عزت جعفرجلال

Caring is one of the most fundamental elements of the nursing practice. On the other hand, psychological capital is a positive psychological state and is defined based on self-efficacy, hope, optimism to achieve success, and resilience when facing problems. This study aims to determine the relationship between psychological capital and caring behavior in nurses working in hospitals in Lorestan province, western Iran.

This is a descriptive-correlational study with a cross-sectional design. The study population consists of all nurses working in four hospitals affiliated to Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in Khorramabad city in 2023. Of these, 300 nurses were selected. The sampling method was proportional allocation. To collect information, a demographic form, McGee’s psychological capital questionnaire, and Wolf et al.’s 42-item caring behavior inventory were used. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 20.

Of 300 questionnaires, 279 were completed. The caring behavior had a direct and significant correlation with psychological capital (r=0.407, P<0.001) and its all dimensions. The highest correlation was in the dimension of hope (r=0.398, P<0.001) and the lowest correlation was in the dimension of self-efficacy (r=0.281, P<0.001). Psychological capital also had a direct and significant correlation with all domains of caring behavior (P<0.001). There was a significant difference in nurses’ psychological capital based on educational level (P=0.007) and economic status (P=0.001). Also, there was a significant difference in nurses’ caring behaviors based on age (P=0.004), marital status (P=0.025), and educational level (P=0.044).

The psychological capital of nurses is related to their caring behavior; the nurses with high psychological capital show more appropriate caring behavior.

Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients with COVID-19 are in dire need of spiritual care due to being alone in quarantine, away from their families. The present study aims to assess the spiritual care competence of nurses in the special care units for COVID-19 in teaching hospitals in Arak, Iran 

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. Participants were 142 nurses working in the special care units for COVID-19 in hospitals affiliated to Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2022, who were selected by a census method. The data collection tool was the spiritual care competence scale. The data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 16.

The mean total score of spiritual care competence was 100.71±14.45, which was higher than the median score of 81. The spiritual care competence had a significant relationship with marital status (P=0.044), willingness to work overtime (P<0.001), age (P=0.011), total work experience (P=0.03), and work experience in the special care unit (P=0.025), such that spiritual care competence was higher in older married nurses with a willingness to work overtime and a higher work experience.

The spiritual care competence of nurses in the study hospitals is at a favorable level. The results of this study can help future studies in improving the quality of nursing care and the competence of nurses in spiritual care.

Attempting to improve the quality is an important issue in the nursing service and care system. The COVID-19 pandemic has created great challenges for healthcare systems, especially for the intensive care units, which can affect the quality of nursing care provided to these patients. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of nursing care in nurses working in the intensive care unit of COVID-19.

Methods & Materials:

 In this descriptive-cross-sectional conducted in 2021-22, 142 nurses from Valiasr, Amir Kabir, Amir al-Momenin and Khansari hospitals affiliated to Arak University of Medical Sciences were selected by the census method. The Martins’ nursing care quality questionnaire (including 25 items in 7 domains) was completed by the participants. The SPSS software version 16 and independent t-tests, analysis of variance and the Pearson's correlation coefficient were used for the data analysis.

The result showed that the mean score of the nursing care quality was 83.83±7.74, which was considered favorable due to being higher than the median score of the tool (62.5). Among the individual characteristics of nurses, the nursing care quality had a statistically significant relationship with the type of employment (P=0.003), age, work experience and work experience in the intensive care unit (P<0.001).

Considering the significant relationship of the nursing care quality with the type of employment, age and work experience, it is recommended that health managers take an effective step in formulating the necessary policies to improve the quality of nursing care by taking into account the experience of skilled nurses in intensive care units.

Nursing, the core and front line of the health system, is considered as one of the most challenging jobs due to problems such as lack of human resources, increasing demand in the clinical environment, constant changes in work schedule, client expectations, legal problems, and client mortality. Paying attention to influential factors including client health is important in creating a positive working environment and increasing the mental health of nurses. One of the issues raised recently is psychological capital, with four dimensions of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience. Psychological capital has a positive effect on work attitude and behavior and is positively related to constructive performance. In addition, psychological capital leads to better psychological health, better adaptation to stressful conditions, and increases nurseschr('39') ability to cope with the problems. Given that nurses are always exposed to physical, mental, and emotional challenges, hospital managers should provide mechanisms to reduce potential workplace risks. Recognition of preventive factors (e.g., psychological capital) is the first step towards the growth and development of effective policies in this area. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the psychological capital of nurses working in academic medical centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences.

