Preventive Care in Nursing & Midwifery Journal
Volume:1 Issue: 1, 2011

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood period. It decreases the quality of life of children. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of group education using compact disks on the quality of life in children 8-12 years with asthma referring to the asthma and Allergy clinic in Valiasr medical center in zanjan, 2009. This is a quasi-experiment single blind study. We evaluated the Effectiveness of Group Education using CDs on Quality of Life of Children with Asthma. Data were collected using the PedAQLQ. Some other items were added by the researchers to measure the physical, psychological and social domains. The 40 participants were selected using non-random sampling method. Data were analyzed using paired t-test. The average score of the quality of life in the three domains indicated that the quality of life has been increased appropriately. The score was increased significantly after the intervention (p<0/05). The results of this study showed that the educational intervention using CDs improved the quality of life in children suffering from Asthma.

Conflict among nurses has been identified as a significant issue within healthcare settings all around the world. Nurses confront with different types of interpersonal conflicts in their work. It's important to know causes and effects of conflicts in nursing units before deciding to manage them. describing the experiential aspects of nurse's inter group conflicts focused on causes and effects. Unstructured and in-depth interviews were conducted according to the grounded theory method. Data were transcribed, coded and categorized in order to generate conceptual categories using constant comparative method. 310 codes extracted from 18 interviews resulted in a model describing the nature and causes of inter group conflicts within nursing: Extra and intra organizational elements with personal and environmental characteristics provide the instincts for creating the conditions which lead to inter group conflicts. According to findings context and work place atmosphere must be consider before any try to manage inter group conflicts properly.

Nurses are among the most influential human resources in health systems. Job satisfaction can increase efficiency of systems and commitment of employees to organizations. Identifying the effective factors on job satisfaction can help to increase job satisfaction and motivation of nurses to perform their tasks appropriately. This study was conducted to determine job satisfaction and its related factors among nurses working in the public hospitals of Zanjan.

In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 472 nurses from public hospitals at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences using stratified random sampling. Data gathering tools included a researcher–made questionnaire including 25 items in the areas of job security, management style, work environment, facilities, salary and benefits, self-concept and social image of nurses. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test in the SPSS.

The job satisfaction among nurses was moderate (51.2±1.87). The highest mean score (62.2 ± 2.39) was related to the social prestige of the nursing profession in society. The lowest average scores were related to satisfaction with work and welfare (44.82 ±2.62), and rights and benefits (45.76±2.63), respectively.

Facilities, working conditions, and salary and benefits were the most important factors affecting job satisfaction. It seems to be necessary to adjust the work hours, and shifts to enhance the quality of nursing care and nurse satisfaction.

Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) influence patients’ lifestyles, health statuses, and role functions, and lead to physical and psychosocial problems. Social support is an important copping mechanism by which quality of life and health status of patients improve. The aim of this study was to determine informational and instrumental support in hemodialysis patients in hospitals of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, 2010. In this cross-sectional study, 84 patients with CRF who were referred to the hemodialysis centers of Zanjan were recruited to the study. The participants answered to the two sets of questionnaires: 1) demographic items; 2) standard instrument of social support. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in the SPSS-16. The study showed that 20.3% and 29.7% of participants had optimal informational and instrumental support, respectively. More than two third of the patients did not have optimal social support. Regarding positive relationships between social support, quality of life and survival rate in hemodialysis patient, it is suggested that health care policymakers and managers consider the instrumental and informational support in order to improve quality of life in hemodialysis patient.

