COMMUNITY NURSES AND BREASTFEEDING

Patronažne medicinske sestre (PMS) so pomembne izvajalke podpore dojenja v domačem okolju. Pri svojem delu morajo biti kreativne, humane, samostojne, suverene. Dojenje je pomembno za otroka, mamo, družino in okolje. Mamica in dojenček potrebujeta veliko potrpežljivosti, podpore, individualnega pristopa v času dojenja. Na nacionalni ravni se spremlja prevalenca dojenih otrok ob odpustu iz porodnišnice. O številu dojenih otrok do šestega meseca starosti lahko sklepamo le na osnovi posameznih raziskav nekaterih slovenskih področij. Te raziskave kažejo na veliko raznolikost prevalence dojenja pri šestih mesecih starosti dojenčka. Raziskovalna metodologija: Instrument zbiranja podatkov v kvantitativnem delu raziskovanja je bil anketni vprašalnik z uporabljeno petstopenjsko lestvico merjenja stališč ob navedenih trditvah. Anketni vprašalnik je bil vsebinsko prilagojen dvema raziskovalnima vzorcema, prvi del pri patronažnih medicinskih sestrah, sestavljen iz vprašanj o osnovnih podatkih, v drugem delu je bil naveden niz šestnajstih trditev s petstopenjsko Likertovo lestvico (»sploh se ne strinjam«, »zelo se strinjam«). Pri mamicah je bil podoben anketni vprašalnik. V raziskovalni vzorec smo vključili 24 patronažnih medicinskih sester koroške regije in 57 mamic, ki živijo na istem geografskem področju, katerega obiskujejo anketirane patronažne medicinske sestre. Podatke smo statistično obdelali in tabelarično ter grafično prikazali s programom Microsoft Excel 2010 in SPSS17.0 in poskušali odgovoriti na postavljena raziskovalna vprašanja ter postavljene hipoteze. Rezultati: Rezultati raziskave kažejo na pripravljenost patronažnih medicinskih sester glede sprejetja novih kompetenc in nalog pri podpori dojenja. Mamicam, ki so sodelovale pri raziskavi se zdi strokovna pomoč PMS pri podpori dojenja pomembna. PMS sprejemajo kot družinsko medicinsko sestro z veliko strokovnega znanja in ji zaupajo. Sklep: Patronažne medicinske sestre imajo pomembno vlogo pri podpori dojenja. Imeti morajo možnost izobraževanj, čutiti podporo zdravstvene ustanove, kjer so zaposlene, imeti izboljšan informacijski sistem spremljanja statistike dojenja na nacionalni ravni, biti prilagodljive ter znati individualno obravnavati doječi par in družino. Kot strokovnjakinje za podporo dojenja bi lahko samostojno odločale o številu obiskov v času nosečnosti in po porodu.Community nurses are an important element of support to breastfeeding in the home environment. At their work they have to be creative, humane, independet and have absolute control. Breastfeeding is important for the baby, mother, family and environment. Mothers and babies need a lot of patience, support and individual approach when breastfeeding/being breastfed. On the national level, the predominance of babies breastfed upon their release from maternity hospital is being observed. Estimates on the number of children breastfed until six months of age can only be made on the basis of individual researches covering some areas of Slovenia. These researches show a great diversity in the predominance of breastfeeding at the age of six months. Research methodolgy: Instrument of gathering data in the quantitative part of the research was a questionnaire which used a five-level scale to measure the level of agreement with the stated affirmations. The questionnaire content was adapted to two research patterns. The first part of the questionnaire concerning community nurses contained questions on the basic data. The second part contained a series of 16 affirmations with the five-level Likert scale (“I completely disagree” – “I completely agree”). At mothers was similar questionnaire. The target group included 24 community nurses from Carinthia (Koroška) and 57 mothers living in the same geographical region where the community nurses work. The gathered information was processed and shown in tables and graphs (using Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS17.0) and attempt to answer the reaserch questions and hipothesys. Results: The research results show that community nurses are ready to take on new responsibilities and work in support of breastfeeding. Mothers participating in the research found the expert help offered by community nurses in the field of breastfeeding, important. Community nurse accepted as a family nurse with a wealth of expertise and trust her. Conclusion: Community nurses play an important role in providing support to breastfeeding. To be able to do their job well, they must be given access to further training, they must feel they enjoy support of the health institution they work for, and they need an improved information system to monitor the national-level breastfeeding statistics. Community nurses also have to be adaptable, as they have to be able to deal with the breastfeeding couple and their family on an individual basis. As the experts who give support to breastfeeding mothers and babies, they could be allowed to take independent decisions on the number of visits they will make during the pregnancy and after the birth