Iranian Journal Of Nursing and Midwifery Research
Volume:15 Issue: 4, Autumn 2010

Cancer is a disease which is identified by abnormal deformation of the cells. One of the common side effects of the cancer is fatigue that affects on patients’ life quality and leads to disability. Exercise has an important role in improving these patients’ life quality and can be used as a complementary treatment during and after the cancer treatment. Unfortunately, despite good effects of exercise, most people afflicted from cancer have few or no exercise on their life. Moreover, there are few studies on the impact of exercise on fatigue among patients with colon cancer while most studies have focused on breast cancer.Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of exercise on the severity of fatigue in patients with colorectal cancer who underwent chemotherapy in Ahwaz. This is a Quasi- experiment study. The study population consisted of adults with Colorectal Cancer. The sample included 36 people. The study environment included adult hematology and chemotherapy wards of Shafa Hospital in Ahwaz. Data were collected using a demographic form and a questionnaire in order to measure the severity of fatigue, which were completed by all the patients before the intervention. Then, the patients had 40 minutes exercise, 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The effect of exercise versus fatigue intensity was measured at the end of every week. Data were analyzed using SPSS13. The mean of the fatigue severity in the weeks after exercise was significantly different from the week before the exercise. Fredman test showed significant differences between all the weeks before and after the exercise. The mean of the fatigue severity was 3.69 on the week 0 (before the exercise), and it decreased to 3.57 on the first week after exercise, 3.46 on the second week, 2.58 on the third week and 1.69 on the forth week. Considering the results of this study, exercise and work out can be an effective factor in reducing fatigue in patients.

In the recent decade, due to the overwhelming importance of health and prevention of diseases, nurses, having the most number of the health care team, are acting in any positions of the health care delivery system; because nursing have a key role in promotion of health and health care everywhere. The objective of this research was to study the desired positions of nursing in the health care delivery system in Iran. This research is a multiple triangulation study done on three steps during 2005-2007. At the first step the positions of nursing have been elicited out of library and internet sources. At the second step, the comments of 15 participants have been collected by means of an open questionnaire. Thereafter, at the third step, using the data collected in the first and second step, a questionnaire was made up for a poll (all over the country) on the optimal positions of nursing in Iran, and 64 participants replied. The results were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics. Finally, the positions were categorized in two groups: hospital, and community positions. The results showed that all positions were accepted more than 70%. Overall, considering the positions of nursing and in order to promote the nursing itself and community health, it is suggested that proper planning be implemented for the nurses’ activities in these positions by the health planners.

In spite of much literature written about the theory-practice gap in the international nursing journals, there is evidence that indicates this subject has not been probed comprehensively since nursing education was transferred to universities in Iran. In the recent years, the public and the government have criticized Iranian nurses because of poor quality of patient care. Although this subject has been lamented by some researchers, there is no comprehensive work on how this gap resulted. In the process of a larger study on “nursing knowledge translation to practice of my PhD thesis” this process was explored. Using grounded theory analysis, in-depth interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of 29 nurses, with different levels of experience, from the school of nursing in Tehran University of Medical Sciences during the period January-August 2006. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Three main themes emerging from this study included clinical behavior structure, paradoxical knowledge and practice, and divergent nursing organization. It seems that nursing education with some praxis and paradoxes in the realm of nursing knowledge and practice, along with divergent organizational structure have decreased nurses’ ability in applying their professional knowledge and skills in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Moreover, in spite of increased academic input into nursing education, clinical behaviors of both education and practice settings was perceived as ‘traditional routine-based’.

Studying women’s quality of life, we come across some harmful effects that factor such as dysmenorrhea caused by endometriosis leaves on their lives, their ability to work, their familial relations and their self-confidence. This we find a much imperative issue. Due to the repeated medical follow-ups and the side effects of medical therapies and endometriosis surgeries, many patients tend to use less expensive, nonmedical and nonaggressive methods. Thus, the objective of the present research is to study the effects of massage therapy, one of the aforementioned methods. This study is a semi-empirical one including clinical trials. Considering the prerequisites for entering the study, 23 units suffering from endometriosis that had visited the Infertility Center of Isfahan and were later confirmed by laparoscopy or laparotomy were picked as the sample through a simple method. The tools of collecting data were the visual Analog Scale and McGill questionnaires, which were completed once before and twice after the end of intervention. The data was analyzed using the SPSS software. The findings showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the intensity of pain before the intervention started, immediately after, and also six weeks after the intervention ended (p<0.001). According to the results of this study and confirmations of other ones, it seems that massage therapy can be a fitting method to reduce the menstrual pain caused by endometriosis.

