Nursing And Midwifery Journal
Year:2011 | Volume:8 | Issue:4|Papers Count:12

Background & Aims: Thalassemia and Hemophilia are chronic and inherited diseases that cause physical, emotional and social damages in both parents and children. Families follow different strategies to cope with such events. This study was done to assess the relationship between mental health and coping strategies in parents of Thalassemia and Hemophilia children.Materials & Methods: This descriptive analytical study included 68% of Thalassemia and Hemophilia children in Madani Hospital of Khoy. The data were collected by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and coping strategies questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha reliability test was used to determine the validity and reliability of the scale.Results: The results show that mental health (32.91±4.15) and using coping strategies (51.85±13.5) were middling. The most common coping strategies were beliefs like “to overcome all troubles I trust in God” (80.9%) and “I try to overcome all my problems” (80/9%). Spearman test showed that there was a significant and positive relationship between general health and coping strategies (r=0.95, P<0.001).Conclusion: Considering this fact that the psychosocial needs in parents of children with chronic diseases are more than other parents, it seems necessary to consider programs for promotion of mental health in such parents and families.

Background & Aims: Low quality of sleep is one of the most common signs in multiple sclerosis that can result in reducing the quality of life, increasing mortality, and neuropsychological problems. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of massage therapy on the quality of sleep in women with multiple sclerosis in Isfahan.Materials & Methods: The present study was a single group, pre and posttest study which was conducted on 36 women with multiple sclerosis. Purposive sampling method was used for this study.For each sample, a twenty minute Effleurage massage was done three times a week for four consecutive weeks.Result: The mean score of sleep quality index before the intervention was 11.63 and after that was converted to 7.63. The statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in the quality of sleep before and after the intervention (p<0.0001).Conclusion: It is recommended to applying massage therapy for multiple sclerosis patients as it can lead to improvement in sleep quality.

Background & Aims: Patient satisfaction is a concept that today has gained high importance in medical care. Some experts believe that it is impossible to improve business processes and hospital quality regardless of patients’ needs, expectations, and satisfaction. Therefore, this study was carried out to determine satisfaction rate of emergency medical services in hospitals of Abadan and Khorramshahr.Materials & Methods: This descriptive study used a two-section self made questionnaire that was filled by 1152 patients referring to emergency departments in Abadan and Khorramshahr. The data were analyzed using SPSS.Results: The results showed that 50.05% of the studied samples were men, 68.2% single, 74.4% had insurance, and 63.5 % had a history of hospitalization. Among the demographic and contextual variables, there was statistically meaningful relationship between satisfaction and age (p<0.001), history of hospitalization (p<0.001), cause of hospitalization (p<0.001) and the structure of hospital.Conclusion: Patients’ satisfaction of emergency medical services in hospitals was very desirable and dissatisfaction mostly belonged to hospital structure.

Background & Aims: Hepatitis B virus infection is a well-recognized risk for healthcare workers. To protect healthcare workers of hepatitis B, vaccination has been recommended. The aim of this study was to survey hepatitis B vaccination coverage among teaching hospitals workers in Urmia.Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 staff members of Urmia teaching hospitals. Samples of three teaching hospitals were collected using proportion sampling. The data were analyzed with Spss software.Results: According to the findings of this study, 92.5% of the subjects received at least a single dose vaccine; 74.5% of them received complete doses and 18% had an incomplete vaccination. 66.7% of unvaccinated workers were males and 33.3% were females. There was no significant relation between education level and history of vaccination (P=0.035).Conclusion: Although vaccination coverage in healthcare workers of Urmia teaching hospitals is partly suitable but a quarter of them do not have documentation of immunization.

Background & Aims: Deductions not only waste a large amount of hospitals revenue and reduce hospital finance but also result in financial burden on patients through increasing out of pocket expenditure. This study focused on determining the cause of deduction and the impact of deduction on patient’s expenses.Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in the first half of 2009 in hospitals of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Research population included 7907 medical records covered by social security insurance among which 7116 had deductions. The data were gathered by standard checklist analyzed through descriptive statistics.Results: The findings revealed that the most important causes of deduction (23648 cases observed) were as follows: request for extra cost (7537); no correct assigning of the K to consultation (318); extra request for consultation (218); request for extra K for consultation (1664); extra K (up coding) for concurrent operations on one site (898); request for extra medication (3276); extra request for anesthesia time (1121); request for extra K (up coding) for anesthesia (322); request for extra modification anesthesia (1103). All the above patients had to pay for extra medication.Conclusion: In order to reduce financial loss imposed on patients, it is crucial that hospitals control the physicians’ functions to prevent or at least to reduce request for extra cost and request for extra K.

