Iran Journal of Nursing
Year:2012 | Volume:25 | Issue:79|Papers Count:6

Background & Aims: Spirituality and its components due to their effect on psychological constructs and their potential influence on organizational performance have been the researchers’ concerns in recent years. This study aims to determine the relationship between the religious / spiritual components with mental health and hope for the future in hospital staff.Material & Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. The study population were public hospitals’ staff of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (n=4000) from whom 250 were recruited by simple random sampling during 2010. Data was collected by three questionnaires including hope for the future, mental health and components of religion / spirituality (including existential well-being, motivation, devotion & coping, spiritual transcendence, religious support, religious attitudes & practices) and analyzed by Pearson Correlation and Stepwise regression using SPSS-PC (v.18).Results: There were significant relationships between Existential Well-Being and Hope for the Future, Motivation, Devotion & Coping and Hope for the Future, and Mental Health and Hope for the Future (P<0.01).Also, all religious / spiritual components had significant correlations with mental health (P<0.01). Stepwise regression analysis showed that there are significant relationships between hope for the future and Motivation, Devotion and Coping with variance of 5% in the first step; between hope for the future Motivation, Devotion and Coping with Mental Health with variance of 6/4% in the second step, between hope for the future and Motivation, Devotion and Coping with Mental Health and Existential Well-Being with variance of 9.1% in the third step; and between hope for the future and the combination of Motivation, Devotion and Coping and Existential Well-Being with variance of 8.9% in the fourth step.Conclusion: The findings indicated that Motivation, Devotion and Coping, and Existential Well-Being were respectively the most important religious-spiritual components which along with mental health affect hope for the future in the hospital staff.

Background & Aims: quality of sleep could be useful in health promotion and improvement of quality of life in student. Some psychosocial factors such as social support might affect the quality of sleep. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between perceived social support and quality of sleep in nursing students.Material & Methods: It was a descriptive correlational study. Eighty seven nursing students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences recruited by census, during school year of 2010-2011. The Persian versions of the "Personal Resources Questionnaire 85 (PRQ85)" and "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)" were used to evaluate the participants’ perceived social support and sleep quality. Data were analyzed using SPSS-PC (v.15) by chi-square test, and Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients.Result: Most of the students had high levels of perceived social support (% 49.4) and poorer quality of sleep (% 61.0). Statistically significant relationships were found between social support and financial status (X2=7.74, p=0.02) and place of residence (X2=9.19, p=0.007). Third and fourth year nursing students had poorer sleep quality. In addition, there were a statistically significant relationship between perceived social support and quality of sleep in nursing students (r=-0.33, p=0.01).Conclusion: Considering the relationship between social support and sleep quality among nursing students, managers of the nursing school and families could improve their sleep quality by providing the required social support.

Background & Aims: Mothers’ involvement in the care of their premature infants is one of most effective ways to prevent disorders associated with hospitalization. This study aimed to determine mothers’ Performance on Caring for their Premature Infants in hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, during 2012.Materials & Methods: It was a descriptive, cross-sectional pilot study. First two hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences which had NICUs were randomly selected and then 90 mothers of premature infants were recruited by convenience sampling. Data was collected using an observational checklist (including kangaroo mother care, massage, breast feeding, cup feeding and bathing) by two trained nurses and analyzed by descriptive statistics, chi- square tests and one-way analysis of variance using SPSS-PC (v.16).Results: The mean age of the mothers was 27±1 with the range of 16-46 years old. The findings showed that 42.02 percent of mothers had poor performance, 41.16 percent had moderate performance and 16.82 percent had appropriate performance in the care of their premature babies. There were no significant relationship between mothers’ education, job, age, and infants’ weight and the mothers’ performance. There was not also a significant difference between birth order, the number of children and the mothers’ levels of performance (P>0.05).Conclusions: Regarding the findings, executing educational sessions on care of premature infants for their mothers in NICUs is recommended. More studies with larger samples are also required.

Background & Aim: One of the most important hospital infections which lead to more mortality, duration of hospitalization, and health care costs is ventilator-associated pneumonia. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of 12% chlorhexidine mouthwash on the frequency of ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients hospitalized in ICU.Material & Methodos: It was a clinical trial which was done on 130 patients under ventilation and hospitalized in ICU. The study was conducted during a nine-month period from May 2011 to January 2012 in one of the medical teaching hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The sample was first selected by convenience sampling and then was assigned to either experimental or control group by minimization. The experimental and control group received 12% chlorhexidine and serum soluble salt mouthwash three times per day respectively. Pneumonia clinical version was used to diagnose pneumonia. Data was analyzed by Chisquare tests, Fisher exact test, and T test using SPSS-PC (v.16).Results: Findings showed that the frequency of pneumonia was 23.1% in total which 18.5% was observed in experimental group and 27.7% in control group. Chi-square test showed that there was no significant difference between experimental and control groups (p>0.05). The most common bacteria isolated from the patients were Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Kelebsiella and Ecoli respectively.Conclusion: Frequency of pneumonia was not significantly different between the patients who received mouth wash with 12% chlorhexidine and those with saline. There was also no difference between the isolated bacteria from the two groups. Therefore, further studies with higher concentrations of chlorhexidine are needed.