Advances in Nursing and Midwifery
Year:2006 | Volume:16 | Issue:53|Papers Count:10

Background: Delivery is one of the most important events in a woman's life with a lifelong remembrance. The negative aspects of this event may have diverse emotional effects for the woman and her family. Therefore, facilitating labor has been recently gained great concern and labor satisfaction has been considered as a significant indicator in quality care of maternal units.Purpose: This clinical trial was conducted to determine the effects of massage on satisfaction of primiparous women delivering at Ayatollah Shaheed Beheshti Hospital in 2005.Methods: 75 women were randomly selected and divided into 3 groups namely massage, support, and routine-care. Effleurage back massage lasted 20 minutes was given to the experimental group in 3 dilatation stages during and after contractions. Interventions including support and routine care in the other two groups also lasted 20 minutes. An observation checklist and information forms were used for data collection and content validity was used for validating them.Findings: Results showed that rates of satisfaction in the 3 groups had significant difference with no significant difference between support and routine-care group. The difference of satisfaction, however, between the massage group and routine-care group as well as support group was significant.Conclusion: According to the findings, it seems that massage has some effect on delivery satisfaction of primiparous women.

Back ground: Sleep is one of the most important needs of a person. In addition to restoring physical and mental well-being, it decreases stress and anxiety and improves the ability of coping and concentrating on activities of daily living. Sleep disturbances are very common in hemodialysis patients and can be observed in more than %50 of them, which can be reduced by applying hygienic recommendations as well as decreasing disturbing factors.Purpose: The aim of this descriptive study was to assess sleep disturbances and hygiene in hemodialysis patients at hospitals affiliated to Shaheed Beheshti Medical University.Methods: 171 hemodialysis patients were randomly selected. Data were collected by interview via a questionnaire in the form of Likert scale with three pa11sincluding demographic and affective variables, sleep problems, and sleep hygiene. Content validity was used to validate it and its reliability was achieved by test-retest method.Findings: Results showed that 34.5, 57.9, and 7.6 percent of the patients had low, moderate and high sleep disturbances respectively. Sleeping disturbances included delayed sleeping (%42.1), frequent awakening (%63.2), early rising (%17.6), excessive sleepiness (%25.1) and restless legs (%22.3). Only %6.4 of patients had proper sleep hygiene. %72.5 and %21.1 of the subjects had moderate and weak sleep hygiene respectively. There was a significant correlation between sleep disturbances and sleep hygiene (p<0.01). Moreover, the patients rep011ed such problems as bone pain, dyspnea, cramp, pruritus, coughing, and dry mouth with a significant correlation with sleep disturbances.Conclusion: Sleep disturbances significantly correlated with sleep hygiene. In other words, those who don't observe sleep hygiene, take sleeping drugs, or suffer from bone pain, dyspnea, cramp, pruritus, coughing, and dry mouth reported more sleep disturbances. Nurses can apply the above to assess, diagnose, prevent and control sleep disturbances and their side effects.

Background: Marriage is the first and the most important stage in family cycle through which humans mate with their partners. The success of other stages mainly depends on this stage. Mate selection is a difficult decision, which plays a primary role for having a happy life; otherwise, divorce will result. Proper mate selection criteria lead to family stability and physical as well as psychological health and bring about development and better child education with resulting human convenience.Purpose: This descriptive study was conducted to assess criteria of bribes living in Tehran for selecting their spouses in 2005.Methods: 252 women were selected from urban health and medical centers affiliated to Tehran, Shaheed Beheshti and Iran Medical Universities by multistage sampling. A 6- point rating questionnaire in 3 parts including demographic characteristics, mate selection criteria (based on familial, physical, psychological, socioeconomic, and religion as well as cultural conditions) and an open-ended question was used for data collection. Face and content validity methods were used to validate the tool and its reliability was measured by Cronbach Alpha.Findings: Findings showed that genuineness (%66.4), sincerity (%95.6), sociability (%67.9), belief in equality of men and women (%65.1) were the most important criteria for women in mate selection.Conclusion: With respect to the importance of mate selection criteria in the stability of families, it seems that couples should learn more about them.

