Iranian Journal of Forensic Medicine
Year:2008 | Volume:13 | Issue:4 (48)|Papers Count:10

Background & Aim: Violence is one of the most important issues in public health, although violence against nurses was known as a major problem, size, extent and risk factors haven't not recognized yet. The aim of this study is to determine the rate of violence during training among nursing students Materials & Methods: In this descriptive study, 180 nursing students that have inclusion criteria were selected with quota sampling. Data is collected with questionnaire that validate and variable with content validity and test retest respectively.Findings: Among all studied subjects, 6.7% (CI 95%: 3.1-10.3) reported physical attack, 8.3% (CI 95%: 4.3-12.3) physical threat and 39.4% (CI 95%: 32.3- 46.5) verbal abuse in the previous 12-months period. Most of physical attacks were happened by patients (66.70/,) whereas most of physical threats were happened by colleagues (36.30/,) and then by companions 18.1% and also verbal abuses by colleagues 33.7% and after that patients 31% There is no significant difference between sex and different years in verbal abuse. Most aggressors in physical attacks were under the influence of diseases whereas majority of aggressors in physical threat and verbal abuse haven't any problem. 66.7% of students reported physical attacks, 26.6% occupational threat and 39.4% verbal abuse to educators. Conclusion: Nursing students are at great risk for violence due to little age and inadequate experience. Therefore planning educational programs about violence, prevention, supporting and consulting after violence are necessary.

Background & Aim: Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most common causes for hospitalization. That accounts for proximately 30% the mortality and about one half of cases occur during the early hours following the onset of symptoms just before the transfer of patient to the hospital. Thus, delay in treatment has an important effect on developing the myocardial damage and the prognosis of the patients. In this study, interval between the onset of acute chest pain and the transfer to an cardiac center was studied.Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive, a kind of new data, carried out on 100 inpatients, the age range was 56 years old (66% were male and 34% were female), with acute heart attack in Rasht Dr. Heshmat hospital by using a sampling during period from June to December in 2005. The onset of acute chest pain and acceptance in cardiac center divided in three periods: 1- Onset of acute pain to help call. 2- From help call to transfer time to an initial treatment center. 3- Transfer time from the initial treatment center to the heart center. Intensity pain was studied by using from visual accordance scale (VA.S) and range 0-10. The data were collected by using from questionnaire and then were analyzed.Findings: Results showed that the total length of time between the onset of chest pain and hospitalization was 230 minutes. From the onset of pain to the help call lasted 91 minutes. Transfer time to an initial treatment center (or heart center) was 55 minutes and the transfer to the heart center was 84 minutes. There was significant relation between female (P=0.05) & low intensity pain with the delay timed. Conclusion: The greatest delay was in the help call following the onset of chest pain. Therefore, increasing patient’s knowledge for better understanding of symptoms in the onset of MI can reduce the delay time, side effects and mortality, especially in females for faster help call in the event of any type of chest pain.

Background & Aim: There is no center for poison control and surveillance in this country to gather information and analyze data. The Loghman Hospital is the only tertiary teaching hospital for poisoned patient with more than 65 years experience in Tehran that serves population in excess of 12 million in the capital city, so most poisoned patients refer to this center. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of hospital-referred poisoning in Loghman hospital as the representative of capital city according to International Classification of Disease (ICDI0).Materials and methods: All adults and adolescents more than 12 years old admitted to the Emergency toxicology clinic of the Loghman Hakim teaching hospital, from 21 March 2004 to 20 March 2005, were included in this study. We analyzed the clinical charts for etiological and demographical characteristics of the acutely poisoned patients who hospitalized Variables included group of poisons, motivation, age, sex, history of mental illness and addiction, history of drug self poisoning, prognosis.Results: There were 11,465 poisoning cases (5,583 females and 5,818 males and 64 unknown) among 26,078 patients admitted to the Emergency toxicology clinic. This was nearly half of all hospital admissions. Intentional poisoning was more common (74%) than accidental exposures (26%) including drug abuses. Pharmaceutical drugs especially antidepressants and sedative hypnotics were the major cause of the intoxication which codified as T42 (20.8%) and T43 (17.8%) respectively, followed by T40 (11. 7%) that mainly consist of the opiates. There were not significant differences among patients regarding gender and season of poisoning. Two hundred and seventy two patients (1% of presentations) were died due to acute poisoning or its complications. The majority of them was due to narcotics overdose (43.7%) followed by pesticides (9.9%) Most of the deceased patients were male (80.1%) and less than 40 years old (67.6%).Conclusion: Although the rate of suicide is lower than western countries but the trend of deliberate self poisoning is more than population growth rate and because of substance abuse the sex distribution of poisoning is changed It seems that national policy for the controlling of substance abuse is not efficient and need urgent intervention especially for high risk groups.

