Iran Journal of Nursing
Year:2009 | Volume:22 | Issue:57|Papers Count:11

Background & Aim: Cancer patients are in need of specialized and low-cost care therefore has brought about many challenges for health care team and necessitates conducting research. This study aimed to determine nursing research priorities for cancer from the viewpoint of the nurses attending at the conference of Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention (APOCP).Material & Method: In this study, Delphi method was used. A two-part questionnaire consisting of demographic characteristics and phrases related to the research items was given to the participants. Delphi method was organized in two phases. The responses from the first stage (30 samples of scientific member in APOCP), were divided into 4 theme groups including 35 statements. Then, in the second stage, questionnaire was distributed among participants in APOCP conference. Finally, 54 nurses returned them. Data were analyzed by SPSS (ver.10). Results: The findings showed that the majority of samples were female (92.6%), clinical nurse (59.3%), above 40 years old (40.7%); and had working experience less than 10 years (46.3%) and direct contact with cancer patients (96.3%). The top priority research topics were "economic-psycho-social effects of cancer diagnosis on family", "chemotherapy-related mouth care", “nutritional needs", "continuity of care", and “communication with patients". The topics with the lowest priority were "nurses’ fear of caring cancer patients", "evaluation of instruments measuring fatigue and spirit", and "palliative care from patients' point of view". Conclusion: The study findings showed that areas such as psychological, socio-economic and special care as well as the method of care delivery were still as the main concerns of the researchers. These results can help the clinical investigators in choosing interesting and challenging topics in the field of cancer.

Background & Aim: Breast feeding promotes the child health. World Health Organization recommends breast feeding to be continued till the end of 2 years old, but, sometimes, the process of breastfeeding stops earlier in mothers bearing an excess weight. The mother with excess weight has less successful effort than the others in feeding the babies with their own milk. The aim of this study was to determine the relation between body mass index before pregnancy and durationm of breast feeding.Material & Method: This was a correlational study. Sample consited of 307 mothers who had children with 2-3 years old and had been visited in Tehran West Health Center for their children growth monitoring. The subjects were selected based on stratified sampling method and data was collected by questionnaire and from medical records.Results: This study showed a statistically significant relationship between body mass index and duration of breast feeding (P=0.002). Among different indicators, the type of delivery and the time of the first breasteeding were of greater importance and left a significant impact (P<0.05). The average breast feeding time in this research was 18 months. There was not any statistically significant relationship between breast feeding duration and mother’s age, child’s gender, mother’s education, mother’s profession, mother's working shift, family members, number of deliveries, number of previous children whom were breast fed. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant between body mass index and breast feeding duration. Considering the relationship between short duration of breast feeding and mothers’ obesity, a brave effort should be made for balancing mother’s weight. More researche is recommended to confirm these results.

Background & Aim: Many of the leading causes of heart failure exacerbation can be prevented by teaching. However, as hospitalization continues to shorten; nurses will be challenged to prioritize educational needs. A critical problem in attending to patient learning needs is identifying which learning needs are important to be learned. The nurse must be able to make educational decisions based on research findings and not simply personal experience. The aim of this study was to determine the perceived importance of learning needs of patients with heart failure compared with their needs identified needs by nurses.Material & Method: This was a descriptive- comparative study in which 250 heart failure patients were recruited by convenience sampling. One hundred eighty one nurses were also selected by numerations in Tehran Cardiac Hospital of Shahid Rajaee. Data were collected by the “importance” component of CHFPLNI and were analyzed using SPSS- 11.Results: The patients perceived the subscale of “Medication” and nurses perceived the subscale of “Risk Factors” as the most important titles to learn and were agreed upon the importance of “Diet Information”. Subscales of “Activity”, “Anatomy & Physiology” and “Psychological factors” were not so important to learn as perceived by both groups. The nurses perceived all of the 7 subscales and the total scale as having more importance for learning than the patients did (P=0.000). Female patients (P=0.007), patients with baccalaureate education (P=0.001) and nurses with advanced preparation (P=0.040) perceived the learning needs as more important than others.Conclusion: Giving more importance to the learning needs of the patients by nurses and the difference of rating of the importance of learning needs by the two groups proposes the possibility of inattention to important learning needs from the patient perspective. The findings pave the nurses' way in prioritizing the learning needs of hospitalized heart failure patients.

Background & Aim: Because of increasing growth of treatment in coronary artery disease patients by revascularization techniques, and the importance of recovery and promotion of quality of life, information about the factors affecting quality of life after coronary artery bypass graft can be useful to determine prognosis and to eliminate or minimize modifiable factors. So, the aim of the present study was to determine the factors affecting patients’ quality of life 10 weeks after surgery.Material & Method: This research was a descriptive-analytical and longitudinal study. Ninety one patients referring to the department of open heart surgery of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashad City during 2005-2006 were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were collected by interview in 3 stages, 24 hours before surgery, 6 weeks and 10 weeks after surgery. Quality of life was measured by SF 36 short form. Data were analyzed by SPSS. Results: According to the findings, Variables as age (P=0.04), gender (P=0.004), marital status (P=0.02), literacy level (P=0.04), number of cigarettes smoked daily (P=0.002), using beta-blockers before surgery (P=0.04), hemoglobin on admission (P=0.002), duration of mechanical ventilation (P=0.003), participating in physical exercises after surgery (P=0.01) and sleep quality 6 weeks after surgery (P=0.006) had an effect on quality of life 10 weeks after surgery.Conclusion: The results demonstrated that implementing supportive actions in women and elders to progress process of recovery, providing interpersonal supports in patients with late spouse, increasing information about the disease in illiterate and little literate clients, treating anemia, ceasing smoking and participating at physical exercises after surgery may be effective to improve quality of life after surgery.

