Health, Spirituality and Medical Ethics
Year:2022 | Volume:9 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

Background and Objectives: Emergency medical technicians (EMTs), as the front line of dealing with patients with COVID-19, are exposed to the intensification of stress caused by these conditions, and it is essential to identify related factors, such as resilience and spiritual intelligence in this context. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between perceived stress, spiritual intelligence, and resilience of EMTs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 108 EMTs in Shahroud in 2021. Data collection tools included the demographic checklist, Cohen’s perceived stress questionnaire, King’s spiritual intelligence questionnaire, and Conrad Davidson’s questionnaire (CD-RISC). To analyze the data, descriptive and inferential (independent t-test, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression) statistics were used. Results: The mean scores of perceived stress and resilience of employees were at medium and high levels, respectively. There was no significant relationship between perceived stress and spiritual intelligence (r=-0.49, P=0.24), but there was a meaningful negative correlation between perceived stress and resilience (r=-0.31, P=0.002). A positive and significant relationship was observed between perceived stress score and age and work experience. Conclusion: Considering the significant relationship between perceived stress and resilience in the present study, it is suggested that the administrators provide solutions such as creating training courses to manage stress and increase resilience in EMTs.

Background and Objectives: Considering the lack of information about the ethical principles required to obtain informed consent, this issue should be given more attention by researchers. This study aims to extract the rich experiences of researchers regarding obtaining informed consent to participate in human research and its facilitating factors. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted with the content analysis approach in 2023. Using targeted sampling, 17 researchers from the Qom University of Medical Sciences were selected, and quasi-structured and individual interviews were conducted until data saturation. Data were analyzed simultaneously with data collection using the Granheim and Lundman method. Results: According to the results of this study, based on the nature of the study, researchers can use any of the written, oral, or electronic methods to obtain informed consent. The researchers believed that the principles of obtaining informed consent include voluntariness, avoiding coercion, the existence of two-way interaction between the researcher and the research samples, and providing necessary information to the research samples. According to researchers’ experiences, the factors that facilitate obtaining informed consent include establishing effective communication with researchers and samples, the appropriateness of the text of the informed consent, preparing a multimedia file of the informed consent, holding training courses, and having clear and up-to-date instructions. Conclusion: The principles of obtaining informed consent and the facilitating factors mentioned in this research can help researchers observe this critical aspect of ethics in research.

Background and Objectives: One of the non-pharmacological interventions is gratitude, which has received less attention in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of an educational intervention based on gratitude on the stress and mental health of mothers with preterm infants hospitalized in the NICU. Methods: A quasi-experimental controlled study was conducted on 50 mothers with infants hospitalized in the NICU of Shahrekord City, Iran, who were divided into two intervention and control groups. The intervention group was trained by the researcher in three two-hour sessions every week for two weeks. The results related to mothers’ general health and stress were analyzed by the parental stress questionnaire and Goldberg and Hiller’s general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) before and after the intervention by the paired t-test. Results: The mean stress score of mothers in the intervention group significantly reduced (P<0.001). Stress was reduced in the mothers of the control group who only received routine training, but this reduction was not statistically significant (P>0.05) (before training: 35.72 and after training: 34.08). In the intervention group, the mean score of mental health improved significantly two weeks after the gratitude-based training program (P<0.05) (before training: 26.56 and after training: 19.20). Conclusion: This is the first study on the effectiveness of gratitude on the health of Iranian mothers with preterm infants hospitalized in the NICU. Gratitude improves the stress level and increases the quality of mental health. The belief that gratitude will increase blessings is a crucial part of Iranian women’s religious beliefs and is a critical factor in the effectiveness of mind and body interventions.

Background and Objectives: Some studies have shown that spirituality and religion are related to more life satisfaction and less depression. The present study examined the effectiveness of Islamic cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) compared to conventional CBT in reducing depression and increasing life satisfaction and spiritual health in patients with depression. Methods: This is a random trial with a pre-test-post-test design. There were 30 participants in this study; 15 participants received conventional CBT and 15 received Islamic CBT. The instruments used for data collection included a semi-structured interview based on diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), Glock and Stark’s (1970) Religiosity Scale, Beck’s depression inventory, Diner’s life satisfaction questionnaire (1985), and Paloutzian’s spiritual wellbeing scale, which were filled in before and after the treatment sessions. Each protocol included ten 50-minute sessions. The collected data were finally analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: Islamic CBT led to a significantly higher level of spiritual health compared to conventional CBT (P<0.001). Both methods led to a significant reduction in depression and increased life satisfaction and no significant difference was found between them. Conclusion: It is suggested that Islamic CBT should be improved in terms of psychological components and techniques combined with spirituality so that its effectiveness in reducing depression and increasing life satisfaction can be improved compared to conventional CBT.