This descriptive study was conducted to examine the psychological capital of nurses working in academic medical centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019. The study population was all nurses working in academic medical centers affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019 and the sample included 305 nurses with inclusion criteria (at least 1 year of clinical experience and not facing severe crises or death of loved ones during the last 6 months) from emergency departments, pediatric ward, ICU, CCU, internal ward, psychiatric ward, Operating room, obstetrics ward, surgical ward, dialysis unit, burn unit, oncology, and etc. Sampling was performed using proportional allocation procedure and samples were selected from academic medical centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences. The Psychological Capital Questionnaire devised by Luthans was used to collect the data. The questionnaire Includes 24 items in 4 subscales of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism, and is scored based on 6-point Likert scale  ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Its score ranges from 24 to 144, with a higher score indicating a higher level of psychological capital. The Demographics Survey included information such as age, gender, marital status, employment status, education, work experience, income, employment in one or more hospitals, experience in the current ward, work experience in current hospital, job position, shift work. Sampling and collecting questionnaires took about 5 months (from October 2019 to March 2020) as the nurses were too busy. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 16. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. In the descriptive statistics part, frequency distribution tables were used to analyze the qualitative variables of the research and numerical indices of minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the quantitative variables of the research. In inferential statistics part, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression model were used.

The mean age of the subjects was 34.75 with a standard deviation of 7.71 years. 86.9% of the nurses were female and 86.6% had an undergraduate degree. Most nurses were married (55.4%). The economic status of 78.7% of the nurses was average and 89.8% of them did not report any specific chronic disease. 49.8% of the nurses were employed. The morning shift accounted for 63.3% of the work shift. The majority of participants were nurses (85.2%). Most of the participating nurses were working in intensive care units (38%). The average work experience of all participants was 10.44 ± 6.96. Their average work experience in the current wards was 4.82 ± 4.41 and also the average work experience in the current hospital was 8.26 ± 6.20. The results revealed that the mean of psychological capital was 104.63 ± 15.25, and given the score range of 24-144 in the Psychological Capital Questionnaire and the mean score, it can be concluded that nurses had a high level of psychological capital.  Among the components of psychological capital, the highest mean score was related to self-efficacy of 28.29 ± 4.70 and the lowest mean score was related to resilience of 24.62 ± 4.37. Also, psychological capital had a statistically significant relationship with job position (P <0.001) and chronic disease (P = 0.050). Tukeychr('39')s multiple comparison showed that the mean score obtained for psychological capital of nurses was significantly lower than the one obtained for head nurses (P = 0.002) and supervisors (P = 0.029). It was also observed that the average score of psychological capital in nurses with chronic diseases was significantly lower than others. It should be noted that other personal and occupational variables had no statistically significant relationship with psychological capital.

According to the mean scores obtained from this study, it can be said that nurses have an almost high level of psychological capital and the highest mean score among the dimensions of psychological capital was related to self-efficacy. Regarding the correlation of research variables with demographic characteristics, the results showed that the psychological capital of nurses was less than that of head nurses and supervisors, which increases the importance of addressing psychological capital in nurses.  It is possible to provide the basis for improving their personal, professional, and caring performance by focusing on psychological capital in nurses and adopting proper planning for necessary training in this field. Considering that the resilience component of the psychological capital variable obtained the lowest average, paying attention to this component in nurses is of great importance. We can also point out the importance of these variables and their impacts on personal, occupational, and organizational areas, including personal and psychological effects and care outcomes such as improving the quality of care and organizational outcomes, which increases the importance of paying attention to it.

One of the primary goals of health service provision is to prevent patient harm and maintain patient safety. Patient safety is defined as minimizing the risk of unnecessary injuries compared to other treatments or lack of treatment. Safe nursing care has four dimensions of nursing skills, providing physical safety, providing mental safety, and nurseschr('39') cooperation with other members. The provision of safe care depends on the quality and efficiency of nursing services. The efficiency of nurses depends on the measures taken to preserve the body and mind of nurses and the improvement of the quality of their work life. Quality of work life emphasizes personal consequences and professional improvement to meet onechr('39')s needs in the four dimensions of personal life, work framework, work context, and global dimension of work. Safe care and quality of work life are important issues, and their dimensions have been assessed and identified separately in some studies, while they could be fully recognized and promoted through more approaches. The present study aimed to assess the correlation of safe nursing care and the quality of work life of nurses in the public hospitals of Rasht, Iran in 2020.

This cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study was conducted to assess the correlation between safe nursing care and quality of work life in eight public hospitals in Rasht. The participants included 250 nurses who were selected via stratified sampling based on the ratio of the total number of the nurses in the public hospitals of Rasht and each hospital department accessibly. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, Brookschr('39') quality of work life (QWL) for nurses (2005), and Rashvand safe nursing care questionnaire (2017). Brookschr('39') QWL questionnaire has four dimensions regarding the quality of work life of nurses with 42 items, including personal life (seven items), work framework (10 items), work field (20 items), global work dimension (five items). Each items was assigned a score within the range of 1-6 (Strongly Disagree=1, Strongly Agree=6) within the score range of 42-252. The reliability coefficient of this questionnaire has been confirmed at the Cronbachchr('39')s alpha of 0.91. Rashvand safe nursing care questionnaire had 33 items in the four dimensions of nursing skills (16 items), mental safety (four items), physical safety (seven items), team work (five items), and one general question. The demographic and QWL questionnaires were completed by the nurses, and the safe nursing care questionnaire was completed by the nursing supervisor. Sampling was performed during September 22-October 20, 2020, and each questionnaire was completed within 20-30 minutes. The inclusion criterion was employment in a public hospital in Rasht, and the exclusion criteria were incomplete questionnaires and not returning the questionnaires. After the sampling process, 250 questionnaires were collected. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearsonchr('39')s correlation-coefficient), and the significance level was considered <0.05.

The quality of work life of the majority of the nurses (78.8%) was moderate. The highest and lowest mean scores were obtained in the work field dimension (58.37 ± 15.74) and the global work dimension (41.92 ± 18), respectively. In the majority of the studied nurses (94.4%), the level of safe nursing care was favorable and higher, while their cooperation level with the other healthcare team members was lower comparatively. Safe nursing care had no significant correlation with the quality of work life and none of its dimensions. In addition, none of the demographic variables were significantly correlated with the quality of work life of the studied nurses. However, safe nursing care had significant correlations with gender, marital status, employment status, age, and work experience (P>0.001).

Despite the moderate quality of work life, safe nursing care was considered favorable. However, no significant correlations were observed between safe nursing care, the quality of working life, and its dimensions. This finding could be due to the prevailing professional rules and beliefs in the nursing profession, which maintains safe care despite the limitations in the factors associated with the quality of work life. Although safe nursing care was favorable, the constantly increasing need for promoting the quality of care and the competition of care service organizations to attract more clients, safe nursing care must be enhanced continuously. According to the findings, the dimension of clinical skills was rather poor in terms of safe nursing care, which requires skills retraining and further monitoring in this regard. Since the global quality of work life mainly concerns nurses, chief executives must pay special attention to the salaries and wages of these individuals, as well as their job security and presenting a correct image of nursing to the society.

Secondary traumatic stress could be described as an occupational hazard for those providing care to victims of trauma. Nurses in psychiatric wards are faced with severe and complicated challenges in the workplace to provide mental health care. Resilience and the associated behaviors help overcome negative experiences and turn them into positive experiences. The present study aimed to investigate secondary traumatic stress and resilience in the nurses at the psychiatric medical centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Science in 2018.

This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted on 200 nurses engaged in the psychiatric medical centers affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The participants were selected via stratified proportional allocation and convenience sampling. Data were collected using the secondary traumatic stress questionnaire and resilience scale. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16.

In total, 30%, 21.5%, and 26% of the nurses reported high and severe, moderate, and mild secondary traumatic stress. The mean score of secondary stress was 37.64 ± 10.03 69.71 ± 13.63.

According to the results, the mean score of secondary stress was moderate in the nurses, while the mean score of resilience was above the median of the questionnaire. The adoption of strategies such as the reduction of workload, increased staff oversight, and improvement of staff support are recommended for the management of secondary traumatic stress. Furthermore, the resilience of psychiatric nurses could be enhanced through proper physical and mental health management and promotion of mental health in these healthcare providers.

