Journal of Health and Caring Sciences

Reflections on Nursing Discipline, Profession, and Education

Rudolf Cymorr Kirby Martinez — 2021-12-18

This editorial explores the nature of nursing as a discipline and profession and how these are expressed in the transfer of nursing knowledge thru education. It further emphasized that nursing knowledge must take precedence over ancillary knowledge as the focal point and essence of its curriculum in educating future nurses.

The Presence of Cataract Does Not Influence Assessment of The Pupillary Light Reflex Using Automated Pupillometry

Sonja Stutzman — 2021-12-18

Background: Advanced Pupillary Light Reflex (PLR) assessment with an automated infrared pupillometer (AIP) is becoming standard. Although cataract prevalence and risk for neurologic illness both increase with age there is no literature on the influence of cataract when assessing PLR using AIP.

Objective: Our aim is to explore the effect of cataract on pupillary response to light.

Methods and Materials: Mixed model analyses were performed by enrolling 3,650 patients with PLR readings from AIP. The Neurological Pupil Index (NPi), and each component of the PLR was examined separately.

Results: 3,207 patients did not have cataract, 59 had unilateral, and 271 bilateral cataract. Generalized linear mixed effect model of 87,290 right eye, and 76,587 left eye AIP measurements found no effect of cataract on any PLR measures: NPi (p=0.221 and p=0.655); latency (p=0.483 and p=0.865); initial pupil size (p=0.661 and 0.712); minimum pupil size (p=0.708 and p=0.720); constriction velocity (p=0.646 and 0.347); nor dilation velocity (p=0.716 and 0.194) for the right and left eye groups respectively. Paired t-test found no difference in NPi (p=0.146). Among those with unilateral cataract (n=59).

Conclusions: The presence of cataract does not alter the PLR findings assessed with a pupillometer.

Assessment of Perceived Social Support, Quality of Life and Resilience among Pregnant Women in Northern Nigeria

Yahaya Jafaru — 2022-12-10

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy causes inevitably significant psychological and physiological impacts on woman. It causes high emotional changes and occasionally mental disturbances. These make pregnancy a period of life that requires woman to have bio-psycho-social adjustments through good social support, quality of life and resilience.

Aim: This study was aimed at assessing the Perceived Social Support, Quality of Life and Resilience among pregnant women in northern Nigeria.

Methods: The study was descriptive and adopted cross sectional design. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, short Form (SF-36) Health Survey 1.0 Questionnaire, and Connor-Davidson RS Scale were used for data collection. Respondents were selected using systematic sampling. Data were analysed using SPSS version 26 and Kruskal-wallis test was used for inferential analysis.

Results: Majority of the respondents had good and very-good perceived social support (23.1% and 27.2%) respectively. Majority of the respondents (76.6%) had poor quality of life. Majority of the respondents had good and very-good resilience (28.6% and 40.3%) respectively. P<0.001 in perceived social support differences by age, parity, educational level, and family economic status, respectively. P<0.05, P<0.01 and P<0.01 in quality of life differences by age, parity, and family economic status respectively. P<0.05, P<0.01 and P<0.01 in resilience differences by age, parity, and level of education, respectively.

Conclusion: Healthcare workers especially midwives should consider pregnant women’s perceived social support, quality of life and resilience when rendering their services.

Keywords: Midwives, Pregnancy, Quality of life, Resilience, Social support

Establishing a Pathway to Define Nursing Informatics Practice: Defining a Clear Scope of the Specialty Practice

John Francis Faustorilla — 2022-12-10

Informatics Nurse Practice needs to be clearly delineated and presented to the Nursing Community and relevant stakeholders in the Allied Health Profession. With the advent of the COVID-19, the Digital Economy has moved innovations in healthcare with great speed, breadth, and depth. The emergence of data scientists practicing in healthcare, together with data analysts and data scientists, blur the line between the practice demarcations between professions. It is imperative to clearly define the scope of Informatics Nurse and Informatics Nurse Specialist Practice through existing definitions of Nursing informatics Practice by International and National Organizations advocating for its advancement. This paper aims to present a clear flowchart that any practitioner can use to clearly define whether their practice in a healthcare setting with nurses involved can be considered as Informatics Nurse or Informatics Nurse Specialist practice.