Payavard Salamat
Year:2017 | Volume:11 | Issue:SUPPLEMENT 1 |Papers Count:18

Background and Aim: In medical sciences, students need problem-solving and decision-making abilities to cure diseases. The present study aims to survey the critical thinking disposition between freshman and senior students in School of Allied Medical Sciences in 2012- 2013 academic year.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 250 students were selected randomly and their critical thinking disposition was assessed. "The Ricketts critical thinking disposition scale (2003)" consists of 33 multiple choice questions; the scale was used by the researcher to assess the critical thinking disposition. Finally, the data was analyzed by t-test and ANOVA using SPSS software.Results: The mean of students’ critical thinking disposition was 3.54 which shows that this ability was on the average among students. Also, the t-test results showed that there was a difference between freshmen and seniors. The critical thinking disposition was compared between students in various fields; the results did not reveal a significant difference.Conclusion: In spite of the high critical thinking disposition achieved by senior students and the similar guidance in different fields of study for enhancing the disposition, the variable is not at the ideal and expected level. Therefore, it is necessary to use certain materials and measures in educational planning so that the disposition level can get close to the ideal level.

Background and Aim: Due to resource constraints and rising costs of health care, recognizing the costs exactly and controlling them are inevitable. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the cost of services rendered in Aboozar health center.Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive retrospective study and is based on the 2012 financial data. Data entry was done through EXCEL software and analyzed based on activity-based costing system in eight steps.Results: The results of this study are presented as a “unit cost” of 51 types of services offered in the final activity units of the health center studied. MMR vaccine injection by the vaccination unit with the unit cost of 31, 919 Rials and visiting places of production and distribution by Environmental Health Unit with the unit cost of 298, 475 Rials are respectively the lowest and highest unit costs of services rendered by the health center studied.Conclusion: Due to the high share of personnel costs of total expenditure (59%), increased labor productivity, improved access, and integrated units with similar services are also effective in reducing costs.

Background and Aim: Hospitals should be able to satisfy their clients’ needs in less time and with best quality possible. Length of Stay (LOS) in hospitals is considered as a key performance indicator, especially in emergency departments.In this study, the analysis of LOS in emergency departments was performed so that some of the factors affecting patients’ length of stay could be found.Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was performed in the emergency departments of two teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). Seventy-two patient samples were included. The patients’ length of stay in emergency ward was measured from the entrance time until the time they left the emergency department. Data on both descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (one-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test and linear regression) were analyzed with SPSS software.Results: Patients’ average LOS in emergency departments was estimated at around 3 hours and 13 minutes (SD=1.52). Such variables as patients’ marital status, days of the week (holidays or regular days) and admission time (day or night) were determined as the factors affecting LOS.Conclusion: The time spent to give services in hospital emergency rooms is at an appropriate level and items such as marital status, holidays of a week, and time of the day can be referred to as factors affecting patients’ length of stay. With regard to these findings, health managers can rely on the results for the effective planning and management of hospital emergency departments.

Background and Aim: Emergency medical services (EMS) staff’s attention level may be affected by various work conditions. This study aims to compare the beginning- and end-of-shift attention levels of Tehran’s pre-hospital emergency staff with those of Semnan Province.Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional research study conducted in 2013. In this study, 192 emergency medical technicians (EMT) of Tehran and Semnan Province participated. The research instrument was Bonnardel Attention Level Test. The participants’ attention level was assessed at 10 am and 5 am. The data were analyzed by chi-square test and independent samples t-test.Results: At 10 am (arrival attention), the average rate of attention level of Tehran’s pre-hospital emergency staff was 0.490.25± and that of Semnan Province staff was 0.510.23±. There was not a significant difference (p=0.58) at that time between the average rate of attention in these two groups. At 5 am (exit attention), however, the average attention level of Tehran’s pre-hospital emergency staff was 0.450.25±, and of Semnan Province staff was 0.550.20±. At this time, there was a statistically significant difference (P=0.044) between the average rate of attention in these two groups.Conclusion: The means of arrival and exit attention levels in pre-hospital emergency staffs were moderate. Besides, there was no significant difference between the arrival attention levels of the two groups. Therefore, in order to increase the attention level in both groups, it is suggested that the workload and the length of shifts should be reduced for pre-hospital emergency staffs, specially in Tehran.

