Iran Journal of Nursing
Year:2020 | Volume:33 | Issue:123|Papers Count:8

It is not clear whether women can decide to become pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic or whether they are at risk, because examining the long-term consequences of the virus, especially in the first months of pregnancy, requires further time and research. The COVID-19 virus has not been found in the semen and testicles of men infected with the virus in the acute phase or during the recovery period, so it is unlikely that the disease will be transmitted sexually. However, it has been reported that the male reproductive system is vulnerable to the infection, and significant changes have been observed in the sex hormones of patients with COVID-19, suggesting damage to gonadal function. Therefore, young men who have recovered from COVID-19 and are interested in having children should receive counseling when deciding to have children. Due to damage to cellular immunity and physiological changes, pregnant women are susceptible to respiratory diseases and are more likely to develop severe pneumonia. Pregnant women may be at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease. To reduce severe COVID-19 disease, pregnant women should be aware of the potential risks of the severe form of the disease. Therefore, the need to prevent COVID-19 in pregnant women should be emphasized, and potential barriers to these measures should be identified...

Background & Aims: The population of the elderly has been on a rise, which shows more attention to ensuring the health and well-being of the elderly. On the other hand, the growth of the elderly population and its impact on the social and economic conditions of society leads to more attention to the issue of aging in society. In addition, physical and psychological abilities decrease with aging, which affects the quality of life of people. Overall, quality of life and well-being assessed by indicators such as health, happiness, and loneliness. Happiness is one of the most important needs of human beings, which considerably affects their psychological and physical health that helping the elderly cope with stressful situations. Another factor affecting well-being is self-transcendence, which is a powerful coping mechanism and can lead to personal transformation and improvement of the quality of life, thereby facilitating the process of understanding life changes such as aging. Therefore, self-transcendence is defined as a positive trait in relation to the expansion of one’ s outlook on life. This issue includes factors such as spirituality, finding a purpose in life, optimism for the future, coping with problems, using power-based approaches, and connecting with others. In the elderly, by restoring the concept of aging and accepting disability, it reduces stress and focuses more on ability than disability. Therefore, happiness and self-transcendence are important factors in the elderly’ s health dimensions. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between happiness and self-transcendence in the elderly of Khoshkrud, Zarandieh City...

Background & Aims: Nurses work in stressful and challenging environments, which threaten their mental health. Among nurses, those in the intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals are more likely to experience occupational, psychological, and physical stress compared to others. Due to their special working conditions (heavy workload, the need for a quick response to emergency situations, heavy responsibilities of care for critically ill patients, frequent contact with emotional situations, and being in unwanted situations to deliver bad news to the families of patients), these nurses are forced to endure more psychological pressures, which brings up the grave concern of their psychological empowerment being jeopardized. Psychological empowerment in nurses could increase organizational trust and commitment, thereby resulting in job satisfaction, productivity, participation in decisionmaking, provision of high-quality care, patient satisfaction, self-sufficiency, independence, self-confidence, responsibility, job control, and ultimately organizational effectiveness and occupational stress reduction. Therefore, it seems that nurses working in hospitals (especially in ICUs) need to improve their psychological empowerment. Meanwhile, resilience is one of the factors associated with the psychological empowerment of nurses. Resilience results in the better professional performance of nurses and is also a feature to help them adapt to the stresses of their work environment and improve their professional health. In the current century, nurses need to skillfully develop their resilience as it helps them to overcome their negative experiences and turn them into positive experiences. Therefore, nurses who are exposed to high stress levels could be trained to enhance their ability to overcome these pressures and gain a sense of worth. From a deeper perspective, resilience knowledge is a key to professional development in nursing. It has become increasingly important for nurses to be resilient as resilience with a preventative approach improves their mental health. Resilience training also seems to improve the psychological empowerment of nurses. The present study aimed to assess the effects of resilience training on the psychological empowerment of ICU nurses...

Background & Aims: Proper intervals between births have been emphasized as a factor to guarantee the health of the mother and infant. Therefore, reproductive health programs are essential to achieving this important goal. Birth intervals are an effort to maintain a certain interval between births, which is explicitly defined relative to the newborn. Closely birth intervals are referred to as rapid repeated pregnancy in the public health and medical literature and increase the risk of various disorders in the mother and infant. The current literature in this regard indicates that more than 54 million women suffer from health problems during pregnancy and delivery each year, and approximately 1. 5 million die, 99% of which occur in developing countries. Since the time and interval of subsequent births are the main determinants of fertility, fertility researchers have widely investigated these factors. In addition, evidence suggests that short intervals between births cause numerous adverse consequences in childhood and adulthood. The present study aimed to investigate the birth intervals and its determinants in the rural women of Fars province, Iran. In general, we sought to identify the vulnerable groups of women that need special attention in health and reproductive health programs, so that the general health of mothers and infants would be promoted in the community...