Background: The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has been significantly increased in recent years worldwide. According to global statistics, only 17% of sexually active adolescents use contraceptive methods and, every day, more than 500,000 people between 19 and 24 contract one type of venereal diseases. Knowing the nature of these diseases and the routes of their transmission can play a major role in preserving health.Purpose: This descriptive correlational study was conducted to determine the knowledge of MS students of civil engineering in Sharif Industrial University regarding STDs and the correlation between 21 variables under study and their knowledge in 2004.Methods: All MS students were selected and a questionnaire in two parts including demographic information and students' knowledge about STDs was used for data collection. 12 4-choice questions were designed to assess knowledge. Scores between 0-17, 17-22 and 22-36 were considered as weak, moderate and good knowledge respectively.Findings: Results showed that 40%, 30% and 30% of students had weak, moderate and good knowledge about venereal diseases respectively. There was a positive correlation between knowledge score and such variables as education and occupation of students' mothers; referrals to health centers, students' age; getting information from Internet, classmates as well as radio and television; taking part in family planning courses and being satisfied with given information.Conclusion: With respect to the above findings and the increasing incidence of STDs in the country, education about contagious diseases and significant health issues in appropriate settings is recommended.

Background: Intravenous catheterization is one of the most common invasive procedures at hospitals. This practice is not devoid of complications. Phlebitis is a common complication.Purpose: This clinical trial was conducted to compare between the efficacy of ethanol 70% and chlorhexidine 0.5% in ethanol 70% as disinfection solutions of the skin on the rate of catheter-related phlebitis.Methods: 80 hospitalized patients at emergency ward, CCU and post CCU were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to one of two equal groups, i.e., for each group, a solution was used. All catheters were inserted and secured by the researcher in the same way. Insertion sites were observed every 12 hours for evidence of phlebitis according to Infusion Nursing Society Phlebitis Scale. Catheters were removed aseptically in the event of phlebitis or after 72 hours. The Study groups were matched in terms of age, sex, level of education, underlying disease and insertion site.Findings: Phlebitis occurred in 6 patients (15%) of the chlorhexidine group, and 15 patients (37.5%) of the ethanol group (P=0.022).Conclusion: It can be concluded that disinfection by chlorhexidine may reduce the incidence of catheter-related phlebitis and can be routinely used in clinical practice.

Background: Neural tube defect (NTD) is the second common congenital disorder after cardiac disease. The most prevalent forms are anencephaly and spina bifida. Many factors are involved in this anomaly. Recent studies suggest environmental parameters as well as genetic factors.Purpose: This descriptive study was conducted to determine the incidence of neural tube defect and its influencing factors in neonates at teaching hospitals of Tehran.Methods: Neonates at five hospitals were assessed during three years.Findings: Of 38473 reported births, 143 cases had neural tube defect. 11.9% of their mothers had previous medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, psychiatric problems and cardiac disorders. 5.6% of mothers had preeclampsia during their pregnancy.Conclusion: NTD occurs during 28 days after conception. Since many conceptions are unplanned, it can be prevented by continuous consumption of folic acid over reproductive years.

Background: Cupping is a therapeutic method in which the skin is incised for phlebotomy. Therefore, if infection control precautions are not taken, patients are susceptible to infection.Purpose: This descriptive study was conducted to assess the observance of infection control precautions before, during, and after the procedure at cupping centers in Tehran.Methods: Subject population consisted of 49 practitioners including physicians as well as nurses and 33 cupping units in 16 centers. Data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire and a checklist.Findings: Results show that 87.9% of the units had a satisfactory structure and 21.1% was relatively satisfactory. 69.4 % (34), 69.4 % (34), 53.1 % (26) of practitioners took the precautions relatively satisfactory, satisfactory, and relatively satisfactory before, during and after the procedures respectively. In general, 35.2% of practitioners took the precautions satisfactorily.Conclusion: Findings of this study can be used by educators, mangers, and practitioner at different health settings particularly cupping centers.

Background: One of the most important challenges in today's societies is the increase of alzheimer patients. Caring these people is also an important matter for health system. Care givers perform most of their caring responsibilities and face with many problems to meet their needs in terms of their cognitive and behavioral problems.Purpose: This descriptive study was conducted to determine the problems of main caregivers of alzheimer patients referring to Alzheimer Association in Tehran.Methods: 100 main caregivers were selected by census. Data collection tool was a questionnaire validated by content validity. Its reliability was measured by internal consistency (d = 0.96) and test-retest (d=0.96) methods.Findings: Findings of the study showed that mean ages of caregivers and patients were 58 and 81.53 respectively. 66% of caregivers were female and 34% were male.Mean duration of the disease was 4.2 years (SD = 2.7). The average hour of providing care was 10.84. Most of the caregivers complained of sleep problems (63%), fatigue (63%) and severe burden (68%). Most of them expressed communication problems with patients (74%), communication problems with families (65%), house keeping problems (60%), social relationship problems (64%), educational problems (43.3%) and occupational problems (55.3%).Regarding economical problems, most of them, (55%) had them moderately.Conclusion: With respect to the increase of alzheimer patients in our society, health workers should devise programs to reduce care givers' problems for preventing bum out and decreasing burden of caregivers.