Compendium of instruments measuring patient satisfaction with nursing care

Recent changes in health care delivery have encouraged a search for comprehensive and established measures of patient satisfaction with nursing care (PSNC), which studies have found to be the most important predictor of overall satisfaction with hospital care and an important indicator of outcome. Twenty-one current PSNC instruments are described in a compendium, which provides information on the developer and the date of publication or first use, types of items and subscales, mode of administration, reliability and validity formulas, and availability.

Effects on reproductive performance of administration of GnRH to early postpartum dairy cows

Three-hundred and thirty-five lactating dairy cows from two herds were used to compare the effects on reproductive performance of intramuscular injections of 100 micrograms gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), 250 micrograms GnRH or saline given on day 13, 14 or 15 postpartum. The incidence of ovarian cysts or uterine infections was not reduced after GnRH injection. Culling rate for infertility did not differ in either herd between GnRH- and saline-treated control cows. In the herd in which breeding began earlier in the postpartum period (Herd B), injection of 250 micrograms GnRH resulted in a better (P < .05) calving to conception interval (81 vs 96 days), better first service conception rate (74.5 vs 56.0%), better overall conception rate (70.6 vs 51.1%) and a lower number of services per conception (1.23 vs 1.74) than in the controls. In reproductively well-managed herds, injections of 250 micrograms GnRH, given to lactating dairy cows 2 weeks after calving, may increase fertility.