Bcackground and Aim: Organizational commitment is one of the important elements in improving the quality of services and nursing job. Since, the professional behavior is one of the most important variables in organization success, the present study was designed with the aim of determination of relationship between nurses' professional behavior and organizational commitment.Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional and descriptive analytical study. Research statistical society included all nurses in Abdanan, Darehshahar, and Dehloran in Ilam Province of Iran (N=198). Hundred and thirty one people were selected using Cochrane's formula and random sampling. Data was collected via professional behavior questionnaire and organizational commitement questionnaire. Data was analyzed via descriptive and analytical statistics.Results: The result of Pearson correlation test showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between professional behavior and organizational commitement (p<0.01=, r=0.558). Also there were positive and significant relationships between professional behavior and nurses' emotional commitement (p<0.01, r=0.435), nurses' continuous commitement (p<0.01, r=0.506) and nurses' normative commitement (p<0.01, r=0.519).Conclusion: There was a significant relationship between professional behavior and organizational commitement of nurses. Therefore, we suggest that hospital executives and policymakers provide appropriate situation for improving the variables of nursing professional behavior.

Background and Aim: Creating personal information collections will bring the management needs. The purpose of this study was to determine the use level of personal information management and each of its four activities by Faculty members of Allied Medical Sciences Schools in Tehran, Shahid Beheshti and Iran Medical Sciences Universities in 2014 year.Materials and Method: This applied study was an analytical survey. The participants of the study were Faculty members of Allied Medical Sciences Schools in Tehran, Shahid Beheshti and Iran Medical Sciences Universities. All participants (120) were studied. PIM was surveyed by using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. In order to determine the significant differences, analytical statistics were applied. The validity was confirmed by the number of professors feedback and reliability calculated by the Cronbach's alpha 0.91.Results: Storage with average of 73.59% and organization with average of 62.11% were at "good" level. Maintenance with an average of 54.4% and refind with an average of 59.93% were at "medial" level. "Personal information management" with an average of 62.51% was at "good" level. According to the research hypotheses test, the use of personal information management and each of its elements by members of the community in terms of university, academic rank and gender were not statistically significant.Conclusion: Usage level of personal information management by faculty members is far from ideal situation. The main reasons can be included not having enough time, working pressure and lack of sufficient acquaintance with the activities required to personal information management.

Background and Aim: In recent years, the growing importance of health care has led to a focus on improving the quality of services, and healthcare centers have paid attention to it as a strategic competitive advantage. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of improving the quality of services in the promotion of brand performance in healthcare industry.Materials and Methods: In this study, 392 patients of Tehran hospitals were selected through cluster sampling. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used for data analysis. Also, to compare public and private hospitals, independent samples t-test was used.Results: Research findings indicate that the desirable quality of services has a significant positive effect on brand equity; and brand equity has a meaningful effect on brand preference, repurchasing and brand performance. Moreover, brand preference has a significant effect on brand performance and the decision to repeat purchasing. In the end, the meaningful effect of repurchasing decision on brand performance in healthcare industry was confirmed.Conclusion: According to the results, it can be stated that considering healthcare improvement plans, hospitals can enhance their brand among many healthcare centers. This entails both the promotion of community’s health and the increase of profitability.

Background and Aim: Religiosity through building spiritual balance and give a sense of belonging to the individuals causes them to earn great social support in dealing with problems and this provide grounds for improving social health. The aim of this research was to study the relationship between religiosity and social health of women in the city of Yazd.Materials and Methods: The present research was a cross-sectional survey study. The population under the study included all women (aged 18-60 years old) in the city of Yazd in the year of 2014. The sample size of 228 respondents was determined based on Cochran formula selected through Probability Proportionate to Size Sampling (PPS) technique. Data were collected based on social health and religiosity standard questionnaire. Data analysis was done through SPSS software using such descriptive statistics as mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum as well as at the inferential statistics using Pearson correlation coefficient, and linear regression.Results: Pearson correlation coefficient between each dimension of religiosity scale and social health were: as follows religious belief (r=0.187), religious feeling (r=0.133), religious effects (r=0.272), religious practice (r=0.118) and religious knowledge (r=0.282), and were statistically significant.Conclusion: The results show that there was a significant and direct correlation between religiosity and social health that is with the increase in religiosity, social health increases.

Background and Aim: Job burnout is a painful experience for individuals and it is a costly phenomenon for organizations. Plateau is a key aspect for increasing this problem. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between nurses ‘plateau and job burnout in Kerman private hospitals in 2014.Materials and Methods: In this study, the descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional methods was used. The study population consisted of 142 nurses in Arjomand and Razieh-Firoz hospitals. According to Morgan table, 100 nurses were selected as the sample size. Two questionnaires was used: the plateau questionnaire with content validity 0.98 and reliability 0.94 and the job burnout one with content validity 0.98 and reliability 0.93. To analysis data, partial least squares (PLS) with Smart PLS 2 software was used.Results: The results showed that there was a significant relationship between nurses’ plateau including components of hierarchical plateau and job content plateau with their job burnout in Arjomand and Razieh-Firoz hospitals.Conclusion: Job burnout has destructive effects on individuals’ performance; so, it is important to prevent it in the organizations. One of its aggravating factors is plateau. It is suggested to decrease the plateau at workplace by creating the good work condition, efficiency sense, individual progress sense, and chance to promotion.

