Journal of Rescue and Relief
Year:2012 | Volume:4 | Issue:1|Papers Count:14

Background: Due to the high rate of road accidents in Iran, rescue and relief operations in road are important in health system. Applying some techniques in order to reduce failure in these processes will lead to an increased quality of services; also cost reduction and health improvement will be some consequences. Some of the main Safety Management System elements including hazards and risk identification, assessment, and control them. This paper aimed to determine the optimal processes and relief and rescue operations in roads and also to assess and analyze the failure of this filed; and finally provide some solutions to reduce them.Methods: In this applicable and qualitative study, it was used of Health Care Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA) in order to identify and analyze the potential errors and failure in relief and rescue operations in road accidents.Findings: The relief and rescue operations in road accidents were divided into two processes, 12 sub-processors, and also 53 activities. Each activity probable errors and failures was analyzed and identified; a total of 147 errors were determined and analyzed in both processes and their potential reasons were investigated. Among identified errors, 48 percent were related to manpower; 24 percent equipment malfunction; 11 percent method and process, and the rest was related to other cases such as system, environment, etc based on the results.Conclusion: The issues raised in the article can preserve basic information for future safety studies in relief and rescue operations in road accidents; provide preventive measures and also minimize the likelihood of errors and their consequences.

Background: Nurse's competency in CPR performance is a critical element in patients' survival from cardiac arrest. Although medical education has recently emphasized on this issue, most researches identified that the CPR knowledge and skill retention were highly poor. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a short CPR re-educational course on the retention of CPR skill and knowledge among nursing students.Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, a total of 48 final year nursing students of the Fatemeh College of Nursing & Midwifery at Shiraz University were participated in primary CPR training course. Then, they randomly divided into groups. Six months after the initial education, a 2-hour re-education course in CPR was presented for the first group (group 1). And one year after initial education, both groups (re-educated and non-re-educated) were evaluated in their CPR performance based on performing CPR on mannequin and observational checklist that was made in accordance with the last revision of American Heart Association (AHA) standard CPR guideline. Data was statistically analyzed to compare two groups using t-test.Findings: The results indicated that there was no significant difference between two groups CPR performance before and immediately after the initial education. (t=-1.7, p= 0/09); but we found statistically significant differences between them a year after the initial education (t=8.5, p= 0.00). It means  that  students who were attended in the short term re-education course six months after initial CPR education gained significantly higher scores in 5 skills including adequate safe approach; call for help; head tilt/chin lift maneuver; effective chest compression depth (4-5 cm); and also visible chest rising.Conclusion: According to the results, the short and inexpensive courses of re-education that are efficient in CPR skill retention should take into consideration.

Background: Natural disasters are among events that human beings have always been faced and extremely suffered from their damages. Many attempts have been so far done to reduce damages from natural disasters but they are still very extensive. One way to reduce injuries and damages resulting from natural disasters is people's voluntary cooperation and preparation at the time of occurring. So, this article aims to investigate the feasibility study of establishing local relief center in Bandar Abbas.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among Bandar Abbas residents in 2011. By using questionnaire, 400 respondents were selected and studied based on multistage cluster sampling.Findings: According to the result, more than 70 percent of respondents considered highly important to establish the local relief centers; and 95 percent were willing to work in relief teams and help others. Moreover, the social status and knowledge about Red Crescent activities had a positive effect on the respondents' willingness to cooperate with the local relief centers based on the analytical results.Conclusion: The residents of Bandar Abbas were highly interested in establishing the local relief centers and actively work in the relief teams. Therefore, the establishment of the local relief centers seems to be necessary with community-based approach and also serious focus on educating citizens.

Background: Developing strategies for dealing with stressful and critical situations are very important. In traumatic conditions, firstly people must understand that preventive measures can be beneficial to deal with in this situation (reducing perception of safety helplessness); secondly, they have the expertise and skill to deal with these conditions (increasing perception of safety self-efficacy). This research was carried out to evaluate effectiveness of safety trainings on employees’ perceived safety self-efficacy and helplessness.Methods: About 204 individuals (101 in experimental group and 103 ones in control group) completed the perceived safety self-efficiency and perceived safety helplessness scales of Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein (1983) before a 4-hour safety training course in Isfahan Steel Company. Only the experimental group participated in this training course. This questionnaire almost implemented approximately 30 days after training for both groups. The results were compared using descriptive indexes and covariance.Findings: Comparison between two groups showed that safety trainings had a significant effect on reducing the perceived safety helplessness of employees; but had no significant effect on perceived safety self-efficacy improvement.Conclusion: The results of this research maintain the importance of safety trainings evaluation and its effectiveness determination on variables related to the occupational accidents.