The level of tension and stress is comparatively higher in psychiatric units due to the nature of the disorders and conditions of the patients under treatment, which could threaten various aspects of the general health of psychiatric nurses. Furthermore, this issue could adversely affect the quality of work life in nurses. The present study aimed to investigate the association between the quality of work life and general health of the nurses in the psychiatric wards of the teaching hospitals affiliated to the medical universities in Tehran, Iran. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on 200 nurses engaged in the psychiatric wards of the teaching hospitals affiliated to the medical universities in Tehran. The participants were selected via stratified random sampling. Data were collected using the quality of work life questionnaire and general health questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 20 using descriptive and inferential statistics, including Pearson's correlation-coefficient, independent t-test, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The mean scores of the quality of work life and general health of the nurses were moderate and favorable, respectively. Significant inverse correlations were observed between the quality of work life and general health in the dimensions of anxiety and sleep disorders (P=0.026) and depressive symptoms (P=0.041), so that the increased quality of work life could reduce the scores of these dimensions of general health. According to the results, the quality of work life could affect the general health of psychiatric nurses in terms of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep disorders. Therefore, the adoption of effective policies to improve the quality of work life could positively influence the general health of the nurses employed in psychiatric wards.

Pharmacovigilance is an integral part of patient care. Medication side-effects in the elderly and the key role of nurses and healthcare team in the safety of these patients are of utmost importance. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of pharmacovigilance training on the knowledge, attitude, and performance of geriatric nurses in the health centers affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2017.

This experimental study was conducted on 100 nurses employed in two teaching hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, who were selected via convenience sampling. After the pretest, the nurses were non-randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control using the demographic and principles of drug safety questionnaires. The nurses in the intervention group received training on the principles of drug safety for the elderly for two weeks using a web-based program obtained from the website of the hospital, and the control group received no intervention. Two weeks after the intervention, posttest was performed on both groups. Data analysis was performed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent t-test, and paired t-test at the significance level of P<0.05.

The intervention and control groups were completely homogenous in terms of the demographic characteristics. Before the intervention, no significant differences were observed in the knowledge, attitude, and performance between the groups (P>0.05). After training on the principles of drug safety, significant differences were observed between the intervention and control groups regarding the level of knowledge (P=0.33), attitude (P=0.003), and performance (P=0.027). In addition, the scores of knowledge (P<0.001) and attitude (P<0.001) significantly increased in the intervention group after the training, while the improvement in the performance was not considered significant (P=0.34).

Considering the positive effects of web-based training on the principles of drug safety on improving the knowledge and attitude of nurses and since skilled performance is essential to the recognition of concepts and situations, it is recommended that novel educational methods for the care of elderly patients be incorporated into the curriculum of nursing education.

  Nurses are one of the most important members of healthcare teams, who are directly responsible for the care of the elderly. Positive attitude toward the recipients of care plays a fundamental role in the provision of care. The quality of care provision to the elderly, especially those with delirium, is influenced by several factors, including the attitude of nurses toward this patient group. The present study aimed to assess the attitude of nurses toward the care of elderly patients with delirium in the dimensions of knowledge, ability and self-confidence, ability to identify and understand the consequences, willingness to enhance knowledge, and burden of care. This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 200 nurses employed in three teaching hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, who were selected via convenience, proportionate stratification sampling in case they met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using questionnaires of demographic data and attitude of nurses toward delirium consisting of 38 items. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 at the significance level of P≤0.05. The attitude of head nurses toward the elderly patients with delirium was significantly better compared to nurses (P=0.005). The results of the analysis of variance indicated a significant difference with the variable of work experience with the elderly (P=0.003). In addition, occupational position (head nurse) was the only significant variable in the linear regression model. According to the results, occupational position and work experience with the elderly had the most significant associations with the attitude of the nurses toward the elderly patients with delirium. It is suggested that continuous training, evidence-based, and performance-based education be implemented to improve the attitude and practice of nurses. Furthermore, the care of elderly patients must be assigned to trained, experienced, enthusiastic, and interested personnel.

Recently appropriate workability is widely considered in organizations. Developing appropriate workability in hospitals leads to many positive achievements for nurses and patients and totally for the whole health and treatment system. According to the researches, workability levels of persons are strongly related to their working place's conditions. So, this study was conducted to evaluate the level of working abilities of nurses in selected educational-medical centers of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2012.
In this cross-sectional study, 150 nurses working in selected educational medical centers of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected by the random sampling method. Data were collected using the demographic information and workability indicator questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistic tests and the SPSS 16 software.
Workability of 44.7% of the nurses was in an appropriate level. There was a linear and meaningful relation between the educational level and workability of the nurses (P = 0.003). A negative and meaningful statistical relation was found between diseases diagnosed by physicians and workability of the nurses (P Considering the good workability level of almost half of the nurses, maintaining this level of workability and improving it in nurses should be noticed more than before by nursing managers of the country and hospitals.