Increasing d aily intake of 400 micrograms folic acid to 80% among childbearing women up to 2010 is a public health goal. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of pregnant women on folic acid intake and its related factors. In this cross-sectional study, 361 literate pregnant women attending health centers in Zanjan were recruited to the study using a convenience sampling method. Data were collected usinf a questionnaire. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the items was 0.75. Data were analyzed using statistical t-test, ANOVA, Chi-square, and logistic regression. The mean of knowledge score was considered as the average knowledge and ranges more or less than the average were considered as high or low knowledge, respectively. About 25.2 percent of pregnant women had good knowledge, 53.2 percent had average knowledge, and 21.6 percent had low knowledge. The knowledge score had a significant relationship with the occupation, mothers’ age, and education. More than 60 percent of the participants used folic acid alone or in combination with multivitamins or iron. The folic acid usage had a significant correlation with gestational age; as the highest percentage of consumption of folic acid was in the second trimester of pregnancy and the lowest percentage was in the first trimester. Most of the women (73.1%) had heard about folic acid. Public clinics were the most cited source of information. Marriage classes had provided the least information. Despite a large percentage of women who had heard about folic acid, most of them had not enough knowledge about benefits of folic acid consumption during pregnancy. Folic acid intake amount was near the public health goal; however, most of the participants had started taking the pills after their first trimester. Therefore, educating women on the benefits of folic acid intake during pregnancy should be considered in educational classes.

This study aimed to investigate nurses’ and midwives’ current knowledge about the osteoporosis. In this survey, we used the FOOQ (The Facts on Osteoporosis Quiz) questionnaire to measure osteoporosis knowledge on 214 nurses and midwives in Valiasr hospital in Zanjan. Findings indicated a generally moderate to high level of knowledge about certain risk factors among the participants. The main deficit in the knowledge of the participants was about walking and bone health. The study findings were consistent with the results of other studies which have reported that the knowledge of osteoporosis among nurses and midwives is less than adequate. The findings showed the requirement to focus on in the osteoporosis educational interventions among nurses and midwives.

Burnout is a syndrome usually found in health providers such as nurses and hospital employees. According to Maslach, burnout is a reflective physical and emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Therefore, assessment of its related factors such as age, work duration, type of wards, and work schedule are very important. This was a descriptive–analytical correlational study. The study was conducted among 272 nurses in hospitals. The research instrument was the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire consisted of three parts including: 1) emotional exhaustion; 2) depersonalization; and 3) personal achievement with the Likert scoring scale. Data were analyzed using the SPSS. There were 95 males and 177 females; 60 singles and 206 married nurses. About 100 nurses had no children, and 33 nurses had three or more children. A majority of the participants were married. Most of the male (n=80), and female (n=156) nurses had BSc. educational level. The majority of the nurses had experience of clinical work in circular shifts. The study showed that 43.8% of the nurses had high level of emotional exhaustion burnout. In addition, there were significant relationships between severity and frequency of depersonalization with the number of children (p=0.001), position (p=0.008), and hospitals of different cities (p=0.022). There were also significant relationships between personal achievement and hospitals of different cities (p=0.02); and also depersonalization with employee (p=0.041). The results of this study showed that there were burnouts among nurses in dimension of e motional and depersonalization. There were also significant relationships between some family and professional factors.

Patients’ rights are the patients’ expectations from health services. Patients’ rights declaration is to protect individuals’ rights in order to be ensured, in case of being sick; they will receive enough qualified care in a respectful context regardless of their age, gender, and economic situation. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of nurses’ awareness from patients’ rights and the extent to which they respect such rights in Mashhad’s hospitals. This was a cross-sectional study. The participants were 486 nurses who were selected based on the random simple stratified sampling. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire including two main sections: 1) demographic information; and 2) situational rights of the patients. Data were analysed in the SPSS. The results of the study revealed that the level of awareness and the degree to which the nurses observe patients’ rights were at excellent level in more than 50% of the cases. The study also demonstrated that awareness and observation of the patients’ rights were not significantly correlated to age, experience, and educational level (P>0/05). According to the results of the study, observation of the patients’ rights were at excellence level in more than half of the cases; however, regarding the importance of the issue in question, it is essential that policymakers set legislating rules which protect patients’ and nurses’ rights, so as to expect improvements in the quality of health and clinical services.