PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of abdominal breathing on relieving anxiety in women diagnosed with preterm labor. METHOD: This was a pilot study, which was based on a repeated pre-post experiment design without a control group. Seven patients with preterm labor who were admitted to Y university medical center, Seoul, Korea, participated in the experiment. They were under receiving ritodrine hydrochloride(Yutopa) as tocolytic therapy and did not have any other complications. The patients were taught abdominal breathing, which is a modified version of Mason's breathing technique. The experimental treatments were done 33 times from February 18 to June 19 in 2005. RESULT: After abdominal breathing, the average psychological anxiety level decreased significantly. The physical anxiety levels of preterm labor patients were measured by blood pressure, pulse, and skin temperature. After abdominal breathing, the average systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased from 117.3mmHg to 107.6 mmHg (z=-3.85, p<.001) and from 67.3mmHg to 62.7 mmHg (z=-3.14, p<.005), respectively. The average pulse rate also decreased from 97.2/min to 89.8/mim (z=-4.76, p<.001). The average skin temperature increased from 94.0 to 94.9(z=-4.80. p<.001). CONCLUSION: Abdominal breathing is effective for relieving anxiety of women diagnosed with preterm labor. This study, however, has been limited to short-term effects, and therefore further studies are required in order to examine the long-term effects of abdominal breathing.
Academic Medical Centers ; Anxiety* ; Blood Pressure ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Korea ; Obstetric Labor, Premature* ; Pilot Projects ; Pregnancy ; Respiration* ; Ritodrine ; Seoul ; Skin Temperature ; Tocolysis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the application of the Problem-Based Learning(PBL) in nursing with regard to the learning process and learning outcomes. METHOD: PBL modules were provided to the students so that they could identify the nursing problems related to nutrition, regulation, and elimination, and implement appropriate nursing interventions according to the problems. PBL was also used to develop ability to use self-evaluation for nursing intervention outcomes. The modules were developed by the authors for the course, Nursing 1(3 credits) at Y university, and used during one semester, March to June 2003. Evaluation of the learning process and learning outcomes was done by self-report questionnaires and a semi-structured self-report developed by the authors. RESULT: The PBL evaluation included role of the facilitators, group work process, and self-directed learning attitude. The students evaluated the facilitator's role positively in fostering positive interactions and cooperative study among students and stimulating students to apply various problem-solving strategies. Students evaluated their own group work performances as a good opportunity to improve their group work participation, contribution, cooperation, and leadership through the PBL session. Their responsibility for their own learning and develop self-directed learning attitudes to connect present learning to long-term goals. CONCLUSION: Critical thinking, problem solving skills, self-directed learning and group work accomplishments in undergraduate student nurses were fostered and improved through the PBL program.
Diagnostic Self Evaluation ; Foster Home Care ; Humans ; Leadership ; Learning ; Nursing* ; Problem Solving ; Problem-Based Learning* ; Thinking ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a vital signs e-book for undergraduate student nurses and evaluate the content, system and student satisfaction. METHOD: This study was done in three stages, the development of a vital signs e-book, implementation and evaluation. The subjects were 73 undergraduate student nurses in Y university. RESULT: Thirty one learning objectives were used to create the contents. A set of 5 chapters and 18 subsections were defined after validation from nurse educators. The e-book is available at http://123.134.207.23/ebook/vitalsigns. Analysis of the questionnaires showed a mean score for content, system and students satisfaction of 3.17 +/- .73, 3.11 +/-.79, and 2.96 +/-.74 respectively out of a possible 4 points. CONCLUSION: Nurse educators should provide quality and effective web-based courses that meet undergraduate student nurses' learning needs and they should incorporate web-based learning into traditional teaching to meet the demands of nursing education.
Respiration ; Pulse ; *Physical Examination ; *Internet ; *Education, Nursing ; *Computer-Assisted Instruction