Background and Aim: It is necessary that various aspects of health information and statistics are identified and measured since health problems are getting more complex day by day. This study is aimed to investigate the distribution of Hospitalization Services in Hospitals in East Azerbaijan province.Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, which aimed to determine the share of hospitalization services in different sectors providing healthcare services in East Azerbaijan Province. The study population consisted of all health service providers, including the public sector, private, charity, military, Social Security and NGOs in the province of Eastern Azerbaijan. The data from all functional health sectors, including health centers and hospitals were studied during 2014. The data relevant to performance were collected according to a pre-determined format (researcher-built checklist).Content validity of checklist was approved by five Health Services Management professionals and experts.Results: The study findings showed that the maximum and minimum number of surgeries has been done in the public sector (63.1%) and the non-governmental sectors (3%), respectively. The public sector (71.9%) and non-governmental sectors (Red Crescent and Azad University) (1.2%) provided the maximum and minimum hospitalization services, respectively.Conclusion: According to the study findings, Policies should be aimed to create balance and harmony in the provision of services among all service providers.

Background and Aim: Due to the unprecedented growth of health management information, it is necessary to train human forces working in hospitals. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the relationship between in-service training of staff in Aboozar hospital on the one hand and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on the other.Materials and Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional (descriptive-analytic) study on the statistical population of Aboozar hospital in Ahvaz in 2015. One hundred hospital employees were selected. The data collection instruments included a researcher-made questionnaire for the evaluation of in-service training, Smith and Organ’s OCB questionnaire, Fishman and Common’s questionnaire of job satisfaction, and Balfour and Wechsler’s organizational commitment questionnaire.We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics as well as ANOVA.Results: The results showed that there was a significant relationship between in-service training of employees and job satisfaction (r=0.53, P<0.001), organizational commitment (r=0.3, P=0.004) and OCB (r=0.36, P<0.03).Conclusion: Because of the relationship between the importance of performance and staff members’ qualification -- that is achieved following effective training --in health system, employees’ job training average score was at an optimum level; but the nursing staff’s mean score of training, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and administrative OCB was lower than that of other staff. Therefore, the necessity to pay attention to the training of staff, especially nurses, becomes more and more evident. Besides, the goals of education will be achieved more easily, that is, employees’ performance will be improved.

Background and Aim: Total quality management (TQM) is defined as a system for the assurance of delivering high-quality and cost-effective services. In this regard, due to their service role, hospitals are important in external economic changes.This study was performed to measure the executive backgrounds of total quality management (TQM) in Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) teaching hospitals in 2012.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done in TUMS hospitals.The data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire, and were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics.Results: The findings of this study showed that the dimensions of trustworthiness (3.250.88±) and the beauty of environment (3.060.87±) got the highest scores; however, the speed of giving services (2.401.04±) got the lowest scores. In addition, the executive grounds of TQM implementation were “moderate to low” in the studied hospitals with an average score of 2.88±0.74.Conclusion: According to the results, total quality management requirements are in a moderate-to-low condition in the studied hospitals. Although managers’ attitude towards TQM is rather positive, it is necessary to improve the quality of services, performances and processes through culture building, creating positive attitudes in managers and employees, providing trainings related to quality improvement, increasing the commitment of top managers, attracting staff participation, promoting innovation and creativity, and evaluating the quality of services.

Background and Aim: There has been a long-lasting debate among medical laboratory-associated specialists about required competencies and educational background to qualify for directing medical laboratories in Iran. The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive review regarding required training and competencies for becoming a medical laboratory director in Iran and all around the world.Materials and Methods: A thorough search of the literature was carried out in scientific databases including Web of Science, Science Direct, Springer Link, Wiley Online, PubMed, Scopus, SID and web-based search engines such as Google and Google Scholar.Results: The results revealed detailed required competencies for directing medical laboratories in the United States of America, Canada, European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) and its many affiliated European countries.Conclusion: Our results indicate that in all assessed countries, specialists of basic medical sciences and also physicians, after passing certifying examinations, are equally qualified to direct medical laboratories. Indeed, Iran is the only country within the evaluated ones, in which basic medical sciences specialists (which have their own specific curriculum and are educated as clinical majors) have been eliminated from directing medical laboratory and the position has almost exclusively been available for graduates of pathology and it is important to revise this approach.