Evidence-based Care Journal
Year:2012 | Volume:2 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Background: Caring is the essence of nursing practice, but has been understood in various countries in a different way. Analysis of nurses’ perception of caring behaviors provides the possibility to nursing teachers and administrators to be able to plan a program to meet all the patients’ needs with an inclusive view.Aim: to determine nurses’ perception about caring behaviors and the factors that may affect those behaviors.Method: In this cross- sectional study, 189 Registered Nurses who were selected through Quota sampling from four teaching hospitals of Urmia city were included. Data Collection was carried out using a self-structured threepart questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive tests and multivariate linear regression analysis with SPSS version 16.Results: The highest caring behavior score was related to writing nursing reports and the lowest score to the helping to patients in their physical activity in daily life. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the sense of responsibility towards patients, sense of personal achievement due to nursing profession, belief in delivering high quality care and personal problems of nurses explained the variance in caring behaviors.Conclusion: In order to consider all the patients’ needs, social - emotional aspects of caring is needed to be more emphasized in nursing education and planning. To highlight moral issues, creating moral and enhancing counseling services can lead to increased sense of responsibility, promoted professional ethics and self efficacy which itself resulted in decreased nurses’ personal problems.

Background: Dysmenorrhea is a common problem especially in young women that can have adverse effects on quality of life.Aim: To investigate the effect of pure and impure honey on severity of pain, amount of bleeding, and duration and interval of menstrual cycles in female students with primary dysmenorrhea.Method: The current study was a single-blind crossover design which was carried out on 60 female students with primary dysmenorrhea. After menstrual initiation, one group took pure honey until next menstrual period and after a 10 day wash-out period started to take impure honey till the initiation of the subsequent menstrual cycle. Then dysmenorrhea was assessed using Visual Analoque Scale (VAS). The similar procedure was performed by impure honey in the second group. The effects of pure and impure honey were measured on severity of pain, amount of bleeding, duration and interval of menstrual periods in two groups. Data were analyzed Using SPSS software (V.14) by AONAVA test.Results: A significant difference was observed in the severity of pain following taking pure honey in group one (P=0.002). However, this difference was not significant in the this group following taking impure honey (P=0.4). In the second group, similarly, significant difference was found in severity of pain after taking pure honey (P=0.004).Conclusion: Pure honey consumption in women, who suffer from primary dysmenorrhea, reduces significantly the severity of pain and amount of bleeding. It can be considered as an alternative treatment approach in affected women.

Background: Psychiatric nurses tolerate high levels of occupational stress. So stress management programs should be developed to prevent those effects on nurses.Aim: To determine the effect of SIP on nurses’ perceived stress in psychiatric wards.Method: In this randomized clinical trial 60 nurses and healthcare workers, working in Ebne-Sina Psychiatric Hospital were enrolled. They were randomly assigned between two groups based on work shift and job status. Intervention consisted of two 8-hour workshop sessions with one week interval, including SIP training. Kohn Perceived Stress Scale was used as data gathering scale, at the beginning of the study, after 2nd session and 1 month thereafter, in which the higher score indicated the lower level of stress. Data were analyzed using statistical tests including student t test, Chi-square and AVOVA with SPSS version 11.5.Results: The results showed that perceived stress was increased one week and one month after intervention (32.2±4.7 at the beginning of the study vs. 36.4±7.9 one week and 40.1±4.9 one month after the intervention) (P<0.0001). However, the average perceived stress score decreased in the control group one week and one month after the intervention compared with the beginning of the study (P<0.0001).Conclusion: Since S.I.P is an affordable, effective and safe manner to improve the nurses’ perceived stress, it is proposed for reduction of job stress and as a consequence improving the quality of nursing care.

