Nursing Practice Today
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Winter 2015

It goes without saying that there has been a great deal of development in nursing research in recent decades. The phenomenon is worldwide and is reflected in most of the international scientific journals that focus on nursing issues. The authors are from all over the world and the research reflects both national attempts to improve the knowledge base for nursing care as well as attempts to try to understand nursing care in an international perspective....

Today, one of the leading causes of pathogenicity and mortality in patients undergoing hemodialysis is their failure to follow the treatment plan. The present research was conducted to compare effects of patient-centered education with family-centered education on adherence with the treatment program.Methods & Materials: Methods & Materials: This clinical trial was performed between May-October 2012 in hemodialysis ward of Imam Khomeini and Amir-Alam hospital in Tehran, Iran. Research samples were 60 patients aged 18 - 65 years old, randomly assigned into two groups: training the patients (30 patients) and training the patients and one of close family member (30 people). Using a researcher made questionnaire, patients’ adherence (diet, pharmaceutical regimen and physical activity) was examined by self- reporting method in three stages (before intervention, 2 and 4 weeks after intervention). Data were analyzed using independent t test, Chi-square, and Fisher tests using SPSS software version 16. Prior to intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of adherence to diet program (p = 0.2, mean difference 25.8 ± 25.7), to pharmaceutical regimen (p=0.6, mean difference 1.96 ± 0.61) and physical activity (p = 0.7 mean difference 1.33 ± 0.66). After two weeks family-centered education group had significantly more adherence to the diet program (p = 0.001, mean difference 43.1 ± 11.1), pharmaceutical regimen (p=0.04, mean difference 2.72 ± 0.5) and physical activity (p = 0.035, mean difference2.41 ± 0.89), and total adherence score (p=0.03) in comparison with patient-centered education group. After four weeks just the adherence to pharmaceutical regimen showed significant difference between groups (p<0.001). The results of the study showed that the family-centered education is more effective than patient-centered education on patients’ adherence to the therapeutic program particularly pharmaceutical regimen, which suggests, by having family centered education in hemodyalisis patients, the outcome could be improved.

Spiritual care is an integral part of a holistic nursing care. Providing spiritual care has positive impact on patients’ health outcomes. Although nurses understand the importance of incorporating patient’s spiritual beliefs into the care practice, understanding their own spirituality before addressing spirituality of patients is also important. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine where their was a change in the undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions of spirituality care e following a spirituality teaching unit in the Bachelor of Nursing course delivered in the Australian context.Methods & Materials: A total of 113 nursing students completed the pre- and post-survey. The validated 32-item World Health Organization Quality of Life-Spirituality, Religiosity and Personal Belief questionnaire was used in this study. Data wee analysed using SPSS version 20 using descriptive statistics and paired t-test. There were significant differences in students’ perceptions of SRPB in all eight dimensions and total spirituality score. Significant differences were also found in students’ perceptions of the SRPB scores by religious beliefs (p<0.0005) and personal beliefs (p<0.0005), indicating students with strong religious and personal beliefs had strong SRPB scores. The integration of spirituality education in the undergraduate nursing program provided insights on spiritual teaching in nursing education.

Nurses professional values are standards for action and provide a framework for evaluating behaviors. This paper is the report of a study designed to assess the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Nurses Professional Values Scale - Revised (NPVS-R).Methods & Materials: This methodological study was carried out a university hospital in Izmir, the third most populous city in Turkey. The sample consisted of 228 nurses, who were recruited from January to August 2008. Data were collected with a socio-demographic form (11 questions) and the Turkish version of the NPVS-R (26 items). Many researchers in various countries have used NPVS-R to identify the professional values of nurses or nursing students. Content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and reliability were assessed. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Responses to the NPVS-R were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization resulted in four- factor solution explaning 52.41% of the common variance, and four factors named Professionalism, Caring, Activism and Trust. Findings supported internal consistency reliability of four factors with alpha coefficients from 0.72 to 0.86 and a total scale alpha coefficient of 0.92. Total-item correlation coefficients ranged from 0.38 to 0.71. The study findings showed that the Turkish version of the NPVS-R has a good structural characteristic and is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used for measuring professional values.

Childbirth related fear causes pregnant women to select cesarean section without a medical reason. The purpose of this study was to determine reasons for delivery related fear and associated factors in pregnant women.Methods & Materials: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 315 pregnant women who were in the last trimester. Participants were randomly recruited from an outpatient clinic of a state hospital in Çanakkale, Turkey, between March and May 2012. Data were collected using a socio-demographic information form and CRF Information Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were performed to identify frequency of delivery related fear and associated factors. Data were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, frequency and Chi-square test using SPSS version 16. The mean age of the pregnant women was 26.67±5.62 years and the mean gestational week of the women was 34.02±4.22. Of 315 women, 53.7% had cesarean section, 30.8% had vaginal birth, 34% had prenatal education, 69.8% had knowledge about birth, 66% were influenced by prenatal education positively, 62.5% had delivery-related fear and 27% of them stated that this fear was related to loss of their babies. About forty percent of the women talked to their mothers about childbirth and 70.2% of these women were affected positively by these conversations, 24.1% of the women heard about bad birth experiences and 69.7% of the women were affected negatively by these experiences.There was a significant relationship between delivery related fear and age, education, income, the number of pregnancies, problems in pregnancy, planning of pregnancy, prenatal health monitoring visits, getting information related to birth, being influenced by this information, talking about birth with people and hearing about bad birth experiences (p<0.05). Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that pregnant women need to get appropriate information from health professionals to deal with childbirth related fear.

Berg Balance Scale is one of the most applied tests to identify high risk elderly people for fall. Fall is a common health problem among community senior citizens. Diagnostic test to identify high-risk elderly people can prevent or alleviate falls. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of Berg Balance Scale to predict falls among elderly community dwellers.Methods & Materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted among elderly community dwellers in Shahroud, Semnan Providence, Iran. In this study, 1312 elderly individuals were registered for the study, 455 of them were randomly selected as qualified participants. This study is a validity investigation on Berg Balance Scale among elderly community dwellers. To validate the BBS, researchers assessed validity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, positive and negative likelihood ratio The findings of this study showed that 243 subjects were male and 212 subjects were female. The mean age of subjects’ were 71.45±9.25 years. This study showed sensitivity and specificity of. 63 and. 97, respectively. According to the findings of the study, Positive Likelihood Ratio and Negative Likelihood Ratio were calculated as 9.57 and. 39, respectively. The results of the study are in harmony with the hypothesis to design the test, i.e. Berg Balance Scale have acceptable accuracy to identify high-risk community elderly people for falls. However, other influential factors such as personal and environmental variables are necessary to consider for prediction of falls.