OBJECTIVE: The importance of critical thinking has been increasingly
emphasized in the nursing literature. The need for critical thinking in
nursing has been emphasized in response to the rapidly changing health
care environment. Nurses must think critically to provide effective care
whilst coping with the expansion of roles and complexities of current
health care systems. It’s necessary to clarify critical thinking for nursing
to reflect critical thinking. This article aims to clarify the concept of
‘‘critical thinking’’ as put forward by Walker and Avant.
METHODS: Walker and Avant’s well-established method of concept
analysis was employed to clarify of the concept of critical thinking.
RESULTS: According to the concept analysis of critical thinking, it
was determined that creative thinking, problem solving and decision
making are the related concepts to critical thinking.The background of concepts and attributes such as intuition, curiosity
and skepticism were realized. As a result of critical thinking, it was
seen that skills such as participation, discovery, decision making
and problem solving were achieved. According to these properties,
model, borderline and contrary cases were discussed. The literature’s
views towards concept analysis of critical thinking, related concepts,
background, defining attributes and results were determined, and
model, borderline, and contrary cases were presented.
CONCLUSION: It was determined that while some of the properties of
critical thinking are related to personality traits such as intuition and
curiosity, others are related to a person’s education and can be developed
by using oral and written language effectively, asking questions,
and other scientific approaches.

For a couple, facing the reality of not being able to have a biological
baby is an unexpected and stressful situation that makes them totally
change their lives. When compared with the general population,
infertility and its treatment make the infertile couples experience
anxiety, depression, a low quality of life, and sexual dysfunction.
Infertility causes women to experience depression, anxiety, and sexual
desire disorders, and their quality of life and emotional wellness can be
affected in negative ways as well. Men who have undergone infertility
treatment can feel emotional deprivation, low self-esteem, a loss of
confidence, incompetence, loneliness, guilt, fear, anger, shame and
disappointment. Counseling will help couples cope with their feelings
of sorrow and grief that have resulted from being infertile. Counseling
will also help them use defense mechanisms in order to support each
other, make co-decisions and solve the problems caused by gender
differences. The infertility counseling team must consist of physicians,
embryologists, and infertility nurses along with psychologists, psychotherapists,
and psychiatrists. Nurses are one of the most important
members of the infertility team and play a key role in providing
humanistic care to infertile individuals and couples during this difficult
process.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of an education program at the Mother
and Child Health and Family Planning Center on the genital hygiene
behaviors of women between the ages of 18 and 49 who use an
intrauterine device (IUD) or take oral contraceptive pills (OCP).
METHODS: The research was a quasi-experimental study using a pre-test
and post-test. The data were collected between October 1, 2011 and
February 15, 2012. One-hundred and sixty-five consenting women
between the ages of 18 and 49 who used the center over the specified
period and applied IUD or OCP were accepted into the study. A
questionnaire on demographic characteristics and a General Hygiene
Behavior Inventory were used in data collection. After the pretest was
administered, the group was given 2 sessions of reciprocal training and
2 sessions of telephone training within the four months determined
in a work plan. A post-test was administered two months later. The
data were evaluated using percentages, means, standard deviation,
independent samples-t, Paired-t, chi-square and ANOVA tests.
RESULTS: The women exhibited significant differences in mean scores
on the general hygiene inventory before and after the education
program (OCP group before education: 56.97±4.7; after education
92.60±4.0; RIA group before education: 55.34±4.5; after education 77.19±3.4). There were no statistical differences in the general hygiene
scores before and after the education program regarding the women’s
socio-demographic characteristics or their use of family planning
methods (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION: Individual education is effective in teaching women
appropriate hygiene behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: The growing need for home care services is due to not
only the rising age of the population, but also the increasing rate of
disabilities and chronic illnesses in Turkey and around the world. This
study was designed to determine the needs of home care patients, their
primary caregivers’ problems, and to analyze the burdens of care.
METHODS: The sample of the research includes 177 patients and
their 177 primary caregivers who were registered in a database of a
public hospital offering home care services. In order to analyze the
data, descriptive statistical methods in addition to the Kruskal-Wallis,
Mann-Whitney U, Student t-test variance analysis and correlation test
were used.
RESULTS: In the study, most of the patients were women age 76 or higher,
had at least one chronic illness, and were found to have psycho-social
problems. The patients were semi-dependent according to activities of
daily living. Most of the primary caregivers were women and between
the ages of 46 and 64. They were mostly elementary-school graduates
and housewives. When the caregivers’ responsibilities were identified,
the highest factors were time dependency and physical dependency.
On the other hand, the lowest factor was emotional dependency. It was
also found that when the patients’ dependency increased according to
ADL, the burden of time dependency of the caregivers also increased
while emotional dependency decreased.
CONCLUSION: The results of this study show the needs and the problems
of patients and their caregivers to home care organizations and health
care professionals.

