HAYAT
Year:2012 | Volume:18 | Issue:3|Papers Count:11

Background & Objective: Appropriate physical activity help to promote women's health during pregnancy. Providing appropriate educational programs for pregnant women seems to be necessary. This study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of a group educational program on pregnant women's physical activity.Methods & Materials: This clinical trial was conducted among 280 nulliparous women. The participants were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. Women in the experimental group participated in eight 90-minute group-based educational classes. Those in the control group received routine care. Data were collected at baseline and at the end of the educational program. Data were analyzed using the Chisquared test and thet -test in the SPSS.Results: There were no statistical differences on age, body mass index, education level, employment status, and physical activity between the two groups at baseline. The physical activity score was more in the experiment group (37.38±14.89) in compare with the control group (13.7±11.12) after the intervention (P<0.001).Conclusion: The group-based educational program seems to promote physical activity during pregnancy. These kinds of programs should be implemented in prenatal clinics.

Background & Aim: Quality of nursing care is a major issue in nursing management. In the last year of nursing studies (internships) in Iran, nursing students are going to independently carry out responsibilities of graduated nurses. Patients' satisfaction is a main indicator for nursing care quality. This study was to determine the correlation between the quality of caring behaviors among internship students with the patients' satisfaction with nursing care quality.Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 200 patients were selected using convenience sampling method from the hospitals affiliated to the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Data were gathered using two questionnaires including: 1) quality of the caring behaviors, and 2) patient satisfaction with nursing care quality questionnaire (PSNCQQ). Data were analyzed using statistical tests in the SPSS-13.Results: Regarding quality of caring behaviors, the subscale scores of the knowledge and skills were good, and patient education was low. The relationship between the nurses and patients, and nursing morality were in average level. Regarding the patient satisfaction, the highest level of satisfaction was related to nursing knowledge and skills, and the lowest level was related to the patient education. Significant correlation was found between the total quality of the caring behaviors with the patients' satisfaction and their subscales (P<0.001).Conclusion: Based on the findings, patients are more satisfied with the caring behaviors of the students who focus on the communication with patients, nursing ethics, and especially patient education during the care.

Background & Objective: Parental participation in pediatric nursing is not ideally done due to several barriers. This qualitative study aimed to explore the barriers of parental participation in pediatric care during 2011-2012.Methods & Materials: This qualitative study was carried out using content analysis approach. Data were gathered through face to face semi-structured interviews with a sample of pediatric nurses (n=11) who were recruited through purposeful sampling from a pediatric hospital in Tehran. After gaining data saturation, data were analyzed using content analysis method.Results: Four main themes were emerged as barriers of parental participation in pediatric care including mutual motivation and interest in both parties (motivation and attitudes of nurses and interest in parents), management (lack of support for nurses, nursing shortage, nurses' workload, and poor teamwork between nurses and physicians), confidence in the nursing profession, and finally undefined role for mothers.Conclusion: Findings revealed the barriers of parental participation in caring for their hospitalized children. Managers and nurses can take advantages of these findings to improve and strengthen parental participation in pediatric care units during hospitalization.

Background & Objective: Hospitalization of patients in the intensive care unit of open heart surgery (ICUOH) is often stressful for patients' family carers. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the informational support on anxiety among families of patients undergone open heart surgery.Methods & Materials: In this double-group randomized clinical trial, 64 family carers of patients undergone open heart surgery were selected using convenience sampling method and were randomly allocated into two intervention or control groups. The informational support consisted of holding the ICU orientation tours and educational sessions, and providing educational pamphlets and booklets. The members of the control group received routin information. The anxiety of the family carers was measured using the trait Spielberger anxiety questionnaire before surgery and in the day of discharge from the ICU. Independent and paired t-tests were used to analyze the data.Results: According to the findings, there were no significant difference between the two groups regarding demographic characteristics. At the baseline, the mean of anxiety scores were 47.9±11.5 and 49.2±11.5 in the control and intervetion groups, respectively. The anxiety scores diminished in both groups after the surgery, however, the difference was not statistically significant between the two groups (P=0.18).Conclusion: For effective control of anxiety among family members of patients, both informational support and other supportive techniques such as psychological support and meeting other family needs should be considered.

