Creating a Positive Attitude toward Dying Patients among Nursing Students: Is the Current Curriculum Adequate?

CONTEXT: Nurses play an inevitable role in providing compassionate care and support to dying patients and their families. However, it has been a bone of contention that whether the nursing curriculum is sufficiently set to achieve this goal. AIMS: The primary objective of this study is to assess the attitude of nursing students attending a private nursing school in Central Travancore region toward the care of dying using the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of the Dying Scale Form-B (FATCOD-B). METHODOLOGY: FATCOD-B was introduced among 146 participants and an arbitrary cutoff of 65% of the total score were chosen with those scoring more than that were assumed to have a positive attitude. A principal component analysis was done to identify the key constructs and mean score of the items within these identified constructs were calculated. RESULTS: The positive attitude toward dying was shown by 39% of participants. Most of the students' responses were averaging toward the option uncertain. A statistically significant increase in mean score by 3.15 (P = 0.02) was noticed among those who completed palliative care postings. The keys constructs identified included perception toward the end-of-life care, emotional engagement with the dying, and perceptions with respect to professional engagement with subgroup analysis showing an average mean score (standard deviation) of 4.36 (0.144), 2.25 (0.874), and 3.39 (0.85), respectively. CONCLUSION: The revision of the current curriculum incorporating more palliative care postings with specific attention toward handling emotional engagement with the dying may help in developing a positive attitude.

Household food security in an urban slum: Determinants and trends.

INTRODUCTION: As we are moving from millennium development goals to sustainable development goals, food insecurity is imposing a formidable challenge to the policymakers, especially in developing countries such as India. A survey conducted in the urban slum areas of Vellore district, 6 years back, had reported food insecurity as high as 75%. The current study was a resurvey to assess the food security status in the aforementioned area. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community-based survey was conducted in which data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 150 households, selected through multistaged cluster sampling, who had given oral consent to be a part of the survey. The prevalence of food security calculated from this study was compared with the results from a previous survey to look for any significant improvement. RESULTS: Nearly 42.7% of the households were food secure, while 26.7% were food insecure without hunger and 30.6% were food insecure with some degree of hunger. Low socioeconomic status (odds ratio [OR]: 3.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29-8.16; P < 0.012) and presence of debt (OR: 3.84, 95% CI: 1.90-7.73; P < 0.001) were the major risk factors for food insecurity. A comparison with the findings from the previous study has shown a statistically significant improvement in food security from 25.4% to 42.7% (Chi-square: 27.072, df: 2, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Although food security levels have shown marked improvement over the years, much needs to be done for India to be free from the shackles of hunger.

Seniors' Recreation Centers in Rural India: Need of the Hour.

AIM: To empower and bring the underprivileged senior citizens in the rural areas to the mainstream of life through setting up of model "senior citizens' recreation centers" that can be replicated in the other parts of the country. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six senior citizens' recreation centers are run in six villages under a community health program of a leading Medical College in South India, which were started by looking into their perceived needs and in a location where organized self-help women groups (SHGs) showed willingness to take the role of caretakers. Together there are 140 members in 6 centers and the most deserving members were identified using a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method. These centers are open for 5 days a week and the main attraction of the center has been provision of one good, wholesome, noon-meal a day, apart from several recreational activities. The members were also assessed for chronic energy deficiency (CED) and quality of life at the beginning of enrolment using body mass index (BMI) and WHO-BREF scale. RESULTS: The attendance to these centers was nearly 90% of the enrolled beneficiaries. A statistically significant improvement was noticed in quality of life in the physical, psychological, social, and environmental domain (P < 0.05). There was also a significant increase in the average BMI after 1 year of the intervention (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Care of underprivileged senior citizens is a growing need in the rural areas and the "Recreation centers" proved to be a beneficial model that can be easily replicated.