Background & Aim: Ethanol concentration of cadavers might have an important role in juridical investigations. Partially where suspected death has been reported The major problem in this regard could be measurement ethanol concentration in corpse blood, that changes to a possible alternative method in determination ethanol concentration in humor In this study ethanol content of both left and right eyes were measured and compared.Materials & Methods: This study is a descriptive cross sectional one, thus, corpses suspected of ethanol consumption were studied and then ethalol was measured by gas chromatography (GC) and with regard to P<5% data was analyzed with SPSS and correlation between ethanol consumption and its concentration in vitreous humor was studied. Data about age, sex, education level, any possible disorder history, eye surgery, and alcohol and drugs consumption were also collected.Findings: Samples were taken from 100 corpses (98 male, 2 females). The age of the corpse was in the range of 15 to 81 years old with a mean of 30 years. Results indicated that there is a significant difference in alcohol content in left and right eyes. (p<5%).Conclusion: It seems that any pathological disorder that may affect eye can explain any significant difference in its ethanol content. According to the data it is suggested to take alcohol samples from vitreous humor addition to study toxicological situation of corpses.

Background &Aim: Medication errors are an old and most frequent problem in hospital wards. On the basis of the available studies medication errors occur commonly among hospitalized patients. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency, type and causes of medication errors of nursing students in Cardiac Care Unites.Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive study in which 60 students were selected through censuses based on their self report. A questionnaire was used consisted of two sections: first demographic information and second, question about occurred medication errors and on the verge medication errors. After determining of validity and reliability, the questionnaire was completed by sample. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.Findings: Findings show that in 10% of sampling medication errors had occurred and 41.66% were on verge of medication errors. 48.34 % of samples did not report any error. The most prevalent type of errors was incorrect drug calculation, paying no attention to the dose in drug card and poor pharmacologic knowledge. The most prevalent drug in which the error had occurred was heparin.Conclusion: Results showed that 10% of samples had medication error and 41.6% were on the verge of it. This shows the high probability of medication errors of nursing students in Cardiac Care Unit. It seems, in part, it is because of student’s education during their learning. We can find the weaknesses of students or the educational program with using of these results and plan to resolve them.

Background & Aim: Accidents and incidents are the most important reasons of fatalities and physical disabilities in the world.Accidents, disputes and working events are the most significant cases which result in trauma and injuries due to quarrels and disputes dedicated a large number to itself in a way that according to the statistics of the cases referred to clinical examination department of legal medicine organization in the whole country, 50% of the cases, referred to the center following by arguments and disputes in 2002. Through epidemiologic consideration of the quarrels and roles of different variables of this field, we are going to take a great step by means of this study to make the subject clear for public minds.Materials &Method: The population ill-considered in this study was the men referred to the central branch of LMO in Tehran who were seeking for the assessment of their damages resulted from quarrel and also to get the expert opinions of the specialists about their injuries during 3 months. 300 volunteer interested in cooperation were selected out of all. Their injuries and needed information were gathered within a special questionnaire and then analyzed through statistical methods.Findings: The gender of assailant in 95.3% of the cases was male and in 4.7% was female. The history of drug abuse existed in 7.9% alcohol usage in 2.5% and history of drug usage existed in 1.8% of assaulted persons. Among all imposed injuries, the highest number relates to scratches and scrapes and the lowest number relates to Fractures. According to the given data, in most of the cases (75.20/,)the assaulted person referred to the clinical examination department on the same day of injury occurrence.Educational level in most of the cases (34.30/,) was intermediate. When considering job distribution, most of them were independent workers and simple workers were in the next level. According to the statistical analysis, in most of the cases (41.60/,) punching, in 14.5% of them hard materials and in 10.5% cold weapons were the tools used for injuring. In addition, when studying on the injuries made by cold weapons or edged tools, knife was considered as the most usable crime tool (640/,) and dagger, carpet cutter, broken glass and other devices were in he next grades. Considering frequency distribution of the age, assailant and assaulted were mostly between 20-30 years old. Considering the frequency of the injured area, the cases have mostly wounded by face but rarely by low back or flunk, according to the reports.Discussion: The results show the importance of performing such a study on the defects due to physical quarrel. They also express that, presenting appropriate solutions like: .Promoting the knowledge of the people about the effects of drinking alcohol and drug usage on making the bases for quarrels, and its aftereffects, .Promoting scientific knowledge of the public, .Preventing the people from carrying intrusive and offensive tools and determining expensive penalties for weapon carriers, .Promoting the culture of reconciliation and having recourse to law instead of personal revenge, besides culturalization in all fields can definitely have significant influences on decreasing such traumas.

Introduction: The phenomenon of husband battering is not so uncommon that tends to be ignored or dismissed.It should be explored that why husbands do not report their victimization and stay in abusive situation, therefore unfortunately this has led to underestimation of the high rates of husband battering in communities. There is a strong need to presence of some organizations that are responsible to follow this violence and inform the people in our country.Case Report: This study is reporting a rare and remarkable case that has been perpetrated by ingestion of encapsulated pins during a few days. Offender wife has a history of violence from her previous marriage. Conclusion: It seems that there have been some causal factors for her recent violence like access to her husband’s wealth after a gradual dying and probably some kind of personality disorders.