No abstract

This study was conducted to determine undergraduate nursing students' opinions and attitudes about organ donation. Three hundred and four undergraduate nursing students participated in the survey while studying at Akdeniz University in the 2008 spring semester. Although these data were collected in 2008, there is still very little literature on this topic and the need for transplant organs is as urgent now as it was at that time. The data were obtained from a questionnaire. The questionnaire results reflected that the expert opinion was consistent with Kendall's concordance analysis. Written consent was obtained from each student. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, the chi-square test and Spearman's correlation. Among the students, 66.1% received training about organ donation, and 59.5% received this training from the Nursing School, 12.2% were organ donors, 45.3% of the family members were ambivalent about organ donation, 18.7% were willing to donate organs to save lives, and 21.2% refused to donate organs for fear of the removal of organs before one's death in the event of an accident or serious injury. 65.8% of the students were willing to donate their organs while alive. There were significant differences between donating an organ and receiving training (p < .05). This study also analyzed income state, age and sex and found no significant difference in donating organs for each of these variables (p > .05). Nursing students' positive thoughts about organ transplantation and donation should be promoted and relevant training and seminars, particularly about barriers to organ donation, should be increased.

Objective: It is a common tradition that families as caregivers have been in the hospital in order to support patients. This study describes the services performed by family caregivers in surgical and medical wards of hospital. Methods: This is a descriptive study. The study includes 442 family caregivers selected by the simple random sampling, who agreed to participate in, and who have been providing care for their relatives at least 48 hours in a university hospital. Data were collected through a questionnaire conducted during face-to-face interviews and were analyzed by descriptive statistics methods. Results: It has been found out that family caregivers met almost all needs of hospitalized patients with their own will. The results show that family caregivers met the care needs of their hospitalized relatives mainly upon their own and patients' will (relatively 51%, 22.9%). It has also been observed that some of these requirements were met upon doctors' and nurses' demands. Conclusions: It is important to know the requirements met by family caregivers at the hospital in terms of defining boundaries of care which can be provided by family caregivers and evaluating its results. Our findings could influence future plans of nursing managers, policy makers and/or health authorities.

The aim of the study was to investigate surgical patients’ pain experience and the quality of nursing care in managing acute postoperative pain. A descriptive cross-sectional study using a Strategic and Clinical Quality Indicators in Postoperative Pain Management Questionnaire collected data of 247 patients who underwent surgery in the surgical clinics of a state hospital. Data of 141 patients were included in the analysis. The mean scores for the scale items indicated that the quality of care was acceptable or low. The level of postoperative care, nursing interventions, and environmental subscales of the questionnaire were at an acceptable level, but pain management subscales of the questionnaire were low. These results suggest that health care, including measurable, applicable quality indicators, should be planned and evaluated to maintain professional nursing services, to achieve postoperative pain management and to relieve pain.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the King's Stool Chart (KSC-Tr) in patients receiving enteral nutrition. In total, 212 stool samples taken from 25 patients receiving enteral nutrition during 393 sick days in two intensive care units were assessed using the KSC-Tr. Overall, 110 of 212 stools (51.9%) were characterized as liquid and 111 of 212 stools (52.4%) were characterized as less than 100 g. The daily stool score of patients receiving antibiotics, a risk factor for diarrhea, was higher (mean = 13.6; SD = 10.1) than that of patients not receiving antibiotics (mean = 9.3; SD = 5.0) (p = .001). Diarrhea occurred on more days when patients received antibiotics (62/329; 18.8%) than on days when they did not (3/64; 4.7%) (p = .005). Interobserver agreement of two independent nurses' assessments on 44 stool samples was examined and was good for both stool consistency (κ = 0.76) and stool weight (κ = 0.75). In the intensive care unit, the KSC-Tr can be used as a valid and reliable tool for monitoring diarrhea and stool output in patients receiving enteral nutrition.