0%) and salt reduction (81.1%). Only 45.0% agreed that increased consumption of fruits and vegetables improves control of hypertension. A minority (2.4%) were unsure of non-pharmacological management strategies. Overall knowledge score was inadequate (<50%) among 391(92%), with a mean of 30.8% (SD ± 15.5) ranging from 4.4 -89.1%. Conclusions Inadequate knowledge on hypertension, its complications and management strategies was seen. Targeted health education strategies are urgently needed to improve knowledge to prevent consequences of poorly controlled hypertension.

Nurse academics have faced many challenges in conducting face-to-face teaching and clinical training in the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the past, there was increased interest and usage in online education during the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing education. This short communication highlights the important aspects that nurse academics should consider while designing nursing curricula to face future pandemics based on the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This short communication includes a critical analysis of experiences from previous pandemics and the lesson learned from the present pandemic of the use of blended learning approaches in nursing education. These would be effective in considering nursing curricula reforms. Four key themes related to blended learning were identified as blended learning, blended learning in nursing education, challenges related to blended learning and strengthening of the blended learning culture. In conclusion, the pandemic has taught nurse academics to navigate nursing curricula to suit current teaching and learning demands. Reforming curricula by incorporating blended learning would be timely.

No abstract

Background: During pregnancy, mother faces many minor discomforts due to physiological, anatomical, psychological, biochemical and immunological adaptations occurs in their body. The wellbeing of pregnant mothers is threatened due to these minor discomforts and lead to unnecessary hospitalization. This study was aimed to assess the knowledge and practices regarding self-management of minor discomforts among pregnant mothers attending to selected Antenatal Clinics (ANC), Medical Officer of Health (MOH) area, Batticaloa. Subjects and Method: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in selected antenatal clinics among all registered antenatal mothers (n=238) attending to these ANCs. A validated and pretested interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Knowledge on self-management of minor disorders was dependent variable and independent variables were the sociodemographic status, economic status and obstetric details of pregnant mothers. Descriptive and inferential statistic was performed to analyze the relevant data. Results: Nearly half of the participants (54.6%) were in 20-29 years and 62% of them were primiparous mothers. Around 93% of them were experienced nausea and vomiting during their pregnancy and among them all were reported nausea and vomiting has been occurred during their 1st trimester. About 75% of them mentioned that home remedies are the best way to selfmanage the minor discomforts. The mean knowledge score on minor discomforts and selfmanagement was 12.16 (SD= 14.64). Majority of participants (94.1%) scored less than 50%. Knowledge score was significantly associated with participant's ethnicity, religion, monthly income, educational level and their parity. Conclusion:The prevalence of minor discomforts among pregnant mothers was high and pregnant mothers have expressed that minor discomforts can be managed with home remedies. Further, knowledge level regarding minor discomforts and their self-management was inadequate.