Accidental needle-stick injuries (NSIs) are a hazard for health-care workers and general public health. Nursing workers are at high risk for occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens (such as HBV, HCV and HIV) via sharp injuries of needle stick. This descriptive analytical cross-sectional study was done on 158 nursing workers of Khanevadeh Hospital in Tehran to study needle stick injuries prevalence and related factors via a questionnaire in 2008. Filling up questionnaires, acquired data was processed through SPSS 16.0 software and analyzed by statistical tests including Pearson's correlation coefficient, Chi-square test, Independent T-test, and Fisher exact test. Base on findings 40.5% of all participants were male and 59.5% were female. Age mean of contributors was 33.26 years (SD=8.03). 56.96% of participants had history of at least one needle stick injury and 22.15% of them had needle stick injury during last year. Injections were most common action resulted to exposure (24.44%) and recapping of needles was at second order (21.11%). 44.3% of participants were performing recapping of needles. Operation room had highest prevalence (18.9%) of needle stick injuries among all wards of hospital. Emergency ward and ICU were on next order (15.6%). Exposed people believed that the most important and basic reason for needle stick injuries was patients crowdedness and hospital chaos (37.8%). There was no relation between ages, gender, years of professional life, education level and needle stick injuries but men used latex gloves less than women and did recapping needles more than them. Age and years of professional life among exposed people were less than others. The NSIs in nursing workers of this hospital were less than similar studies in Iran significantly.

Nowadays, problem solving skills, clinical decision making ability and making a proper relationship to clients are essential necessities for nursing graduates, however there are few studies which investigated nursing student’ responses to clients with problematic situations based on nursing theories addressing interactions. The purpose of this study was analyzing the nursing students’ immediate responses to distressed clients’ behaviors focusing on collaborative Orlando’s theory. This exploratory study was assessed 60 nursing students’ responses to a simulated client’s questionnaire based on Orlando’s theory in 2008. All of the students were enrolling in bachelor degree of nursing. The data were analyzed by dimensional content analysis to specify the key categories according to concepts of Orlando’s theory. According to Orlando’s theory, students’ immediate responses to physical and mental problems of distressed clients were classified into 6 main categories: physical caring, uncertainty, assuring, recommending, asking information and explaining. The most frequent responses to clients’ behaviors were physical caring, assuring and recommending and most of the students were unable to respond to mental problems. Nursing students responded to clients’ needs automatically and they didn’t consider to patients’ authority in decision making. Medical diagnosis, physical caring and assuring were their main concerns and they were confused in responding to mental problems. Orlando’s theory emphasizes on nurse-client interactions and consider to nurses’ perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. It views to clients as a participant in caring, so teaching this theory can enhance students’ communication skills and improve quality of nursing care.

Occupational hazards of nursing jobs are much higher than other jobs and neglecting this fact may reduce the quality of nursing services. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between knowledge of ergonomic science and the occupational injuries among the nursing staff affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences. It was a cross-sectional analytical study on 423 nursing staff working in various medical centers affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences in 2008, selected by quota randomized sampling. Data collection instrument was Ergonomics Questionnaire, which consisted of 72 questions. Cronbach alpha for main sections of the questionnaire was 0.8, 0.8 and 0.9. Descriptive and analytical tests were used for data analysis and an alpha error of 5% was considered. 36.1% of the subjects had 5-10 years work experience; 61.9% of nurses had a good knowledge of ergonomic principles; 83% were exposed to a mild level of occupational hazards. There was no significant relationship between knowledge of ergonomics and occupational injuries (p = 0.08). The relationships between knowledge of ergonomics and age, gender, marital status, work experience, the type and the location of service were significant (p < 0.05). The relationship between occupational injuries and the age, work experience, employment type and location of the service of nurses were also statistically significant (p < 0.05). Training staff to do their job in the best way, giving breaks between long working hours, using appropriate tools and facilities and paying attention to the ergonomic consideration by authorities can provide a healthier work environment for nurses and optimize human resource efficiency.

BCKGROUND: Work-family conflict has many negative outcomes for organization and career and family life of each person. The aim of present study was to determine the relationship between work-family conflict and the level of self-efficacy in female nurses. In this cross-sectional descriptive research, the relationship between work-family conflict and the level of self-efficacy in female nurses of Alzahra Hospital was assessed. Questionnaire, demographic data form, work-family conflict scale and self-efficacy scale were the data collection tools. Content analysis and Cronbach alpha were used for evaluating the validity and reliability of results. The study sample included 160 nurses (80 permanent nurses and 80 contract-based nurses) selected through simple random sampling from nurses working in different wards of Alzahra Hospital. Data analysis was done using SPSS software. There was significant difference in work-family conflict between the two groups of permanent and contract-based nurses (p=0.02). Also, a significant difference in the level of self-efficacy was observed between the two groups of nurses (p=0.03). The level of self-efficacy and work-family conflict in contract-based nurses was not acceptable. Therefore, it is suggested to arrange courses to train effective skills in the field of management of work-family conflicts in order to increase the level of self-efficacy for contract-based nurses.