Bedrest compliance for women with pregnancy problems.

Bedrest has long been recommended for high-risk pregnancies, but recent studies question its effectiveness in improving pregnancy outcomes. To be effective, the women for whom bedrest is recommended must practice it. This study examined degree of compliance and reason for noncompliance in women for whom bedrest was recommended, and outcomes of pregnancy among high-risk women who complied compared with those who did not. The subjects were 326 high-risk pregnant women who were prescribed bedrest for preterm labor, blood pressure problems, or bleeding problems. Of that group, one-third did not comply with the bedrest recommendation. These women had more children, were not currently married, had more stress, did not attend prenatal classes, continued drinking alcohol during pregnancy, and were not trying to get pregnant compared with women who complied. Reasons for noncompliance included the need to care for children, not feeling sick, household demands, lack of partner or family support, need to work, and discomfort. The pregnancy outcomes for the women who complied were similar to those of the women who did not comply. These findings support the importance of more research on the practice of prescribing bedrest to improve pregnancy outcomes.

Client characteristics associated with not keeping appointments for public health nursing home visits.

Home visits have been identified as an intervention strategy for high-risk pregnant women. A necessary component of this intervention strategy is for the women to be home for the visit with the nurse. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with women not keeping their home visit appointments with a public health nurse. Subjects were 232 low-income high-risk pregnant women who received at least one home visit by a public health nurse. Younger age, more stressful life events, receipt of medical assistance, inadequacy of prenatal care, noncompliance with health recommendations, and longer gestational time were associated with not keeping public health nursing appointments. While this study provides some insight into the factors associated with women not keeping their appointments with the public health nurse, further investigation is warranted to identify strategies to reduce the incidence of not-kept appointments.

Fulfilling regional needs for specialty nurses through limited-cohort graduate education.

The University of Minnesota has developed a limited-cohort distance education graduate program to overcome geographic barriers and address the shortage of master's-prepared specialty nurses in rural areas of the upper Midwest. Such a program offers graduate nursing education in various specialty areas to distance sites for a predetermined, relatively short period.