JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN HEALTH SCIENCES
Year:2014 | Volume:3 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Introduction: Mothers of premature infants are exposed to maternal care needs beyond the ordinary and everyday responsibilities of caring for an infant. These special and unique needs will affect different aspects of life of the caregiver. Understanding these mothers’ experiences could help nurses in providing better care services. Thus, this study aimed to explain the experience of mothers of caring for prematurely born infants.Method: The data collection process included 15 semi-structured and in-depth interviews with the mothers of infants born prematurely during 2012-2013 in four neonatal intensive care units (NICU) affiliated with the medical educational centers in Iran. All the interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and finally, analyzed using qualitative content analysis with a conventional method. Robustness of data analysis was evaluated by the participants and external control.Results: Data analysis led to the extraction of "growth sparks" and "burden of care" categories. These categories have been revealed, respectively, in mothers with the subcategories of "improving maternal mental and physical conditions, changes in understanding, peace, and comfort of life", and "physical tension, psychological tension, and restrictions of life".Conclusion: The findings of this study confirmed the necessity of developing interventions to help mothers of premature infants during admission and after discharge from the hospital. Moreover, the nurses can benefit from the knowledge gained from this study in providing care and support for mothers and reducing their burden.

Introduction: Despite the presence of standard precautions and the necessary education provided to the staffs about compliance to precautions, their performance has continuously been accompanied with some problems. The present research is conducted to explain nurses’ experiences of the hindering factors of commitment to precaution standards in nurses working in hospitals.Method: This research was conducted with a qualitative approach through the content analysis method. The data were collected using 15 face-to-face interviews and 5 sessions of focus group. On average, 5 nurses and nursing assistants participated in each session. The overall number of participants was 40. All interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the content analysis method. Here, MAXQDA 10 software was used for data management.Results: Based on experiences of the participants, 3 main themes emerged: hardware carelessness, perceptive carelessness, and compulsory carelessness. Lack of needed equipment in the unit, and lack of access to and low quality of the equipment were among the factors leading to hardware carelessness. Not believing in infection transmission, lack of fear of potential dangers, damage induced by performing the standards, being ridiculed by other staff, and negative effects induced by performing the standard precautions on patients and their companions result in perceptive carelessness. Finally, work overload, unpredicted situations, and emergency conditions are among the factors effective on compulsory carelessness.Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that some participants did not believe in compliance to standard precautions. They not only assumed their compliance as not useful, but also considered it as detrimental. Hence, for compliance to standard precautions, only emphasizing on educating the staff and offering the procedures does not suffice. Rather, it is required to reinforce commitment to these precautions through changing staff’s outlook as well as supplying the needed equipment and instruments. Moreover, creating conditions under which the staff can comply with these precautions is necessary.

Introduction: Hospitalized patients have different religious and worship needs. Understanding these needs and planning care in order to meet these needs are essential to performing holistic care. The aim of the present study was to explain the worship and religious needs of patients from the perception of clinical nurses.Method: This was a qualitative study with content analysis approach. In total, 23 nurses of diverse age and gender, and work experience at different wards and in different posts, were selected with purposeful sampling method and participated in the study. Data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The data analysis method used in this study was content analysis based on constant comparative analysis.Results: Data analysis revealed the main theme to be respect for beliefs and values. Subthemes were honoring the family, commemorating religious rituals, recognizing values, and having faith.Conclusion: Cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds have an important impact on health care and on the way of understanding decisions. Nurses will be able to promote physical, spiritual, and moral health of patients and their family by deepening the human dimensions and creating a relationship based on respect toward their religious practices.

Introduction: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2009) reported that since women’s experiences of induced abortion are poorly known, examining the effectiveness of current policies and planning for the future are difficult. Due to illegality of induced abortion in Iran and the significant knowledge gap in this area, the present study was designed.Method: The data were collected through 23 semi-structured in-depth interviews from May to September 2013 in Tabriz, Iran, and analyzed using descriptive-interpretive approach of content analysis. The participants were 15 women who had recently undergone an induced abortion (during the past year). All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was conducted simultaneously to data collection and using MAXQDA 2007.Results: Findings fell into three main themes: individual reflections, gaining social support, and postabortion conflicts. This means that the study participants, when facing an unplanned pregnancy, showed negative reactions and had some concerns. Then, they begin to gain social support for having an abortion. Due to the incompatibleness of abortion with religious beliefs and values, post-abortion conflict was a common experience.Conclusion: Unplanned pregnancy for women begins with initial negative reactions and leads to postabortion conflicts. These findings highlight the importance of psychological support of women with unplanned pregnancies, prevention of unwanted pregnancy occurrence, and designing secondary prevention programs.