Background: Parents have high motivation to provide mental health promotion for their adolescents, but cannot treat them effectively due to the lack of knowledge and an organized model to do accordingly.Aim: To evaluate the effect of an educational program based on PRECEDE- PROCEED Model on adolescents’ mental health and their parents’ participation.Method: The study was a randomized controlled clinical trial that was carried out on 66 parents referred to health centers of Mashhad, along with their teenage sons in 2011who were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Dimensions of mental health of adolescents was measured by GHQ-28) General Health Questionnaire). Then intervention program consisted of 8 60-minutes sessions was carried out for experimental group for two months.One month after the intervention, adolescents’ mental health was again measured. Data were analyzed with SPSS Version17 software using independent and paired t-test and chi-square.Results: A significant increase was seen in the score of mental health of adolescents in the experimental group compared to the control group (P=0.003). Also the score of knowledge (P=0.021), attitude (P=0.001) and the behavior of parents’ participation (P=0.014) had a significant increase after intervention.Conclusion: PRECEDE-PROCEED model is useful in designing health promotion programs, therefore it is suggested that the training of this model to be considered in nursing curriculum.

Background: Balance in stroke patients because of damage to muscles and control centers of the body are disrupted.Aim: To determine the effect of combined isometric and isotonic exercises on brain stroke patients’ static balance.Method: In this clinical trial, 30 male patients with brain stroke were randomly allocated to one of experimental or control groups. An 8-week combined isometric and isotonic exercise program was performed at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The program was performed for an hour three times a week. Before and after implementation of exercise program, the status of subjects’ balance was measured by Biodex Stability System. The data were analyzed using independent and paired t-test (a<0.05).Results: The mean age of men in the experimental and control group was 55.07±6.11 and 52.67±5.67, respectively. There was a significant difference in the score of static (P=0.876), lateral (P=0.001) and anterior-posterior (P=0.805) balance in the experimental group after exercise program compared to the beginning of the study. But no significant difference was seen in this score in the control group after intervention.Conclusion: The combined isometric and isotonic exercises have positive effect on the brain stroke patients’ static balance. Nurses can use of these exercises without any need to special equipments.

Background: The most common complications of multiple sclerosis (MS) are fatigue, muscle cramps, tremore, squint, imbalance and gait disorders. Doing aquatic aerobics exercises cause an increase in both physical strength as well as the domain of body movement in MS patients. In addition, making the balance against the risk factors would decrease the risk of getting cardiovascular disease.Aim: To investigate the effect of aquatic aerobics exercise on some of cardiovascular risk factors in female MS patients.Method: In this quasi-experimental study, 40 female MS patients on the basis of illness degree were allocated randomly into two groups. The experimental group participated in the exercise program for 8 weeks, each week three sessions with intensity of 50- 60 percent of the maximum heart rate. The cardiovascular risk factors were measured in experimental and control groups before and after exercise. Blood cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL and HDL were also measured. The collected data were analyzed by independent and paired t test.Results: After the exercise, the experimental group showed significant decrease in LDL (P<0.001), cholesterol (P<0.001) and triglyceride (P<0.005). There was no significant difference in HDL level in experimental group.Conclusion: Aquatic aerobics exercises cause an increase in physical strength in MS patients so that moderate the cardiovascular risk factors and decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases. So, it is recommended specialists use these exercises as a supplementary treatment besides medical treatments for MS patients.

Background: Documentation is one of the nurses’ professional tasks, which is an important component of medical evidence and patient’s record. Finding effective teaching methods for enhancing nurses’ ability in documentation can be helpful.Aim: To determine the effect of continuing education program on nurse’s knowledge, attitude and performance about documentation.Method: A quasi-experimental before and after design was carried out on 62 nurses who were working at public hospitals in Kerman and were randomly allocated to two experimental (n=32) and control groups (n=30). Data collection tools were a self-structured questionnaire as well as tools for measurement of knowledge, attitude and performance of subjects regarding nursing documentation, which were completed before and after implementing a continuing education program. Data were analyzed using Chi-Square, paired t- test and independent t- test with SPSS version 14.Results: There were significant differences between nurses in the intervention and control groups in terms of knowledge (P=0.000), attitude (P=0.000) and performance (P=0.001) and competency (P=0.000) towards documentation. The findings showed that there was no statistically significant difference between two groups in relation to demographic variables.Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that continuing education program promote knowledge, attitude and performance of nurses on documentation. It is recommended to accomplish more studies about learning stability following employing this method and its comparison with other educational methods.