Background & Aims: Delirium is one of the most acute and prevalent cognitive disorders with complex causes among hospitalized patients and is also considered to be a common issue in the patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the patients admitted to ICUs are exposed to numerous lifethreatening physiological diseases and health challenges, their care process is extremely difficult to nurses. As such, the management of delirium as an important component of the routine care of these patients is highly demanding and challenging for ICU nurses. The high incidence and prevalence of this disorder in ICUs imposes significant costs on the healthcare system of countries and is also a strain of care for nurses, which ultimately leads to numerous adverse consequences in the affected individuals. Despite the importance of this syndrome and availability of various screening tools, the care level of these patients by nurses is rather poor. Since the nursing team is a key element in ICUs and in constant contact with patients, nurses could play a key role in the prevention of the clinical consequences and management of delirium since the preventative strategies for the occurrence and development of delirium or shortening its duration is highly effective owing to the provided care by these healthcare professionals, who provide full-time care to critically ill patients. Lack of sufficient and effective knowledge regarding delirium is an important factor associated with poor nursing care to identify this disorder. Therefore, increasing their knowledge could help with the timely identification and accurate and optimal management of the disorder, which in turn prevent the permanent complications, disabilities, and cerebral dementia, lengthy ICU admission, and reducing the associated mortality. Although education is recognized as an important factor in delirium prevention and treatment strategies, the type and methods of education and use of various approaches to the training of nurses on delirium could also be effective in this regard. Today, the advancement in educational technology has prompted the use of new methods as an alternative to traditional methods. Considering the easy access to educational contents and use of interactive feedback mechanisms, interactive e-learning has been described as an alternative approach to the teaching of large groups and offers a more flexible and cost-effective method than traditional teaching methods. The present study aimed to assess the effects of interactive elearning on the knowledge of ICU nurses regarding delirium...

Background & Aims: In the bipolar disorder, the mood of the individual is damaged and constantly and abnormally changes from very good to very bad and depressed. Outbursts of explosive anger are one of the characteristics of patients with the bipolar disorder, which causes self-harm and harm to others. Aggression occurs in this population due to factors such as the lack of social support, frequent recurrence of the disease, and failure to use medication. The main consequence of aggression in this vulnerable population is that they are pushed toward substance abuse and alcohol consumption, which eventually disrupt their social functioning. Considering the adverse, debilitative effects of aggression on patients with the bipolar disorder, proper measures must be taken for effective management. Since patients with the bipolar disorder experience severe emotional fluctuations that could damage themselves, their families, other patients, and nurses, it is important to reduce the damages to others and replace aggressive behaviors with constructive interactions in the form of anger management programs. Anger management is a skill taught for the control of aggression in bipolar patients. In fact, anger management helps these individuals learn how to stay calm and control their negative emotions before the onset of anger. In other words, the purpose of this psychological training is to increase psychosocial abilities, effectively deal with the conflicts in life, prevent harmful behaviors to health, and promote the mental health of bipolar patients. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of an anger management educational program on the aggression of individuals with bipolar disorders...

Background & Aims: Pediatric angiography has been widely used for the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disorders in children over the past two decades. The work environment of the nurses of pediatric intensive care units is highly stressful due to various technical and medical equipment and patients with life-threatening diseases. In order to improve special pediatric care environments, attention must be paid to the experiences and opinions of the nurses employed in these units. To this end, the prioritization of the health of workplace and applying multidimensional approaches to the health promotion of the workplace are paramount. Considering the teamwork involved in patient care and treatment and increased number of beds in intensive care units, it is critical to evaluate the perceptions of physicians and nurses regarding the aspects of care in intensive care units. The improvement of the performance of pediatric critical care nurses and attention to their experiences and viewpoints are also essential in this regard. To this end, the prioritization of the health of workplace and applying multidimensional approaches to the health promotion of the workplace are paramount. The use of pediatric angiography has increased in the past two decades. In addition, the differences in the culture, environment, and education of nurses in pediatric intensive care units, along with the differences in the hospitalized patients further emphasize on the necessity of qualitative research. However, most of the studies in this regard have been performed with a quantitative approach, while only qualitative research could determine the dimensions of the perceptions of the healthcare team. To date, no qualitative studies have assessed the experiences of the healthcare team in the pediatric angiography ward. The present study aimed to elaborate on the necessities and requirements of the pediatric angiography ward from the perspective of the healthcare team...

Background & Aims: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, millions of children are victims of abuse each year. Childhood trauma could be physical or psychological abuse, sexual abuse or neglect of a child by the guardian. Abuse has long-lasting and irreversible effects on the psyche of children, which may linger even through adulthood. Among the long-term psychological effects of childhood abuse are major behavioral and psychological disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Such an example is the onset of the symptoms of cluster C personality disorders, which encompass avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders, commonly characterized by anxiety, apprehension, and fear in the affected individuals. Cognitive emotional regulation is a variable that may be influenced by childhood trauma and lead to symptoms of personality disorders. Emotional regulation refers to the process through which an individual recognizes the emotions that are affecting them, how to experience these emotions, and their management. Recent findings suggest that even when child abuse is controlled, the problems associated with emotional regulation persist. Nurses constitute the largest portion of healthcare providers and affect the productivity and progress of the organization more than other hospital staff. In addition, the productivity of nurses ultimately leads to better decision-making in planning healthcare services. Therefore, assessing the predispositions of personality disorders in nursing students and temporary nurses within the program of human research project is paramount. One of these preconditions is the childhood traumas of the nursing students and temporary nurses within the program of human research project. The present study aimed to propose a model of childhood trauma and cognitive emotional regulation to help recognize cluster C personality disorders in the nursing students and temporary nurses within the program of human research project in 2019...