Background & Aims: Clinical teaching associate model enhances participation and collaboration between health care workers and instructors. It is essential to resolve the existing problems of clinical education such as low-level proficiency of nursing graduates in achieving essential competencies and skills at the end of nursing education. On the other hand, the necessity of employing new methods of education for promoting the quality of clinical education is obvious. This study was performed to investigate the effects of clinical education associate model on nursing students' learning compared with the present methods.Materials & Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, 30 students of nursing school were selected randomly. They were divided into two groups. The first group was taught by clinical education associate model and the second one by the current method. After two weeks of learning, the students' skill areas were evaluated using a questionnaire and checklist. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using independent t-test, paired t, Fisher, and Chi square test.Results: This study found differences between the case and control groups considering clinical skills between satisfaction of clinical nurses’ about students learning and satisfaction of nursing students from educators of both groups.Conclusion: Students’ clinical learning increased during clinical teaching associate method. It is recommended to increase students’ participation by applying active teaching methods providing opportunity for better learning.

Background & Aims: Tobacco use among adolescents is one of the most important preventable problems that was known as a gateway drug to the use of other much more dangerous substances as Marijuana and opium. Etiology of tobacco use initiation would be an important part of preventative programs. The purpose of this study was to determine tobacco use status among male high school students and also the predicting factors for tobacco use.Materials & Methods: A total of 900 male high school students were randomly selected for sampling. Participants were junior high school students in Malayer, Iran. The data were gathered via questionnaires. The pupils completed questionnaires by self-reporting method.Results: Approximately 126 participants (14%) reported lifelong-smoking. The average age range to start smoking was 9-12. Parent-teen violence, truancy, leisure, peer pressure were the most important factors that led to smoking.Conclusion: Behaviors are acquirable, trainable, and modifiable. For preventative programs, it is necessary to identify adolescents’ smoking risk factors and to focus on adolescents’ health problems.

Background & Aims: Customer satisfaction is important and is evaluated through questionnaires. As the current questioners are not satisfactory, this study was performed to design a highly valid customer satisfaction questionnaire for urban health therapeutic centers and health care centers.Materials & Methods: In this study 100 samples were randomly selected and a questioner consisting of 26 questions was used. To assay the reliability, a retest was performed after two weeks. The data were analyzed using correlation coefficient and Cronbach alpha and T-test.Results: The reliability of the questionnaire was 89%. The satisfaction rate was higher in women, married ones, and Shias. High correlation between questions and total scale of questionnaire and low correlation within questions indicate validity of the questionnaire. On the other hand, high kappa statistic indicates the validity and reliability of the questionnaire.Conclusion: Our questionnaire has good reliability and validity for detection of satisfaction of clients of urban health therapeutic centers and health care centers.

Background & Aims: Any organization tries to revitalize its staff by preparing face to face and distanced short term training courses. Thus, the present study aimed to compare the effects of such courses on staff’s psychological empowerment.Materials & Methods: This pseudo-experimental research study covered 6o managers and chancellors of different educational degrees in Zabol that participated in a three-day leadership development training course in March 2010. The samples were divided into two groups: a control group (distanced training) and an examination group (face to face training). Data collection tool was demographic information from Spritzer's psychological empowerment standard questionnaire about the feeling of meaningfulness, competency, impact, trust and self-determination. Questionnaires were completed in two groups by all samples in two phases, before and two weeks after the course. The data were analyzed using t-test for independent groups by SPSS software.Results: Face to face training course is more effective in psychological empowerment than distanced training course.Conclusion: According to the results face to face training course is more effective, however; we cannot neglect the fact that the main reason for such courses is mere training. So it seems necessary to look for the reasons of ineffectiveness in short-term distanced training.

Background & Aims: Health is the most important issue for the development of social justice in all developing countries. Human life is strongly linked to accidents, injuries, and diseases that cause millions of deaths annually in the world. Death record information is obtained through death certificate forms. The present study was conducted to revise the existing death certificate.Materials & Methods: This was a review study. The data were collected by searching on the internet and accessed more than fourteen countries death certificate forms. All forms were studied and the most complete form was selected and then compared with that of Iran. Eventually the proposed format of death certificate form was created.Results: The findings showed that the American form was the most complete form. Accordingly, the proposed format of death certificate form was designed and developed. To achieve more complete information, some new items were added to the general profile of the deceased, the address of the deceased, death cause, and burial permit.Conclusion: Cause-of-death data were used to identify health priorities, allocation of resources, planning interventional programs, and assessment and monitoring health problems. In order for an accurate registration of deaths and diseases in society, it is necessary to fill a complete death certificate form. It is hoped that forensic medicine organization in the country uses the proposed form and helps country managers to provide policies to improve public health.

Background & Aims: Family is the first basis for psychosomatic growth and socialization of individuals in a community. Family members who are uninformed or reckless about their rights and responsibilities will make a field for different psychosocial damages such as violence, addiction, escape, and other abnormal behaviors. Therefore, it is necessary to train the future generation about their rights and responsibilities.Materials & Methods: Most researches indicate that there is an undeniable relationship among the family religious believes and reinforcement of psycho-mental health, chastity, stability of marriage, reduction of crimes, and addiction. So observance of ethical and moral values, familial environment, having a sincere relationship and training competent children are considered as worship in Islam and any misbehavior and eradication of family rights are considered as being away from divine mercy.Conclusion: Consistency and durability of every community depends on family strength and awareness from Islamic training commands and being committed to ethics within family environment are the most important steps in achieving these goals. The present study is taking a step in explaining the relationship between religiosity with family rights and strengthening its foundations.