The introduction of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Saudi Arabia has given nurses excellent opportunities and more responsibility to provide health education and advice in health promotion activities. Provision of appropriate and affordable dietary advice is an important role of the nurses in the Primary Health Care Centres (PHCC). Maternal nutrition is an essential element for the health status of the child, the family and the wider society. Many studies have suggested that there is a relationship between good nutritional intake during pregnancy and the successful outcome of the pregnancy. The present study was conducted to explore the knowledge and understanding of Saudi women and nurses in PHCC regarding nutritional intake during pregnancy. The study also looked at the effect of a short education programme on the nurses' nutritional knowledge and their subsequent practice. The aims of the study were to identify the understanding of Saudi women of pregnancy and nutritional intake during pregnancy, and to evaluate the effect of a short nutritional programme on diploma nurses. To achieve the aims, data collection was carried out in three phases. Phase one used semi-structured interview (tape recorded) on 10 pregnant women, selected randomly, to elicit the general understanding pregnant women had on pregnancy and pregnancy related areas. Phase two used a structured interview schedule on 100 pregnant women attending PHCC, selected systematically, to assess nutritional knowledge and their perception of nutritional advice given by the nurses in PHCC. Phase three was divided into two stages. The first stage used a self-administered questionnaire on 20 diploma nurses working in antenatal clinics in PHCC to assess their nutritional knowledge in relation to pregnancy. The questionnaire was used as both a pre-test and post-test instrument. Thereafter, based on the findings from phase one and two, a 20-hour continuing education (CE) programme was developed by the researcher on maternal nutrition for the diploma nurses. The second stage was to implement the programme to the nurses in five days. The effect of the programme was evaluated by an immediate post-test on nurses' knowledge and a follow-up post-test (after six months) to assess any lasting changes. Data analysis was carried out using content analysis for phase one. For the phase two and three, SPSS programme was used. Chi square was used to look for any association between knowledge scores and personal variables, paired Hest was used to assess the difference between pre-test and post-test. The results from the study showed that the majority of women attending the PHCC were illiterate or had little formal education, had a high pregnancy rate and had poor nutritional knowledge in relation to pregnancy. They preferred female health professional care and they preferred to have female doctors attending their antenatal care rather than the nurses. There was no significant difference between nurses' and women's nutritional knowledge. The results also showed a significant correlation between poor nutritional knowledge scores of the women and certain factors: the scores correlated positively with the level of education and negatively with the number of pregnancies. Regarding the programme, the results showed a significant increase in the nurses' nutritional knowledge scores from pre-test to post-test at p< 0.05, indicating that participants demonstrated increased nutritional knowledge as a result of participation in the programme. There was no significant difference between the initial post-test and the six-month follow-up. No significant relationships were identified between the nurses' scores and their age and years of experiences. The study also indicated that nurses in PHCC were not giving adequate nutritional advice to pregnant women in the views of these women and in my own observation. The findings suggest that frequent continuing education is essential for nurses in PHCC in Saudi Arabia to improve their skills and nutritional knowledge to be able to provide better care for women.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:298379 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Yousuf, Shadia Abdullah Hassan |
| Publisher | London South Bank University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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