Effect of educational video on newborn care for the knowledge of pregnant and postpartum women and their families

ABSTRACT Objectives: to evaluate the effect of educational video on newborn care to increase the knowledge of pregnant, postpartum, and family members. Methods: a quasi-experimental study, with pre-intervention and post-intervention evaluation with a single group. Fifty-eight pregnant, postpartum, and family members treated in basic health units and a hospital in Ceará, Brazil, participated. The study used the McNemar and binomial tests for the analysis. Results: after the intervention, there was an increase in the frequency of hits, from 70.82% to 92.97%. Most of the questions presented a significant increase of hits (p < 0.05) with an emphasis on sleeping position, drying of clothes, free demand for breastfeeding, and things to avoid (such as accessories in the sleeping place and talc in diaper change). Conclusions: the educational video was effective to participants in acquiring knowledge on the care of newborns and can assist in health education activities carried out by nurses.

Basic Health Units services quality assessment through Kano and SERVQUAL models

PurposeThe present research aims to evaluate the quality of services provided by the Basic Health Units (UBS) of the Unified Health System (SUS) located in the city of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, using the Kano model integrated with the dimensions of quality proposed by the service quality (SERVQUAL) model.Design/methodology/approachThe research was classified as bibliographic, descriptive, quantitative and surveyable. A structured questionnaire based on the Kano Model integrated with the dimensions of quality proposed by the SERVQUAL model, applied online through Google Forms. The questionnaires were distributed on social networks, obtaining a non-probabilistic sample of 120 individuals, collected for convenience.FindingsThrough the analysis of the Kano Model, it was possible to observe that all the investigated attributes are classified as one-dimensional. Among the attributes that deserve to be highlighted are attributes “Clean and pleasant environment”, “Reliability and security of information”, “Knowledge of employees to perform services”, “Service performed in the promised time”, “Polite and kind staff in dealing with users” and “Effectiveness of the service provided” due to having the longest intervals when considering the satisfaction and dissatisfaction coefficients, above 1.575. These attributes must be considered as critical priorities when implementing improvements, since their presence considerably increases users' satisfaction, as well as their absence generates great dissatisfaction.Originality/valueThe research is original and justified by the potential use of a quality assessment tool in the public health service, especially primary care. It is noteworthy that there are few works that integrate the Kano and SERVQUAL models applied in the public health service and that this integration can contribute to the national and international literature, mainly in the identification and prioritization of areas for improvement.

Practices and problems of female health/medical technicians in North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan

The Ministry of Health in Pakistan introduced in 1977 mid-level health workers called medical technicians to provide emergency aid and rudimentary services at basic health units and rural health centres. With the policy of placement of doctors in these units in the early eighties, their name was changed to health technicians, whose duties emphasized preventive activities instead of working as doctors’ substitutes. The objectives of this study were to estimate the percentage of graduated female technicians in the service, understand their reasons for not joining or leaving the service, appraise their practices in comparison to the expected performance, identify and report the academic and operational problems and recommend measures to resolve these problems and improve performance

Factors associated with adherence to pharmacological treatment by hypertensive patients

Today, arterial hypertension represents one of the most prevalent diseases in Brazil and in the world, being considered as one of the most important public health problems. It is a chronic-degenerative disease, responsible for causing morbidity in the population in developed and underdeveloped countries. The treatment adopted for the control of SAH is based on non-pharmacological and pharmacological measures. Among the non-pharmacological treatments is the adoption of physical exercise practices. Pharmacological treatment consists of taking available antihypertensive drugs. Objective: to evaluate the factors associated with adherence to pharmacological treatment by hypertensive patients in the city of Montes Claros - MG. Materials and Methods: the present work is a descriptive study, with quantitative field analyzes with cross section. The population of this research was composed of 200 hypertensive patients from the Basic Health Units of the city of both genders, selected at random by lot. Results: the prevalence of adherence to pharmacological treatment was 70% in its entirety and of these 73% are able to farm through SUS. Conclusion: Public health directly influences patients' adherence to pharmaceuticals.

The primary health care environment and the impact on motivation and stress in nurses

Objective: The focus of this study was to investigate the possible occupational stress the nurses perceived that in Basic Health Units (BHUs) and assess the major factors that motivate these employees’ inside these primary healthcare centers. Methodology: Data was collected from 70 nurses working in 61 BHUs distributed in the South of Brazil. The stress was measured with the Nurses' Stress Inventory (NSI), and the determination of motivation was performed using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The research has been taken up with special reference to administrative/assistance nurses. Results: The investigation showed that nurses are predominantly female (89.5%) and 80.0% work equally in assistant care and administrative functions. Moreover, the data showed that 89.4% of nurses present moderate to higher stress scores as a consequence of the intrinsic work factors. Investigating the motivation, the higher level in the Maslow hierarchy was belonging, this could be related to the fact BHUs are inserted in communities with strong social connections and relationships with the population. Conclusion: Knowing the main factors responsible for stress in nurses at the BHUs are essential for future strategies to improve working conditions.

Breastfeeding and infant feeding guidelines: dietary patterns and potential effects on the health and nutrition of children under two years

Objectives: to identify dietary patterns of children under two years of age in primary care, associating them with maternal variables. Methods: cross-sectional study carried out in basic health units. Sample selected for convenience with 321 children under two years old and their mothers. Food consumption was obtained through a 24-hour food record. The method of factor analysis by main components was used to determine dietary patterns. Associations between maternal variables and dietary patterns were tested. Results: “mixed”, “porridge” and “snacks” patterns were identified. Receiving guidance on infant feeding was related to greater adherence to the “mixed” (p = 0.02; PR = 2.98; 95% CI95% = 1.49-5.96) and “porridge” (p = 0.026; PR = 2.10; CI95% = 1.09-4.02) patterns. Experience with breastfeeding showed greater adherence to the "porridge" standards (p=0.038; PR = 1.78; CI95%= 1.03-3.08) and "snacks" (p = 0.026; PR = 1.09; CI95% = 1.01-1.18) and children of overweight mothers showed less adherence to the “snacks” pattern (p = 0.042; PR = 0.51; CI95%= 0.26-0.98). Conclusions: patterns found were associated with guidance on infant feeding and breastfeeding, previous experience with breastfeeding, as well as with maternal excess weight, emphasizing the importance of professional guidance for greater adherence to more varied and healthy consumption patterns and that include the different food groups.

Knowledge and practice of women attended in primary health care about Papanicolau test / Conhecimento e prática de mulheres atendidas na atenção primária a saúde sobre o exame Papanicolau

Objective: to evaluate the knowledge and practice of women assisted in Basic Health Units in relation to the Pap smear. Method: this is a quantitative, descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. 320 women living in the area covered by three Basic Health Units in the city of Caxias-MA were interviewed. Results: although almost all of the women interviewed heard about the Pap smear exam 311 (97.2%), more than half of them had inadequate knowledge 233 (72.8%). It was also noticed that despite the fact that more than half were classified as having inadequate knowledge, most women had an adequate practice 187 (58.44%). Conclusion: thus, this study showed that there was no association between the level of knowledge and the practice of women. Therefore, there is a precarious knowledge of the majority of women about the cervical cancer preventive exam, resulting in an erroneous attribution about its purposes.