HAYAT
Year:2007 | Volume:13 | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

Background & Objective: The chronic diseases such as cancer could seriously affect health and consequently quality of life of individuals. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of life in the patients who have been recently diagnosed with caner.Methods & Materials: This research is a descriptive - analytical study aims to determine quality of life in newly diagnosed cancer patients in selected oncology clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. In this research, 196 newly diagnosed cancer patients were selected by simple sampling method and based on aim. The data were collected by a questionnaire including demographic data, disease characteristic and questions about quality of life in physical, physiological and socioeconomic aspects. The socioeconomic questionnaire presented to the patients after his/ her permission and giving necessary descriptions to him/ her about the objectives of the research. The questions were read for illiterate patients by researcher. The SPSS program was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics such as absolute/ relative and average sufficiency and deductive statistics such as X2 test were used as well.Results: The research results show that the quality of life in physical aspect is desirable in majority (67/9%) of patients. The quality of life in physiological aspect is desirable in majority (63.3%) of patients and as well the quality of life in socioeconomic aspect is desirable in majority (76.5%) of patients. The research conclusion shows that there is a meaningful relationship between number of children and economic status (P<0.001) and quality of life in physical aspect. There is a meaningful relationship between economic status with quality of life in psychological aspect and with quality of life in socioeconomic aspect (P<0.05). There is a meaningful relationship between type of cancer, disease stage at the time of diagnosis (P<0.001), and quality of life in physical aspect. There is a meaningful relationship between disease stage (P=0.002), and quality of life in psychological aspect and quality of life in socioeconomic aspect (P<0.05).Conclusion: The research result shows that the quality of life in physical, psychological and socioeconomic aspects is desirable in the society. Thus the nurses can play an important role in increasing the quality of life of such patients.

Background & Objective: Administrators have to pay attention to nurses as an important group among hospitals employees in order to have better patient outcomes. Recently, nurses’ quality of work life is a new concept that attention to it can improve organizational efficiency. This research is to investigate the quality of work life of nurses at Tehran University of Medical Sciences Hospitals in 2005-2006.Methods & Materials: This is a cross-sectional study. The research was conducted among 349 nursing employees. Data were gathered using a questionnaire consisted of 30 elements of QWL. The respondents were asked to determine their overall quality of work life. Validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using content validity and reliability was determined using test-retest method. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS statistical software package.Results: The results showed that the majority of nurses were dissatisfied with environmental health and safety at work, monetary compensation and job welfare. There was significant correlation between the executive position of nurses, years of experience and their salary (P<0.05).Conclusion: The study findings showed that nurses had a poor quality of work life. This indicates that majority of employees are unsatisfied with the most aspects of their quality of work life.

Background & Objective: Dysmenorrhea is a common problem in young women that affect their activities. Various alternative methods including relaxation have been proposed to manage primary dysmenorrheal. The objective of this research is to study the effects of relaxation on primary dysmenorrhea among first year nursing and midwifery female students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Methods & Materials: This is a quasi-experimental study. The samples (n=80) were randomly assigned in two groups. Experiment group (N=40) received the relaxation technique. Relaxation technique was done twice a day; each section lasted 20 minutes for 3 menstruation cycles. The questionnaire on pain measurement were completed in the first, second and third day of cycle. Control group (N=40), completed questionnaire in the same days. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and tested using chi-square, t-test - Willcoxcon and fisher exact tests.Results: The result showed that relaxation therapy had no significant effect on primary dysmenorrhea in the first (P=0.149) and second cycles (P=0.390) in the Experiment group. It had a significant effect on primary dysmenorrhea in third cycle (P=0.023).Conclusion: The results showed that relaxation technique is an effective method in reducing the symptoms of primary dysmanorrhea in the young women.

Background & Objective: Studies show, clients’ satisfaction is an important indicator for service quality assessment. Finding causes of dissatisfaction helps to promote health care services quality. High quality prenatal care services and clients’ satisfaction decreases maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. The perceived quality of the prenatal care by the mothers can not be effectively evaluated unless considering the opinions, demands and satisfaction rate of mothers who receive the care. The objective of this study is to measure prenatal care utilization rate and patients satisfaction in the clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2005.Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 380 pregnant women who had received prenatal care services in two hospitals and eight health centers were selected randomly and interviewed. Data were gathered using a questionnaire including demographic characteristics and satisfaction questions. Data were analyzed using SPSS and tested with chi-square and Pearson exact test.Results: According to the results, 53.4 % and 14.8% of the pregnant women had received complete and incomplete prenatal care, respectively. Most of the pregnant women (54.7%) were completely satisfied, 23.7% and 21.6% were moderately and poorly satisfied, respectively. There was a significant relationship between the utilization rate and satisfaction of mothers (P<0.001). 53.4% of mothers in health centers and 46% in hospitals had received complete prenatal care. Satisfaction with prenatal care in health centers and hospitals were 57.5% and 47%, respectively. This difference was probably related to the amount of emotional and physical care received by the patients in the different settings and the characteristics of the centers in which these services are provided. The kind of setting had significant relationship with the utilization and satisfaction rates (P=0.003, P=0.005, respectively). The results showed that the utilization and satisfaction rates in the health centers in which health-care providers were midwives were better than the hospitals in which health-care providers were medical and midwifery students. But in both settings it was lower than 60%.Conclusion: As a result, the utilization rate and satisfaction of mothers were inadequate in health centers and hospitals (lower than 70%). In the hospitals, they were lower than the health centers. The standardization of prenatal care and improvement of educational programs in hospitals should be considered.