Background and Objectives: Spiritual health has a positive effect on the way of interaction, organizational belonging, and job commitment of people. Therefore, it is expected that in sensitive jobs, such as pharmacy and prescribing medicine for patients, errors will be reduced and patient safety will be improved. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and job performance among pharmacists and pharmacy staff in Qom Province in 2017-2018. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on a total of 140 staff of pharmacies in Qom. The performance measurement tool was Paterson’s occupational performance questionnaire. Along with demographic information, the state of spiritual health was also evaluated using an authentic Iranian questionnaire. The data were analyzed using an independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results: The mean age and work experience of the participants were 31.05±8.3 and 7.94±7.4 years, respectively. The total score of occupational performance and spiritual health was obtained as 70±10 and 211.9±23.6, respectively. The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient showed a statistically significant relationship between spiritual health and job performance (P<0.01). Conclusion: Considering the existence of a relationship between the spiritual health of personnel and job performance, it can be concluded that by improving the level of the spiritual health of the personnel working in the pharmacy, the effectiveness factors of organizational behavior will improve. It is recommended that more research be done in the field of job performance improvement.

Background and Objectives: Moral sensitivity is the ability to recognize moral conflicts and consequences in decisions, and anxiety sensitivity is a structure of individual differences, in which a person fears physical symptoms associated with anxiety arousal. Anxiety sensitivity is vital in the persistence of anxiety disorders. This study was done to determine the relationship between moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity in nursing students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This research was descriptive-correlational. The samples included 336 nursing students in all grades at Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences in 2020. Sampling was performed continuously using virtual space. In this research, the demographic information form, Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ), and Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 16 and analytical and descriptive tests, such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: The score of moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity was obtained as 81 and 31.4, respectively. The correlation coefficient between moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity was not statistically significant (r=0.065; P=0.238). Also, the two components of fear of physical concerns had a significant relationship with the dimensions of benevolence and honesty. Conclusion: Considering that the lack of interest in the nursing field increases anxiety sensitivity, it is suggested to activities be done to improve interest in nursing among students. Despite the lack of a significant relationship between these two components, the importance of these two components should not be neglected and it is better to carry out studies to better understand the factors affecting moral sensitivity and anxiety sensitivity and to improve these two components.

Background and Objectives: Sleep disorders are prevalent in the geriatrics. Any disorder in its natural flow causes psychological problems and decreases the efficiency of a person. Paying attention to the spiritual forces in the elderly is a need that gives them peace and vitality; therefore, spiritual health can improve the quality of sleep in the geriatrics by promoting general health, which is a requirement for comfortable sleep. Therefore, we examined the correlation between spiritual health and sleep quality in geriatrics. Methods: This research was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study conducted on 161 elderly in Jahrom City, Iran, in 2017. The standard spirituality wellbeing scale (SWBS) by Palutzian and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) were used. After collecting data, they were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test by SPSS software, version 16. Results: The results showed that 54% of the participants in the research were male and the average age of the participants was 62.96±2.5 years. The average scores of spiritual health and sleep quality in the participants were 79.62±5.1 and 6.53±3.5, respectively. Also, no significant relationship was observed between spiritual health score and sleep quality in the elderly (P=0.43). Conclusion: Considering that the spiritual health of most elderly was at an average level and most of them had sleep disorders, it is recommended that the factors related to improving the spiritual health and quality of sleep in this segment of society be considered.

Background and Objectives: Spiritual coping strategies of patients are influenced by their mood/anxiety symptoms and emotional schemas. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop a conceptual model of spiritual coping in patients with chronic back pain, considering the role of mood/anxiety symptoms and emotional schemas. Methods: The research method was descriptive correlational. The statistical population included all women and men 25 to 55 years old with chronic back pain referring to the orthopedic and neurology clinics of Torbat Heydarieh City, Iran, in 2021-2022, of whom 400 people were selected considering the inclusion criteria using the convenience method. The tools used were the mood and anxiety symptoms questionnaire (MASQ-D30), a brief version of the Leahy emotional schema scale II-(LESS II), and the religious coping scale. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling by SPSS software, version 24 and LISREL software, version 8.8. Results: The fitted model showed a direct relationship between mood/anxiety symptoms and emotional schemas (β=0.740), an inverse relationship between mood/anxiety symptoms and spiritual coping (β=-0.480) at the significant level of 0.05, and an indirect relationship between mood/anxiety symptoms and spiritual coping through emotional schemas (β=-0.488), which was significant at the 0.05 level. Conclusion: The results of the study supported the mediating role of emotional schemas in the relationship between mood/anxiety symptoms and spiritual coping strategies of patients with chronic back pain. Therefore, developing therapeutic interventions to reduce emotional schemas and improve spiritual coping strategies along with medical treatments is useful in adapting and improving chronic pain sufferers