Revista de Enfermagem e Cuidados

The theme of the 2012 World Blood Donor Day campaign, “Every blood donor is a hero” focuses on the idea that every one of us can become a hero by giving blood. Today, Blood Transfusion Services constitute a crucial part of any healthcare delivery system. Adequate and safe supply of blood and blood components is essential, to enable a wide range of critical care procedures to be carried out in hospitals. The objective of the present study was to identify the level of knowledge of blood donation among voluntary blood donors attending blood bank of Krishna Hospital Karad and to correlate the knowledge with sociodemographic variables. 100 voluntary Blood donors between the ages of 18 and 55 years were selected by Non probability Convenient Sampling technique. Descriptive Survey Design was employed for study. Structured knowledge questionnaire was given to assess their knowledge on Blood Donation. The study sample consisted of 64 males (64%) and 36 females (36%). The overall knowledge on blood donation among respondents was observed as good 10%, average 56%, and poor 34%. In males the overall knowledge level was found good among 9%, average 52% and poor 39%. In females, good knowledge level was observed among 14%, average 49%, and poor 37%. Education and gender was significantly associated with knowledge of blood donation where as education religion blood group and age were not statistically significant. In the present study researcher concluded that there is need for health education regarding blood donation, which will ultimately increases the awareness among general population to motivate for voluntary blood donation.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to analyze and describe the phenomenon of learning to live with long-term illness.

Method: The design and implementation of the research was based on a reflective lifeworld approach. The study consisted of interviews with people who live with different types of long-term illness.

Results: Learning to live with a long-term illness happens in such a way as to respond to the will to live everyday life. The essential meaning of learning to live with long-term illness is constituted by the following elements: learning to know and live with a stranger, the driving forces of learning, learning methods are a balancing act, making the illness visible, as well as seeking knowledge and understanding. The result of the learning process can be understood as movement to a new understanding that is shown in the way the person with the illness acts and gives herself with the illness more space in life.

Conclusion: The results show that genuine learning is something that differs from learning information and that the learning must be supported by the sufferer’s situation for a long period of time at an existential level.

Background: Becoming a teenage mother is confronted with parental responsibilities at a time when a teenage girl has to deal with her own intense development. Depressive symptoms and postpartum depression are commonly reported in teenage mothers and are of particular concern since depressive symptoms are linked with poor general health.

Objective: To examine if the perception of support, self-esteem and social background factors differ between teenage mothers with depressive symptoms compared with teenage mothers without depressive symptoms.

Design: A descriptive comparative cross-sectional study.

Participants: Swedish speaking teenage mothers aged 15-19 who gave birth in hospital in a county of south western Sweden, n=76. The group was divided into two groups based on their score on Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, depressive symptoms, n=24 and without depressive symptoms, n=52.

Measurements and findings: Data were collected by a questionnaire including socio-demographic variables, scales to measure support, self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Differences between teenage mothers scoring high or low on the EPDS were tested. Teenage mothers with depressive symptoms perceived less support from family and friends and had lower self-esteem than teenage mothers without depressive symptoms. They had more often been exposed to mental/physical abuse and were more often smokers than the teenage mothers without depressive symptoms. Support from the midwives were generally well perceived by teenage mothers, but support from the midwife attending delivery was less well perceived by teenage mothers with depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Teenage mothers with depressive symptoms may have a difficult life situation characterized by low self-esteem and perceived failing support from their social network.

Implications for practice: The result suggests that assessment of the health status of the teenage mother should include screening for depressive symptoms, risk-taking behaviours and perception of current family/friend and partner support to inform individual planning of care.

Background: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a women’s health problem that imposes major problems for personal quality of life.

Objective: The aim is to determine the effect of a Behavioral Intervention Program on the quality of life of the elderly females with urinary incontinence, who referred to Jahandidegan center in Shiraz-Iran, 2011.

Material and methods: The participants consisted of 60 women aged 60-74 years with QUID questionnaire’s scores for different types of incontinence (stress score ≥ 4, urge score ≥ 6 and mix score ≥ 10). QUID questionnaire was used for patients with urinary incontinence. It also gave us the possibility to determine the types of urinary incontinence. For matching, we placed an equal numbers of each type of urinary incontinence in each group. Ten subjects from each type were placed in two groups of 30 each (intervention and control groups). Then, incontinence quality of life questionnaire (I-QOL) was used to estimate the impact of incontinence on the participants’ quality of life.

After the completion of a Behavioral Intervention Program and 2 months later, I-QOL questionnaire was completed by the intervention and control groups. Descriptive statistics, paired t-test and repeated measurement were used to analyze the data.

Results: Overall, the program was effective in relieving symptoms by improving quality of life related to urinary incontinence, and this effect continued after a 2 months period.

Conclusion: Behavioral therapy was an empowerment mechanism for incontinent women in improving their quality of life. Thus, it is suggested that the health care providers pay more attention to this issue and train women regarding the prevention of urinary incontinence.