Background: Human factor is identified as the most important factor in road accident. The purpose of this research was to compare the role of human factor in road accidents in different drivers' categories in Darab Township in 2010.Methods: In this descriptive-correlation research, firstly, four groups of drivers including bus, truck, taxi and private car drivers (130 drivers) were selected through purposeful sampling and completed Manchester Driving Behavior Questionnaire (MDBQ). Data was analyzed by using Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), correlation coefficients and SPSS.Findings: According to the result, all groups had significant differences in all factors such as errors, lapses, aggressive and ordinary violation (P<0.05); also the highest rate in 3 factors of errors, lapses and aggressive violation were related to bus drivers, truck drivers, private car drivers and taxi drivers respectively; but in ordinary violations the highest scores were related to private car, taxi, truck and bus drivers respectively. The findings of correlation coefficients were as follows: there were a significant and positive correlation between age and all types of errors and violence (P<0.05); negative and significant correlation was found between education with dangerous and aggressive errors and lapses (P<0.05); but positive and significant correlation was found between education and aggressive violation (P<0.05); there was no correlation between education score and ordinary violation; also, no correlation was found between years of driving and wearing safety belt with errors and violence (P>0.05).Conclusion: The results indicated that the highest scores were specially related to bus drivers and truck drivers. Therefore, it is recommended to perform psychological assessments and adequate training in order to reduce the accident rate at the time of selection and obtaining driving licenses and periodically thereafter.

Background: "Military necessity" is the concept used in documents of international humanitarian law. This is a widely used, vague and non-transparent concept which does not explain the lack of clarity of meaning and its limits; also it has been caused to emerge enormous challenges in the field of international and internal conflicts. The most important challenging and problematic issues are such as "which necessity", "how" and "who recognizes," which their lack of transparent making irreparable damage on material and spiritual of human. The results indicate the weakness and failure of this concept and suggest that the "military necessity" was an excuse for some inhumane and biased acts of military commanders or political leaders of hostile governments. The comparative study of the concept of "military necessity" in the Emamieh jurisprudence and international humanitarian law documents show that there are many differences between these two legal systems.Methods: This descriptive and analytical study has been used both the reliable sources of jurisprudence and documents of international humanitarian law.Findings: According to the findings, "military necessity" doesn’t have a specific framework in international documents of humanitarian law. This concept is more reliant on personal understandings of custodians of international and non-international conflicts. Emamieh jurisprudence is explained and described the military necessity in the form of a systematic framework based on the researches.Conclusion: By studying the reliable first-hand books of Emamieh jurisprudence, the systematic of "military necessity" concept was proved. Also, it was shown that the writers' attention of international documents to the legal principles of Emamieh jurisprudence can be quite effective to clarify this issue.

Background: Due to casualties and financial losses, floods are the most horrible natural disasters. It is responsible for 40-50% of all deaths in the world, about 43% of total population damaged by disasters that have occurred between 2009-2000. Despite the high abundance of floods in Iran, yet little research has been done on how the health system response to the flood. This article aims to study the health system response operation to Chaldoran township flood.Methods: In this descriptive case study, data was collected by using checklists that were prepared by researchers through interviews with authorities of health system in affected areas; reviewing existing documentation; and observing of how the response has been provided.Findings: A flash flood was occurred and damaged some parts of Chaldoran Township on 16 July, 2011. Initial investigation team dispatched immediately to the affected areas and surveillance system was exacerbated. 24 samples of water had been taken in the region that 6 cases had bacterial contamination. However, no chemical sampling was prepared, 6 drinking water sources restored and also 34 kg of calcium hypochlorite was distributed. Chlorine measurement was performed in 206 cases which 182 were favorable cases. 8 toilets of 11 were reconstructed after damaging in flood. Meanwhile, there were not any unwanted problems in maternal and child and family planning health services.Conclusion: Fortunately, losses resulting from the recent flood were not noticeable and have been managed well by the health system. But for broader disaster management involving high mortality, the health system should design a proper disaster plan in order to prepare and improve employees by training programs in various maneuvers. The health system and employees should be ready. Otherwise, such disasters are very difficult to manage and also the results will be tragic.