2006, Cilt 13, Sayı 2, Sayfa(lar) 048-056
Nurses and Midwives in Perinatal Services Which Gives in Primary Health Care Settings
Prof.Dr. Lale TAŞKIN, Arş.Gör. Dr. Gülten KOÇ
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Hemşirelik Yüksekokulu Doğum ve Kadın Sağlığı Hemşireliği Anabilim Dalı
Keywords: Perinatal nursing, primary health care services, job description of nurses and midwives

Pregnancy and birth, which are physiological processes, are important experiences of life where the lines of health and illness approach each other. Therefore, health care services should be planned individually and risk factors should be determined in early stages to protect and improve the health of mother, fetus and newborn. However, perinatal indicators in our country manifests that services in this area are insufficient, thus programs to improve perinatalogy services should be regarded seriously. Although most of the perinatal services are provided by nurses and midwives in our country, the directive on execution of health services in force indicates no legal responsibilities for nurses except counselling for family planning while midwives are assigned to provide some services in the field of geriatrics and contagious disease, which were not stipulated by World Health Organisation (WHO) for the curriculums and job description of midwives. For improving the health indicators of the perinatal period during which mother and baby diseases and death are most prevalent, enhancing perinatal services in quality and improve the availability of the services; it is necessary to use obstetricians and nurses more effectively and revise job definition in this context.