Background & Objective: Research utilization is a new phenomenon in Iran and the Iranian nurses tend to practice based on evidences. The objective of this research is to investigate nurses' attitude toward research utilization.Methods & Materials: This research is an analytical-descriptive study. The sample included 410 clinical nurses and instructors who were selected through multistage stratified sampling method. Data were gathered using a two-section questionnaire and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).Results: 91.2% of respondents believed in using research findings in practice. 77.6% of nurses agreed with the following statement: "Research is not applicable in practice". Furthermore 88.3% agreed that" Research helps to build a scientific base for nursing". The majority of respondents had positive attitude toward research utilization. There was a significant difference between attitude and kind of professional activity, setting and research activity.Conclusion: It seems having positive attitude toward research utilization is not sufficient for applying research results in practice. In order to utilize the research findings, more relevant research in this field of nursing is required

Background & Objective: According to Iranian national statistics, every year 400 to 500 thousand unwanted pregnancies occur in Iran. The emergency contraceptive methods are easily accessible and affordable for the women of this region. Regarding the important role of health care providers in representing these methods, this study is to determine the knowledge and attitudes of these staff toward required contraceptive methods.Methods & Materials: In this semi-experimental study, 216 health personnel working in south of Tehran health centers were randomly selected. Two 30- minute educational sessions were presented to the staff. The methods of education included face to face, and group discussion. At the end of each session a pamphlet was given to the staff. Data were gathered using a questionnaire before and 2-6 weeks after the education. Statistical analysis was carried out using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).Results: The results showed that there were significant statistical differences between the knowledge and attitudes (P<0.001) of personnel about the emergency contraceptive methods before and after education. There was no significant relationship between demographic characteristics and attitudes of personnel. There was a significant relationship between sex (P<0.001), educational level (P<0.003), educational major (P<0.001), with knowledge after intervention.Conclusion: Knowledge and attitudes toward emergency contraceptive methods increased significantly after education. This finding reveals the importance of continuous education for health care staff such as midwives and physicians to facilitate successful guidance of their patients towards effective family planning.

Background & Objective: Nursing and Midwifery students experience different and numerous sources of stress. Stress is a complex phenomenon that may be experienced by all. Nursing and midwifery students have multiple sources of stress due to their work environment. In order to reduce their stress and prevent the complications, all sources of stress should be recognized. This study was carried out to compare sources of stress between midwifery and nursing students of Tehran universities of medical sciences.Methods & Materials: This is a cross-sectional study. All senior midwifery and nursing students of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti Universities were invited to participate in the study (n=380). Data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic section (15 questions) and sources of stress of educational environment, clinical environment, and social-personal problems (54 items). Data were analyzed using SPSS and tested with chi-square test.Results: 363 students participated in the study. Research findings showed that the followings are the most cited sources of stress among the students: ambiguous professional view, incompetent professional knowledge after graduation, caring for terminally ill patients, discordance between theory and clinical education, concerns about employment. Also results showed that there were significant differences between some sources of stress and the study programs.Conclusion: The nursing and midwifery students had numerous sources of stress in the educational, clinical, and social-personal domains of their life that can affect their physical and psychological health and cause learning problems. Using appropriate approaches to control and manage these sources of stress are recommended.

Background & Objectives: Successful breastfeeding is the result of right patterns of breastfeeding. This research aimed to study the patterns of breastfeeding in infants in Ray health centers.Methods & Materials: This is a descriptive study. The cluster random sampling (CRS) technique was used to select 400 mothers who had children under one year. Data were gathered using a questionnaire. Validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using content validity and reliability was determined using test-pretest method. Statistical analysis was carried out using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).Results: The results showed that 34.5% of mothers breastfed their children exclusively for 6 months. In 58.7% of the samples, the first contact between mother and child was made in less than 2 hours. 95.2% of children were started their first feeding with colostrums and 59% of mothers fed their children with Manna and 54% with sugary water and 39.5% gave them water. 81.5% of children were breastfeed on demand and 18.5% of them were feed two to four times a day. There was no significant relationship between parent’s knowledge, child’s sex, parent's age, child's rank in the family and child's race with breastfeeding (P>0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that the mothers had wrong beliefs, low knowledge and inappropriate practice on breastfeeding