The behavior of healthcare providers in a healthcare system constitutes a factor for patients’ satisfaction with the system. Nurses’ job satisfaction is an important part of their lives which influences patients’ security, as well as the quality and efficiency of healthcare services. Nurses’ dissatisfaction with their vocation, for any reason it might be, will have a direct impact on the quality of services provided for patients. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between nurses’ job satisfaction and patients’ satisfaction with nursing service. This is a descriptive-analytic study conducted on 200 patients at discharging and 100 nurses from different wards (other than special wards, Emergency, Pediatric and Psychiatric) from hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2010. The data were processed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests. Data were entered into the statistical package for the social sciences version 16 for windows. The majority of nurses (62%) had low satisfaction with their job; 34% had average satisfaction and only 4% were highly satisfied. The findings strongly indicate that patients were perfectly satisfied in hospitals where nurses had higher job satisfaction. Similarly, patients tended to be more dissatisfied in hospitals with nurses with low job satisfaction. Considering the close relationship observed in our study between nurses’ job satisfaction and patients’ satisfaction, nursing managers must become aware of the factors influencing the job satisfaction of nurses and take steps to improve them in order to achieve higher levels of job satisfaction alongside high-quality nursing services.

Governing organizational culture in hospitals can affect patients’ safety through establishment of behavioral norms among nurses. This study aimed to determine the relationship between nurses’ perception of organizational culture and their performance about patients’ safety. Methods & Materials: In this cross sectional، descriptive-correlation study، we used stratified sampling method to recruit 250 nurses working in general wards and emergency departments of general hospitals in Babol، 2013. Data were collected through questionnaires and were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistic tests including the Pearson test، ANOVA test and T-test in the SPSS. Nurses'' perception of organizational culture was «fairly desirable» (54. 5%). Performance of the nurses in the field of patients'' safety was «desirable» (88%). The Pearson test showed that there was a positive and statistically significant correlation between nurses’ perception of organizational culture and their performance in the field of patients’ safety (P<0. 01). It seems that improving organizational culture in hospitals can enhance nurses’ performance in the field of patients'' safety.

Clinical education is the most fundamental part of the curriculum of nurs-ing students that combines theoretical kno-wledge and practical skills and prepares them to enter the field of patient care and provide clinical and treatment services. Different ways of clinical education have a direct impact on the clinical skills acqu-isition and student satisfaction. So، this study aimed to investigate the relation bet-ween preparation of preceptors and nursing student’s satisfaction of clinical education.

This research was a cross-sectional research study. 44 clinical preceptors and 202 nursing students parti-cipated in the research during 1391. The preparedness questionnaire for preceptors had two parts، the demographic and clinical preparation، and students'' satisfaction ques-tionnaire also had two sections including demographic information and 25 questions about their satisfaction. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 16. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statist-ics and sample analysis methods. Also، the chi-square test was used to link survey objectives and research questions.

The average of age was 22. 5 ye-ars for students and 40 years for preceptors. 75 percent of preceptors had bachelor deg-ree، and 25 percent had master degree. They had averagely 16. 34 and 5. 69 years services and preceptor experience، respectively. 53. 5 percent of students reported a high satisfac-tion and only 10. 4% reported a low satisfa-ction. There was statistically significant re-lation between clinical preparedness of preceptors and student satisfaction (P=0. 024). Relation between clinical prepar-edness and sex (P=0. 05)، marital status (P=0. 01) and coaching experience (P=0. 038) were significant and in the female groups، the number of married people and coaching experience was more than 5 years. Relation of student satisfaction with the sex (P=0. 004) and student’s employment (P=0. 001) were significantly higher in male and employed groups. Discussion &

Given to the rel-ationships between preceptor preparedness and nursing student’s satisfactions in the represented clinical education period، this model is suggested as an applicable and suitable one for nursing colleges and health related educational centers. The accurate selection of people who interested in clin-ical trainings، providing training and edu-cational requirements and holding coordin-ation meetings among preceptors and fac-ulty members and presenting guidelines and clinical education plan can promote clinical training and student’s satisfaction.