Background & Aim: Myocardial infarction is a common and dangerous life threatening disease with an impact on quality of life. The present descriptive-analytical study aims to determine quality of life in patients with myocardial infarction referring to Hadjar hospital affiliated to the Shahre-kord University of Medical Sciences.Material & Method: This was a descriptive-analytical study in which 150 patients admitted to cardiac care unit of Hadja hospital within 8 weeks post infarction were selected by non random sampling method. Data were collected through interview, patients’ medical records and patients self report. The tool for collecting data regarding quality of life was SF36 questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: Findings showed that the mean value of age was 55.7±10.5 and that quality of life in majority of subjects (%53) was fairly favorable. Regarding aspects of quality of life, most patients had fairly favorable general status (physical and psychological health) (%62) and social function (%65). Also, sleep pattern of majority of subjects (%61) was favorable and most of them (62%) had unfavorable physical activity. There was statistically significant correlation between quality of life and variables such as duration of disease (P<0.05), intensity of pain (P<0.05), decline or loss of job function, and the degree of fatigue (P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant relationship between quality of life and other demographics as age, gender, marital status, economic status and occupational status.Conclusion: Because fatigue and pain have some relationship with quality of life in patient with myocardial infarction, health care personnel, spatially nurses should pay attention to dimensions of quality of life when planning care for these patients. Failure to do so may leads to quality of life of patients to be neglected.

Background & Aim: One of the primary tasks of the managers is staff motivation in order to improve their performance to a high level. It has been staff struggles to accomplish the organizational goals and decisions. The “goal setting theory” has designed for this aim. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of implementing “Goal Setting Theory” by nurse managers on staff nurses’ job motivation.Material & Method: This study was quasi-experimental one in which 51 nurses from one hospital were allocated to either experimental (n=30) or control (n=21) group. The two groups were compared before and after intervention for their job motivation. The instrument, measuring job motivation with 48 items, was used after providing content validity and reliability(r= 0.80). In order to avoid exposure bias, at first, job satisfaction in control group in two times were measured. Then, the intervention (goal setting theory) was implemented by subjects of experimental group for three months in three stages; a) nurse managers development, b) staff nurse development, c) implemented discharge planning as a “goal” by staff nurse. Data were analyzed by SPSS.Results: The results showed that the level of staff nurse job motivation in two groups before intervention were moderate and two groups were homogenous (P=1.000). After intervention, the level of staff nurse job motivation in control group did not changed (P=1.000), but in experimental group, the level of staff nurse job motivation was significantly increased to a higher level (P=0.000). Conclusion: Implementing the “goal setting theory” based on the methods used in this study showed that whenever nurse managers had a specific and clarified goal for nurses, the level of job motivation in staff nurse increased to a higher level.

Background & Aim: Paying attention to adolescents' health is very important, because of their increasing number and also, because adolescence is one of the most critical periods of the life. Based on the census done in year 1996 in Iran, 25% of the population was between 10 to 19 years old; almost 16 million people. A lot of physical, psychological, social and behavioral problems are rooted in adolescence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of puberty in adolescent boys.Material & Method: This was a qualitative study based on phenomenological method. Samples were 22 adolescents, between 15 to 19 years old, living in Arak, which were selected by purposive sampling method. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi method.Results: Six themes were identified: Conflict with parents, biological changes, economical needs, educational condition, sexual concerns and spiritual matters.Conclusion: Results show that most of participants had extremely stressful experiences which sometimes lead to crisis. It seems that to relieve or reduce these problems, three important agents in child development; including family, school and society must play an active role.

Background & Aim: Pre-term delivery as a public health problem imposes a great burden on families and society, both financial and physical. Studies have shown that stressful life events are associated with several adverse pregnancy outcomes particularly pre-term labor. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between pre-term delivery and stressful life events during pregnancy.Material & Method: The study was a correlational study conducted in 2006. In this study, 1237 mothers with singleton pregnancy, between 20 to 42 weeks of gestation without any obstetric complications and/or known physical or psychological disorders and with preterm delivery was selected by continuous sampling method. The instrument was the questionnaire “SRRS” and the data were analyzed with statistical tests.Results: The findings showed that pre-term delivery was 13.9% among subjects under study. There were associations between Pre-term delivery and sex difficulties (P=0.03), trouble with spouse (P=0.003), change in living conditions (P=0.005), change in sleeping habits (P=0.001), change in the number of people in gatherings (P=0.03), change in eating habits (P=0.04), and the number of events (P=0.03). But, we did not find any significant relationship between preterm delivery and the intensity of the stresses.Conclusion: The researcher suggest the establishment of the educational counseling programs for pregnant women in order to ease their hardships regarding bad events and improve their coping abilities against these events.