The “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” states that all people
have equal rights without gender discrimination in all fields and in all
circumstances. However, it is unfortunate that a disparity model giving
more value and priority to men has continued from the past to the
present in many areas of life. This inequality becomes more apparent in
such areas as social life, marriage and family life, work life, education,
politics and decision-making, human rights, and access to health
services. The most important area of women’s health where gender
discrimination appears is in reproductive health services. Throughout
the world, women still face violence, become disabled or die due to their
gender. Women are unable to make independent decisions regarding
their health care due to a variety of social and family pressures, and
face barriers when trying to access health care facilities and services. To
achieve gender equality, individuals of all ages and genders, especially
men, health workers, leaders, and legislators should develop awareness
and adopt an equal perspective. Today, the WHO, the United Nations,
the Council of Europe and organizations such as the Women’s Health
Council have joined forces and initiated advocacy programs, including
“Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, Gender Equality in Health
and Gender-Sensitive Health Services”. It should be ensured that all
nurses who work directly in society provide care and services based
on human rights and gender equality. In our country, significant
differences in health indicators between regions and settlements
seriously affect women’s health, their problems, and their roles in
society. Outside of advocacy, the nurse should assess women using a
holistic approach and plan women’s health care accordingly.

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to learn what nurses and
midwives working in obstetrics and children’s wards think about
professional awareness and professional organizations, and also to
determine their levels of job satisfaction.
METHODS: This descriptive study was carried out in an obstetrics
hospital in Istanbul between January 2007 and March 2007. The sample
group of the study was composed of 102 nurses and midwives who
agreed to participate in the study and who actively work in obstetrics
and children’s wards at the time of the study. Personal information
forms from the nurses and midwives along with the Minnesota Job
Satisfaction Questionnaire were used for data collection.
RESULTS: 34.3% of the participants defined professional awareness
as taking ownership of their jobs and 90.2% stated that they do not
have any professional awareness. It was found that 35.9% attributed
the reason for this to the adverse conditions of the job. Although
92.1% of the nurses who took part in the study deemed professional
organizations necessary, only 24.5% of them were members of an
professional organizations. Among the suggestions for increasing
professional awareness and organizations, offering good introductions
to professional organizations and improving work conditions took the
first place at 22.7%. After analyzing job satisfaction points, departments
worked, educational backgrounds, and the reasons for choosing their
jobs in comparison to the reasons for participating in professional
organizations, the differences between the groups were found to be
statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: The knowledge and attitudes of the nurses’ towards
professional awareness and professional organizations were not at the
desired levels.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the knowledge levels of university healthscience
students on HIV/AIDS and to identify the sources of false
information.
METHODS: 440 university health-science students were included in the
study. A questionnaire developed by the researchers was used, and
for the analysis, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Chi-square and
logistic regression were used.
RESULTS: The mean age was 20.79±1.68 (min 18, max 27) and most
students were from nuclear families (86.6%). Most students informed
on HIV/AIDS reported to have learned about HIV/AIDS in schools
(75.5%). A great majority of students reported that the causative agent
was a virus (93.6%), was detected by blood tests (93.0%), was not
a hereditary disease (94.8%), was contracted during birth (86.1%),
and was an untreatable disease (82.7%). During the evaluation of
inaccurately-known topics, the most inaccurate information was
found to be that individuals with HIV/AIDS have many other diseases
(69.8%). In addition, it was discovered that students had inaccurate
knowledge about the fact that weight loss is seen in the terminal period
of the disease (35.5%), and the use of condoms decreases the risk
(19.3%).
CONCLUSION: It was concluded that most students have unsatisfactory
knowledge on how HIV/AIDS is transmitted, and a lack of information
and sources on HIV/AIDS was found to trigger inaccuracy.

It is a fact that evaluation supports education and even directs it. During
this stage, education planners should define the objectives in learning
and should make a decision on the most suitable evaluation methods
to achieve those objectives, especially in evaluating cognitive learning.
While assessment methods such as written exams, homework, and
projects are used, assessment methods should include performance
evaluation in behavioural learning in addition to knowledge assessment.
In the literature, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination has
been shown to be an effective method for evaluating knowledge,
attitude, and skill, and the adoption of this examination for evaluating
student performance in health proficiency programs is increasing day
by day because it reflects the clinical environment in real life. The
Objective Structured Clinical Examination is also starting to be used
as a popular method for evaluating clinical efficiency in the field of
nursing.
Like in other fields, in order to achieve the best practice and provide
an objective evaluation, it is important to understand the advantages
and disadvantages of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination
and organize exams to support student learning in accordance with the
recommendations for implementation.