Patient satisfaction has been recognized as a key indicator of health care quality which is used by accreditation agencies to monitor quality of care in hospitals. A high proportion of health caregivers are nurses. The services provided by nurses are significantly influential in satisfaction of patients. The aim of this study was to assess patient's satisfaction from nursing care in hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2010.Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 200 patients from different wards (except for special wards, Emergency department, Pediatric and Psychiatric wards) at the time of discharge from hospital through multistage sampling method. Data were collected using Patient Satisfaction Instrument (PSI). Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, chi-square and regression analysis. Majority of patients (72%) were moderately satisfied. Patient satisfaction had a significant relationship with the type of ward (P≤0.001), and type of hospital (P≤0.001). Of demographic variables, only patient's level of education was significantly associated with patient satisfaction (P≤0.019). In this study, patients were moderately satisfied from nursing care services. Educating hospital staff, especially nurses; and encouraging them to actively participate in activities to promote patient satisfaction should be a priority for hospital management. We should also consider that in a competitive market of health and treatment care giving, institutions that put patient satisfaction as their main goal are more successful.

Introduction & "Caring" is the central concept of nursing role, but in the current health care systems with huge advances in technology and scarce resourses as well as the issue of nursing personnel shortage, this aspect of nursing role would be questionable. Accordingly, this study was conducted to examine the relationship between nurse caring behaviors from patients’ perspectives and patient satisfaction. This study was a descriptive-correlational design, with 250 patients, who where hospitalized in an educational center of Iran University of medical sciences. The subjects were selected by quota sampling method. The data collection instruments were Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBI) and Patient Satisfaction Instrument (PSI). The study findings showed that, there were significant correlations between caring behaviors including respectfulness to others, assurance of human presence, positive connectedness, professional knowledge & skill, attentiveness to other's experience and patient satisfaction including Trust, Patient education and Technical- Professional care. Moreover, there was a strong, positive correlation between all variables of the nurse caring behaviors and patient satisfaction (r=0.72, P=0.000). Positive relationship between nurse caring behaviors and patient satisfaction indicates that compassionate nurses with humanistic feelings and art and spending more time for direct caring for patients, play important roles on patient satisfaction. Therefore increasing the time period of direct caring by increasing the number of practice nurses and concerning humanisitic aspects of patient care would reduce the levels of patients dissatisfaction

Management theorists insist on the importance of the participation of employees in decision making processes, as it will affect their performance and the output of the work to be done in an easier way.The aim of this study, was to determine head nurse's level of participative decision making and its relationship to their satisfaction level. his study was a correlational study in which, head nurse's level of participative decision making and satisfaction levels were measured respectively. The data collection tools were Participative Decision Making (PDM) and Satisfaction of Participative Decision Making (SPDM) scales. Self report questionnaires were completed by head nurses, inside their work settings. In this study, 94 nurses with baccalaureate science in nursing (BSN) degree who have been working in teaching hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences were recruited. One of the inclusion criteria was working history of more than the period of 6 months in the work setting that selected by census method of sampling.Nurses obtained a moderate score in (PDM) and in (SPDM) scales. Findings, showed that a relatively strong statistically significant relationship between the two major variables of the study (r=0.661 P=0.000). Among the demographic variables, sex, educational level and job position, influenced more in this significant relationship.The results showed that, there is a statistical significant relationship between head nurses participative decision making and their satisfaction level. This study finding, helps the managers to facilitate participation of workers in making decisions in order to promote the efficacy of the organizations. The researcher strongly suggest furthur studies on participative decision making among other health professionals that might be necessary and could influence on quality of health care system organizations and the related outcomes.

Powerlessness has become endemic among most nurses in their work settings. It may be the result of inappropriate distribution of power in hospitals, allocating power to only a few at the top of hospital hierarchy imposing it. Determining the relationship between nurse's perception of their head nurse's empowering behaviors and their own work empowerment, a correlational study with contribution of 132 licensed nurses was carried on, in which nurses perceptions were measured by two self-report questionnaires. The results indicated that nurses obtained a moderate score in Leader Empowering Behavior (LEB). scale (=3.78 1.71) and also in Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaires (C.W.E.Q) (=15.15 4.2). Also a relatively strong statistically significant relation between the two major variables of the study was identified (rs=0.518, p<0.0001). So, it can be revealed that organizational managers have important roles in increasing work effectiveness through facilitating employee's access to empowerment structures at work settings. Broader surveys on empowerment in nursing and other health care professions are suggested.