Background & Aim: Lack of knowledge about coronary angiography may cause anxiety and stress in patients. Implementing appropriate educational methods can be effective in decreasing the level of anxiety among these patients. This study aimed to compare the effects of faceto-face with group education on anxiety and knowledge of patients undergoing coronary angiography.Methods & Materials: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in Shaheed Rajaie Cardiovascular Center affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2012. Through consecutive sampling method, 84 hospitalized patients who were candidate for coronary angiography were selected and allocated into two educational groups. Data were collected using a demographic data sheet, the knowledge assessment questionnaire, and the Spielberg state-trait anxiety inventory. Patients in both groups received same educational content.The patients' knowledge and anxiety were assessed before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test and paired t-test.Results: The finding showed that both face-to-face education and group education were effective in enhancing the knowledge of the patients. However, group education was more effective than the faceto-face education in reducing the patients' anxiety (P=0.049).Conclusion: Health professionals, particularly nurses, can use group education as an effective and appropriate strategy to improve patients' knowledge and to reduce the anxiety among patients undergoing coronary angiography.

Background & Aim: The presence of pain is a common phenomenon among patients in critical care units. Critically ill patients are often unable to communicate because of illness or sedation, so, recognition and assessment of their pain is difficult. In these patients, observational behavioral indices can be used to evaluate pain. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of application of critical-care pain observation tool in patients with decreased level of consciousness on performance of nurses in documentation and reassessment of pain after palliative intervention.Methods & Materials: In this before and after quasi-experimental study, 106 nurses working in general intensive care units in selected hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected. First, we examined the nurses' performance three times in relation to documentation and reassessment of pain after palliative intervention, position change and suction procedure in patients with decreased level of consciousness using a researcher-made check list. Then, we taught nurses individually, how to use this tool to investigate the pain of patient in a session lasting an hour. A week after the training, the researcher reevaluated performance of trained nurses in relation to documentation and reassessment of pain after palliative intervention in patients with decreased level of consciousness. Finally, those data collected before and after the training of the CPOT to nurses were compared using the Wilcoxon test.Results: Findings showed that the CPOT could not lead to improved nurses' function in relation to documentation of pain in the patients records (P=0.209) and recording palliative measures related to pain (P=0.117). However, there were significant statistical differences between nurses' function in relation to reassessment of pain after palliative intervention, before and after the training and application of the CPOT. Comparing the mean function scores before and after the intervention, demonstrated that the performance of nurses in this area has been improved after the intervention.Conclusion: The critical-care pain observation tool can increase nurses' sensitivity to pain in patients with decreased level of consciousness. It forces the nurses to reassess the pain after palliative intervention. This tool does not motivate in nurses to document pain palliative process. So it is recommended that future studies investigate the impact of this tool on other aspects of pain management, such as diagnosis of pain and using of drugs and non-drug measures.

Background & Objective: Nursing students usually experience various types of stress. Lack of stress coping strategies result in more stress, incompatibility, manifestation of disorders, and mental health problems. This study carried out to assess the methods of coping with stress among nursing students.Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 358 male and female bachelor of nursing students studying at Tehran University of Medical Sciences during the first semester of 2011-2012 were selected. Data were collected using the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation and a demographic questionnaire. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in the SPSS-14.Results: There were 66.2% female and 33.8% male students in the study. The age of the students ranged 17-29 years. Most of the students aged 20-22 years (45%), were single (90.8%), were habitants of Tehran (53.1%), had an average economic status (72.1%), and were employed (20.9%). Of all, 19.3% had experienced stressful events in the last three months. A small number of the students (4.7%) suffered from chronic diseases. The nursing students mostly used problem-oriented coping style (56%). The emotion oriented method was used among 45.99% of the students and the avoidance oriented style was used among 39.34% of the students. There were no statistically significant relationship between the coping styles and the demographic characteristics.Conclusion: The problem-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance oriented styles were the most frequent styles used by the students, respectively. The mental health, particularly among nursing students who deal with patients and have important role in the health system, is important and requires special attention. The stress coping styles should be inserted in the educational curriculum of the nursing schools.

Background & Objective: Hospitals and healthcare centers, like any other organizations, have some common norms and beliefs called as organizational culture. Organizational culture plays a key role in organization's and staffs' performances. Nurses' perspectives on the organizational culture affect the way they play their role in. This study aimed to investigate the role of organizational culture from perspectives of nurses working in selected hospitals at Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 230 nurses working in different wards of selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were recruited to the study. Data were collected using a demographic characteristics checklist as well as the nurse and organizational culture questionnaire extracted from the Robbins criteria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical indexes, independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression in the SPSS v.17.Results: Results showed that the existing organizational culture in the selected hospitals was in a moderately good level from nurses' perspectives. From the scores obtained for various dimensions of the organizational culture, the highest and lowest scores were for control (44.2%) and conflict tolerance (31.8%), respectively.Conclusion: The level of the organizational culture from the nurses' perspectives might lead them to decrease the quality of their performance.Optimizing the organizational culture can improve nurses' performance and motivate them to increase their quality of work.