Student nurses' practices and willingness to teach relatives breast self-examination in Nigeria.

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related death for women worldwide. Breast self-examination (BSE) is an essential, low-cost, and simple tool for detecting breast cancer early. Employing the idea of 'charity begins at home' by involving student nurses in teaching BSE to relatives will improve early detection. Aim: To assess nursing students' practice and willingness to teach BSE to their relatives. Setting: A college of nursing and midwifery in one state under North-Central Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was employed. Through incidental sampling technique 197 respondents were selected from the first to the third year. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential analyses, with a p-value of 0.05 were conducted. Results: Respondents indicated where they learned about BSE. There were 98.5% respondents who had heard about BSE, and 89.8% of them had good practice of BSE. However, a quarter did not teach BSE to relatives. There were no statistically significant associations noted. Conclusion: Most of the nursing students were aware of BSE and knew how to perform it, although a quarter did not teach BSE to their relatives. Therefore, it may be necessary to sensitise nurses to cultivate the habit of teaching BSE to relatives and women in the community. Contribution: It is crucial to provide nurses with the skills and knowledge required to carry out BSE effectively, as well as teach women how to perform it on themselves, to improve breast cancer detection rates in Nigeria.

Theoretical knowledge and psychomotor skill acquisition of basic life support training programme among secondary school students.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study is to evaluate the theoretical knowledge and psychomotor skill acquisition of basic life support (BLS) by a group of secondary school students in Nigeria pre and post BLS training. METHODS: This was quasi-experimental study design with 210 participants. They were taught on adult BLS and all the participants practiced BLS on a Resusci-Anne manikin immediately after the training. Data were collected using American Heart Association (AHA) structured questionnaire and psychomotor skills checklist for BLS at baseline, and post BLS training. RESULTS: The pre-training knowledge score was 1.9±1.4. This increased after the BLS training to 11.4±2.4, and the mean difference between the pre and post BLS training scores was 9.48571. Pre-training psychomotor skill score was 0.00±0.00, this increased to 8.9±1.9 after the training, and the mean difference was 8.90000. The knowledge and psychomotor skill difference between pre and post BLS training was significant (P<0.000).CONCLUSION: Most Nigerian secondary school students were not knowledgeable about BLS. Therefore, there is need for the creation of more awareness among the students.

Manpower capacity and reasons for staff shortage in primary health care maternity centres in Nigeria: a mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: The heart-breaking maternal and neonatal health indicators in Nigeria are not improving despite previous interventions, such as 'Health for all' and 'Millennium Development Goals. The unattained health-related goals/targets of previous interventions put the success of the new Sustainable Development Goals in doubt if the existing paradigm remains unchanged. Thus, mere branding of health policies without improving what constitutes the health system such as manpower capacity and quality as well as staff-patients ratio will be wasteful efforts. This issue of global public health concern provided an indication for describing the capacity of manpower and reasons for staff shortage in primary level of health that are providing maternity services to women and their new-borns in Nigeria. METHODS: This is an embedded mixed-methods study. Its quantitative strand collected data with the aid of a structured questionnaire from 127 health workers across the 21 purposively selected primary health care centres in five local government areas. Descriptive statistics were employed for analysis. The qualitative strand of the study collected data through in depth interviews from medical officers of health or their representatives. The tape recorded and transcribed data were thematically coded, while reporting was by direct quotes. The mixing of the data from both strands was done in the discussion section. RESULTS: Twenty-nine (22.8%) of the health workers were between ages 51-58; 111 (87.4%) were married, while 44 (34.6%) had worked for duration of 21-33 years in service. Evidences of incompetence were observed among the health workers. A total of 92 (72.4%) had been performing episiotomies on women in labour. Similarly, 69.8% had been repairing vaginal traumas. Nine (7.1%) knew the necessary steps of controlling postpartum vaginal bleeding, while 115 (91.3%) of them had not been trained in Life-Saving Scheme and post-abortions care. CONCLUSION: The shortage of manpower, disproportional skilled/semi-skilled ratio, lack of framework for staff recruitment, staff incompetence and inappropriate childbirth practices show that women were not receiving quality maternal and neonatal cares at the maternity centres.

Utilization of insecticide treated nets during pregnancy among postpartum women in Ibadan, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Pregnant women are susceptible to symptomatic malaria due to invasion of the placenta by plasmodium. Malaria increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes for mothers, the foetuses and newborns. The effective use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) would be of benefit to these vulnerable women. Previous studies have focused on prenatal-women but this study sought to explore the actual trend of utilization of the proven strategy across all the pregnancy stages among postpartum women in Ibadan. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey utilized a validated structured questionnaire for data collection. A calculated sample of 335 postpartum women was proportionately recruited from three fee-paying facilities within Ibadan, Nigeria using a simple random sampling technique. These hospitals have high client flow for maternity cases and are known for provision of care under traditional ANC model. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics by means of Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. The level of significance was set at = 0.05. RESULTS: The women's age ranged between 18 and 47 years, mean age was 29.4 ± 0.8 years. Various irregularities marked the traditional model of ANC provided at the settings and no exposure to preconception care. Also, 276 (82.4%) had heard of ITNs. Antenatal clinics formed the major source of information. Low utilization and compliance rates were observed. One hundred and twenty-seven (37.9%) of the women had high knowledge of Malaria in Pregnancy (MIP) but only 70 (20.9%) demonstrated positive attitude towards the use of ITNs. Participants' educational status, family types, employment and residential areas significantly influenced ITNs utilization. CONCLUSIONS: The women knew and learned about ITNs from ANC visits. Majority of the women did not own ITNs because of lack of access to free distribution. The existing traditional model of ANC was marked by irregularities and none of the women was exposed to preconception care. In addition, negative attitude in spite of increased knowledge of MIP was observed among the women. Therefore, evaluation of free distribution of ITNs is recommended. Integration of focused ANC and preconception care are advocated to promote early access to health information.