Effect of Foot Reflexology and Benson Relaxation on Pain, Breastfeeding and Weight of Neonates of Women Undergoing a Cesarean Section.

BACKGROUND: Given the negative effect of postoperative pharmacological pain control on breastfeeding, the present study aimed to compare the effects of reflexology and Benson relaxation methods on pain, breastfeeding, and infant weight gain in women undergoing a cesarean section (C/S). METHODS: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 135 women undergoing a C/S in the Gynecology Ward of Bushehr Persian Gulf Martyrs Hospital in Bushehr, Iran, in 2020. The participants were selected using convenience sampling, and randomly divided into three groups of foot reflexology, Benson relaxation, and control. The interventions were performed two hours post-operation and six hours after the first intervention. The pain score was measured and recorded immediately, and 30 and 60 minutes after each intervention. Breastfeeding frequency and duration were also assessed in the first 18 hours of birth. The infants' weight was assessed at birth and 10 days later. Data analysis was performed using inferential statistics, chi-square or Fisher's exact test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U or one-way ANOVA, Wilcoxon test and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: There was a larger decrease in the pain score of the reflexology and Benson relaxation (P<0.01) groups after the first and second interventions, compared to the control group. The breastfeeding frequency was higher in the two intervention groups, compared to the control group (P<0.001). Furthermore, the rate of return to the birth weight in ten days of birth was higher in the reflexology (P<0.01) and Benson groups (P<0.05) than the control group. CONCLUSION: Both the reflexology and the Benson relaxation methods effectively decreased pain and increased breastfeeding frequency and the infant's weight gain.

Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction training on rumination in patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer has been a serious public health dilemma for women worldwide, with not only physical and social impairments but also psychological stress responses such as rumination. Rumination is a constant preoccupation with thoughts. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction training in lowering rumination among women diagnosed with breast cancer. METHOD: This randomized controlled trial with a pretest, posttest, control group, and one-month follow-up design included 46 female breast cancer survivors, recruited from the clinics and hematology wards of Bushehr, Iran. The inclusion criterion was that at least three months should have passed since the last chemotherapy/radiotherapy. The participants were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received eight sessions of mindfulness-based stress reduction training. A demographic information form and a rumination questionnaire were used for data collection, and the participants completed the questionnaire in the pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages. Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and repeated-measures ANOVA were used to analyze the data. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the rumination scores of the experimental group at three measurement stages. For the control group, the mean rumination scores on the posttest and follow-up were both significantly higher than on the pre-test (P < 0.001). The control group's mean follow-up rumination score was significantly higher than that of the post-test (P = 0.02). A comparison of the two groups adjusted for the baseline showed a significant difference between them in terms of the mean rumination score on the post-test (P = 0.01) and follow-up (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The experimental group was more successful in avoiding increased rumination than the control group, an ability that can be attributed to the effect of mindfulness training. The use of this method is recommended because it is non-invasive, non-pharmacological, free from complications, and can be easily performed by women. However, future studies should consider larger samples and long-term follow-ups.

The effect of Flipped Classroom through Near Peer Education (FC through NPE) on patient safety knowledge retention in nursing and midwifery students: a solomon four-group design.

INTRODUCTION: Selecting an appropriate teaching methodology is one of the key stages in education. This study is an attempt to delve into the effect of FC through NPE on patient safety knowledge retention in nursing and midwifery students. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial, using the Solomon design, was conducted in 2019 on 82 nursing and midwifery students enrolled from Bushehr nursing and midwifery school. The Subjects were then allocated to four groups via block randomization. The Subjects in both intervention groups studied the educational content online for 2 weeks and subsequently attended the FC through NPE. Both control groups merely received education based on conventional method. The post-test was once administered to the four study groups immediately after completing the program and once again 2 months after it. RESULTS: The posttest mean scores of knowledge retention in both intervention groups remained the same (P = 0.1), while they were higher in the control groups (P < 0.05). The changes in the mean scores of the post-test in the intervention and follow-up groups did not demonstrate a statistically significant difference between the four study groups (P = 0.130, F = 1.941). CONCLUSION: The use of the FC through NPE increased the knowledge mean scores; however, it failed to affect knowledge retention. Given the infancy of this pedagogical approach, further studies are needed to investigate its effects on various learning outcomes.

Evaluation of validation characteristics of comprehensive midwifery examination checklists to evaluate the clinical skills of midwifery students: A methodological study.

BACKGROUND: Due to the high percentage of need for clinical techniques in the field of midwifery, evaluation of clinical skills of graduates is necessary. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the validation characteristics of comprehensive examination checklists in midwifery students. DESIGN: The present study was a methodological study in which seven checklists related to important midwifery skills were entered into the psychometric process. SETTING: The study was conducted in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and the Persian Gulf martyrs and Salman Farsi Hospitals, Nabi-e-Akram comprehensive health center in Bushehr city. PARTICIPANTS: Quantitative face validity was performed by examining the item impact score based on the opinions of 10 midwifery graduates. Quantitative content validity was performed by examining the content validity ratio and index based on the opinions of 12 experts. For structural validity as well as reliability assessment, checklists were used for 78 midwifery students who had completed their studies and were about to graduate. To determine the convergent validity, the correlation of the score of each checklist with the mean score of the similar fields of each skill was measured. Divergent validity was assessed by measuring the correlation between the score of each checklist and the score of other checklists and comparing it with the internal consistency of each checklist. Internal consistency and agreement between evaluators were used to assess reliability. Data were analyzed using SPSS19. RESULTS: Content validity index and content validity ratio for each item were more than 0.79 and 0.67, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the score of each skill and the mean score of similar fields of that skill (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: According to the results, it can be concluded that comprehensive midwifery student evaluation checklists are a valid and reliable tool.