Advances in Nursing & Midwifery
Volume:20 Issue: 68, 2010

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is one or more symptoms from a great combination of physical, psychological and behavioral symptoms, occurring in 70%-90%of women at childbearing age. 95% of women suffer from mild symptoms of PMS while, in 3%-10%, the symptoms are severe and disabling. The aim of this study was identify the severity of PMS and its related factors in students of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences & Health Services, In this descriptive study, of 980 students in the dormitories of the university, 85 with PMS were selected by purposive sampling method. Data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire and a diary form derived from criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-4). Validity and reliability of the tools were determined by content and test-retest (r=0.82) methods respectively. Data collection method was self report questionnaires.Means of age and body mass index of the subjects were 22.20 and 22.59 respectively. 58.8%, 38.8% and 2.4% had mild, moderate and severe physical symptoms respectively. The corresponding figures for psychological symptoms were 30.7%, 66.1% and 3.2 respectively. The severity of symptoms in more than two thirds of the subjects was moderate and mild. A significant relationship was found between the onset of symptoms as well as educational term of the students and syndrome severity.

Absenteeism cause many problems for managers and other personnel especially nursing staff and leads to decreased quality and quantity of nursing care and, ultimately, health level of society. This descriptive study was conducted to determine the related factors of absenteeism in nursing staff at hospitals affiliated with Tehran Medical University. 105 registered nurses with at least 1 event of absenteeism at different healthcare centers of Imam Khomeini Hospital were randomly selected. A questionnaire in 3 parts including items for demographics, related factors of absenteeism and an open question asking about the ways to reduce it was used for data collection.Content and test-retest methods were used for validity and reliability of the tool respectively (r=0/87). Such statistical tests as Chi-square and t-student were used for data analysis.Most subjects (9.82%) was between 26-39 (mean age=4.30±1.18); 6.78%, women; 6.88%, baccalaureate; 3.74%, married; 1.57% with rental residence and 4.71% with shift rotation. 5.65% considered therapeutic problems as the most effective factor in absenteeism, of which 9.83% named tiredness from work as a reason for them. A significant correlation was found between absenteeism and age as well as sex

Nurses make important clinical decisions with a great impact on patient care and their professional performance. Although decision-making is a basic and essential concept of nursing, limited understanding exists regarding the quality of clinical decision-making of critical care nurses and its effective factors. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore intellectual reasoning and clinical decision-making criteria of critical care nurses. 14 nurses in 4 teachinghospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences participated in the study. Data were collected by in-depth semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed concurrently with data collection. In general, 6 main themes emerged.3 related to intellectual reasoning included intuition, recognition of similar situations and hypothesis testing and the other 3concerning criteria ofdecision-making were risk-benefit level, organizational requirements and complementary sources of information.The findings provide a deep understanding of critical care nurses’ experiences regarding intellectual reasoning and clinical decision-making criteria. This can be influential in addition to facilitating more efficient decision-makings on improving the outcomes of independent as well as collaborative nursing interventions.

Today, women have a tendency for cesarean. One of the reasons is thought to be their belief in the effect of normal delivery on postpartum sexual activities. With respect to the high rate of cesarean in Tehran and lack of enough evidence in this regard, this historical cohort study was conducted to identify a relationship between delivery type and postpartum sexual activity of women referring to selected healthcare centers of Tehran in 2009.This study is to historical cohort reason of sexual activities of 140 women with vaginal delivery (case group) were compared with 140 women with cesarean (control group). A questionnaire regarding demographics and sexual activities was used for data collection, validated and made reliable by content and test-retest methods respectively. Data were analyzed by different statistical methods with Spss 13. A significant relationship was found between income as well as educational level of women and selection of delivery type (.

The concept of hopefulness in adolescents and its role in the health of this group are very important. Therefore, a valid and reliable tool to measure this concept is essential. This methodological study was performed to identify psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of “Hopefulness Scale for Adolescents” (HSA) in high school students of Tehran. In this methodological research, 1918 girl and boy students from districts 3, 5, 9, 10 and 18 of Education Organization in Tehran were selected by random cluster sampling method. The subjects were asked to complete the scale along with a demographic questionnaire and Self-efficacy scale of Sherer et al. as a criterion scale. Construct and criterion validities were identified for the validity of the scale and internal consistencies as well as test-retest were measured for its reliability. Data were analyzed by calculation of factor analysis, coefficients of correlation and Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was measured by exploratory factor analysis and revealed 2 factors, namely, optimistic and pessimistic thinking toward future. Coefficient correlation (r) of scores between the scale and Self-efficacy scale of Sherer et al.