Introduction: Establishing an effective communication with patients is an essential aspect of nursing care. However, most studies have described the nurse-patients’ family relationship as weak. Recognition of the content of effective care team-patient’s family communication will facilitate a more affective relationship between the care team and family members of patients in intensive care units. The present study aimed to determine the content of effective communication between the care team and family members of patients in the intensive care unit from the perspective of nurses and patients’ families.Method: This study was performed with a qualitative approach and content analysis method. Participants included 8 Iranian registered nurses and 4 physicians working in intensive care units (ICU) of hospitals affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran, and 10 first-degree relatives of patients. Data were collected using interviews and observations. Unstructured interviews were used in the present study. We used observation in order to gain a deeper understanding and verify data from interviews. The observations focused on the interactions between the care team and patients’ families during mutual communications.Results: The data analysis of the handwritten account of the communication of the participants resulted in five categories of spiritual care (subcategories: giving hope, considering Allah, and performing religious practices) emotional reaction (subcategories: empathy, mutual understanding, promoting comfort, and trust), encouraging participation (subcategories: participation in decision making, and participation in physical care), interactive learning (subcategories: identification of the information requirements of the family, responding to the needs of the patient’s family, and training the patients), and consultation and guidance (subcategories: consultation in selecting treatment, and selecting the best care method).Conclusion: The findings resulted in the recognition of important aspects in communication between the ICU team and the family of the patients. By identification of the content of communication, establishing new rules, and application of creative methods in educating the care team on establishing communication, implementation of rules, and application of the patient-based approach in clinical environments we can communicate more effectively.

Introduction: Burn injury is a devastating experience which affects a person's essence. Nursing researchers who study diseases based on patients' view will be able to better understand the effect of injuries or illnesses on self integrity. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating burn patients' experiences regarding life after suffering a burn injury.Method: This qualitative study was carried out using qualitative content analysis and in-depth, unstructured interviews with 15 burn survivors in Sina Hospital of Tabriz, Iran.Results: During the qualitative content analysis process, the theme of "self-disruption" as the essence of the participants' experience was extracted based on the following subcategories: A) Attack on selfintegrity (pathogenic power of burn, aggressive nature of burn); B) Threat and disturbance (life, living, social, and value threatening); C) Matrix of self (mental, emotional, demographic, and environmental properties).Conclusion: The present study has provided a new understanding of burn survivors' experiences by describing the concept of "self-disruption". Moreover, by pointing to the impact of energy in the matrix of self, it has provided theories about the differences between burn survivors’ process of returning to a normal life.

Introduction: Thalassemia is associated with severe blood disorders and hemolysis. As is the case with other chronic diseases, parents who care for these children tolerate insufferable pain. Given the importance of suffering in nursing, understanding this concept seems necessary in order to provide appropriate care based on their experience. This study aims to understand caregiver suffering experience of parents of children with thalassemia.Method: This was a qualitative study conducted with a content analysis approach. A total of 21 participants were selected from parents referred to the thalassemia ward of a university hospital in Kerman, Iran, by the theoretical purposive sampling method. Data were collected through recorded semi structured interviews that were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by the Lundman and Granheim’s content analysis method.Results: Data analysis resulted in the emergence of the four categories of living with hardship, stigma and labeling, parental concerns, and the role of a support network, all of which were incorporated into the parental suffering theme.Conclusion: The results indicate that parents as caregivers for children with thalassemia suffer intensely, but silently. Perhaps the results of this study can attract the attention of authorities and cause them to provide assistance for these parents.

Introduction: Despite its importance, interprofessional communication in emergency wards seems unfavorable. Identifying the underlying factors of an effective interprofessional communication can help care providers better design appropriate interventions. This study was designed to explore factors that influence interprofessional communication in the emergency wards.Method: A qualitative study was conducted by means of semi-structured interviews with 22 participants with a variety of jobs, positions, ages, genders, and work experiences. Data analysis was performed with content analysis method with inductive approach.Results: Data analysis revealed 4 categories of underlying effective factors of interprofessional communication in the emergency ward; knowledge and skill, communication skills, the positive effect of religion on communication, similar demographic characteristics. These 4 categories revealed the 2 main themes of competency and cultural similarity.Conclusion: This study provided a better understanding of underlying factors in interprofessional communication in the emergency ward. Improving the knowledge and skills of health providers in the emergency ward, and employing personnel with common culture and demographic variables can improve interprofessional communication in the emergency ward. Interprofessional communication has a major role in the outcome of patient care and job satisfaction of staff; thus, it is of great importance.