Nursing

Owing to reduced inpatient stays, people with mental illness (PMI) were often discharged from the hospital in ‘acute’ conditions. During this transition period of fragility, the relocation of care from hospital to home has tremendous impact on every aspect of a family’s life as they need to face a
challenging task of caring especially when they are ‘not ready’ and ‘ignorant’ about the chronicity and severity of the illness. Furthermore, where economic
and psychological support is concerned, those who are undertaking this task may require significant professional guidance. Aims: This study examines the experiences of 100 families in caring for people with mental illness in the
community. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted in their homes within three Malaysian states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johor in year 2013. Results: Three themes emerged from the findings of ‘care demands related
concerns’ of these families. These include theme (1): care provision related concerns of families which were related to the needs of people with mental illness for continuing care provision, their non-compliance with medication and
relapse, altered sleep pattern, limited self-care ability, behavioral problems and also social isolation. Theme (2): perceived availability of resources of service
provision/support which were related to activities planned for the families before the discharge of the people with mental illness and theme (3): family members perceived service needs whereby they informed of their needs such
as continual health care through home visit, provision of financial aid, job coach service, centre for care provision of PMI and rehabilitative programs.

This survey study investigated the paediatric ward nurses for their action intentions and attitudes towards quit smoking related interventions (QSRI), and knowledge related to effects of children’s exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) (n = 267). Results indicate that less than 2% of the nurses smoked, and a majority had a positive attitude towards QSRI. A majority also indicated that they would only assess children’s parents’ smoking status depending on the child’s diagnosis on admission. The total mean scores for two knowledge items are relatively lower than the others. More than half of the participants (66%) indicated ‘no’ to ‘documenting smoking status’. Differences in responses of the participants across the hospitals were statistically significant, c2 (2, n = 267) = 11.190, P 0.05. About half of the participants did not know of any existing quit smoking clinics. The variation in the nurses’ action intention towards various QSRI may be attributed to their busy workload and varying perceptions towards QSRI as a nursing priority. Results indicate the needs for knowledge related to impacts of children’s exposure to SHS to be integrated into the basic nursing curriculum, support and affirmation from ward managers in the clinical settings to promote the initiatives to integrate QSRI in paediatric nursing settings.

This paper highlights the life impacts and psycho-social experiences of mothers care giving their children having Down syndrome in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 participants who were accessed from selected health clinics, schools and community–based rehabilitation centres using a purposive sampling procedure. Findings: Bringing up children having Down syndrome had impacted upon mothers to some extent in term of their family functioning, increased competence in childcare and motivation to reach out to others. Psychosocially, mothers experienced a range of difficult emotions, feeling unsupported, worries and concerns, including their concern about recurrence Down syndrome. Integral to their experience was the excitement and joy with child’s progress. Conclusion: Insights as gained from the main findings indicate that care-giving children having Down syndrome did have some life impacts upon mothers. However, their experiences are no...

The practice of infant massage has been reported to give relaxation and enjoyment to mothers and babies. This qualitative study aimed to explore mothers’ experience with learning and doing infant massage. Mothers whose babies four to six weeks old were taught the adapted baby massage program over four sessions by a certified infant massage instructor in the selected health centers. They were asked to do infant massage for 15 minutes twice a day. As part of a main study, nine of the mothers were recruited as study participants at the end of the teaching sessions using a purposive sampling procedure. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore their experience with learning and doing baby massage. Mothers’ experience with baby’s relaxation and sleep, baby-mother bonding, new learnings in term of a helpful baby-care skill, responding to baby cues, establishing new care routine, gaining spousal and other mothers’ supports apparently contributed to their positive experience of learning...

The practice of infant massage has been reported to give relaxation and enjoyment to mothers and babies. This qualitative study aimed to explore mothers’ experience with learning and doing infant massage. Mothers whose babies four to six weeks old were taught the adapted baby massage program over four sessions by a certified infant massage instructor in the selected health centers. They were asked to do infant massage for 15 minutes twice a day. As part of a main study, nine of the mothers were recruited as study participants at the end of the teaching sessions using a purposive sampling procedure. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore their experience with learning and doing baby massage. Mothers’ experience with baby’s relaxation and sleep, baby-mother bonding, new learnings in term of a helpful baby-care skill, responding to baby cues, establishing new care routine, gaining spousal and other mothers’ supports apparently contributed to their positive experience of learning...

Care demands on mothers caring for a child with Down syndrome: Malaysian (Sarawak) mothers' perspectives This paper examines the experiences of mothers caring for a child with Down syndrome in the Malaysian (Sarawak) context. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 26 biological mothers of children with Down syndrome aged 18 years and below. They were accessed through selected child health clinics, community-based rehabilitation centres and schools using purposive sampling within two regions in Sarawak, one of the two Borneo States of Malaysia. Major themes emerging within the context of care demands were children's health, developmental delays, daily needs and behaviour issues. The insights obtained into the care demands experienced by mothers of children with Down syndrome have several implications for practice by care professionals.

Owing to reduced inpatient stays, people with mental illness (PMI) were often discharged from the hospital in 'acute' conditions. During this transition period of fragility, the relocation of care from hospital to home has tremendous impact on every aspect of a family's life as they need to face a challenging task of caring especially when they are 'not ready' and 'ignorant' about the chronicity and severity of the illness. Furthermore, where economic and psychological support is concerned, those who are undertaking this task may require significant professional guidance. Aims: This study examines the experiences of 100 families in caring for people with mental illness in the community. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted in their homes within three Malaysian states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johor in year 2013. Results: Three themes emerged from the findings of 'care demands related concerns' of these families. These include theme (1): care...

Experience of mothers learning and doing infant massage The practice of infant massage has been reported to give relaxation and enjoyment to mothers and babies. Objective: this study aimed to explore mothers’ experience with learning and doing infant massage. Methodology: Mothers of babies four to six weeks old were taught the adapted baby massage program over four sessions by a certified infant massage instructor in selected health centres. They were asked to do infant massage for 15 minutes twice a day. As part of a main study, nine of the mothers were recruited as study participants at the end of the teaching sessions using a purposive sampling procedure. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore their experience with learning and doing baby massage. Findings: Mothers’ experience with baby’s relaxation and sleep, baby-mother bonding, new learning in term of a helpful baby-care skill, responding to baby cues, establishing new care routine, gaining spousal and other mothers’ su...

Mothers of child with the unexpected diagnosis of Down’s syndrome (DS) were reported to be dealing with an on-going, chronic situation in supporting their child’s various needs throughout their life. They were reported to perceive lower quality of life. There are little published studies related to experiences of mothers in Malaysia, particularly in the Borneo state of Sarawak with its diverse socio-economic, cultural and geographical background. The effects of having a child with DS on the quality of life (QOL) of mothers are little known. The purpose of the study is to understand the experiences of mothers having a child with DS and their QOL in the local context. It also aims to examine the relationship between mothers’ selected background variables and their perceived QOL. Parallel mixed research design approach was utilized. Qualitative interviews were conducted to explore the experiences of 26 biological mothers of child having DS aged ≤ 18 years old. QOL of another 161 biolog...

The aim of this study was to investigate factors influencing nursing students' intention to use a simulated webapplication 'Integrated Nursing Education System' for practicing electronic health documentation. The crosssectional study was conducted at a Malaysian University that provides undergraduate nursing degree program. A total of 133 undergraduate nursing students in their year 2 to year 4 of the program were recruited. They had accessed the simulated web-application as part of the teaching-learning activities during the academic year 2016/2017. Technology Acceptance Model was used to guide the study. Validated questionnaires were used to measure the students' perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes and intention to use the application. Data collection was done at the end of the semester. Data analysis was done using SPSS (19.0) and AMOS (23.0). Perceived usefulness was the most influential factor of the students' intention to use the simulated webapplication. Perceived ease of use influenced their perceived usefulness significantly. Nurse educators should explain the usefulness of the simulated web-application before assigning students to access it to practice electronic health documentation. The availability of a stable internet access and IT support is important to influence students' perceived ease of use and intention to use the application.

The International Association of Infant Massage has developed an infant massage program that promote nurturing touch and advocates that children and parents are to be respected and valued. Studies have shown that the practice of infant massage provide benefits both for mothers and babies. One of the aims of the study is to explore postnatal mothers' experience with infant massage program using focus group discussion. Study has been conducted at selected maternal and child health clinics around Kuching, Sarawak. As part of an ongoing comparative cohort study, it involves recruitment of postnatal mothers who are from the clinics. They were taught the adapted infant massage program by a certified infant massage instructor over 4 sessions at weekly interval. They were asked to do massage for their babies at home twice a day over 15 minutes each time. Focus group interviews revealed that their babies slept better, more relaxed, while the mothers enjoyed bonding time with their babies...

This study aims to examine the nursing students’ perceptions, attitudes, intention to use a simulated, web-application iNES for electronic health documentation and factors influencing their intention to use. Study guided by Technology Acceptance Model hopes to generate insights which would influence the future move of integrating educational, simulated electronic health documentation into the nursing curricular locally. A cross-sectional study design using self-administered questionnaire is adopted. A convenience sampling of 133 undergraduate nursing students in their year 2 to year 4 of study from one of the local public universities were recruited. Students were asked to access the iNES as part of the teaching-learning activities during the semester. Questionnaires were administered to the students at the end of one academic semester. Regression estimates indicate that both attitude toward using and perceived usefulness had significant effect on their intention to use iNES. Togeth...