Journal of Hayat

Knowledge and the attitude of the nurses in Imam Khomeini Complex Hospital about pre and post-death cares

F Vasegh Rahimparvar

Introduction: Death of a patient is an unavoidable stage of nursing and in many cases nurse is the only person who takes care of the patient at the time of death. An experienced and committed nurse obliges her/himself to care for the patient before and after death in the best way possible.

Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive study that carried out in order to determine knowledge and attitude of the nurses about pre and post-death cares. The samples were 227 nurses of Imam Khomeini Complex Hospital. The number of subjects chosen from each hospital was proportional to the number of nurses of that hospital. The samples were selected randomly. Data were collected by a questionnaire, validity of which was confirmed by content validity and reliability of it was confirmed by test-retest method. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics.

Results: Results showed that in majority of the nurses level of knowledge about pre-death cares was moderate and was poor about post-death cares. The majority of the nurses had a positive attitude about pre-death cares and a relatively positive attitude about post-death cares. There was not any sample with negative attitude about pre or post-death cares.

Conclusion: Regarding the undesirable level of knowledge and positive attitude of the nurses under study concerning pre and post-death cares and considering that the necessity for improving the knowledge is training and education, the results of this research can help authorities to provide training and educational programs for enhancing nurses’ knowledge regarding pre- and post-death cares.

Depression and infertility: evaluation of 681 infertile women using Beck depression inventory

A Khademi

Introduction: Infertility and depression are major problems of today&aposs societies. Although depression is one of the most prevalent diseases in primary care practice, consult for receiving help is carried out much less than true prevalence of the disease. Therefore gathering information about prevalence and risk factors of depression is very valuable. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) which is a screening tool for depression can be used in Iranian patients because of availability of a validated translation. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression in infertile subjects in an infertility center.

Materials and Methods: In this study, 681 infertile women were evaluated in Shariati Hospital, Tehran. Demographic information’s including age, duration, type and cause of infertility, level of education, previous treatments and smoking habits were recorded. BDI was completed by patients and score was estimated. Score of 16 and higher was assumed positive.

Results: There was no relationship between age and prevalence of positive BDI score, but prevalence of positive BDI score was higher in infertilities of longer duration, infertilities caused by both male and female factors and in patients with low level of education and history of previous treatment or surgical therapy.

Conclusion: Infertile patients are at risk of depression. Rate of consulting with psychiatrists and getting help is low in our country due to cultural aspects, so screening of high risk subgroups in infertile patients and referring them to psychiatrist would be very helpful.

Parent’s satisfaction of infant health care

M Pakgohar

Introduction: Evaluation of health care services is an essential step in improving health care quality and without it such an improvement could not be achieved.

Material and Methods: In this descriptive study, parent’s satisfaction of child’s health care in the health and treatment centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences was evaluated. Four hundred parents who had attended 25 health and treatment centers were participated in this research. A questionnaire was completed through the interview with parents of 1 to 12 months old children. Analytical and descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of data.

Results: The finding of this study showed that the majority of parents had average levels of satisfaction concerning communication’s skills of health care providers and high levels of satisfaction about availability of these cares. Satisfaction of parents in the section of the vaccination was high and majority of samples had average levels of satisfaction about growth monitoring of children. There was a relationship between infant&aposs age and parent’s satisfaction.

Conclusion: Based on these findings recommendations have been made for future research. The findings of this study can be utilized in public health planning in order to improve the quality of the infant’s health care services.

Effect of education on the knowledge and applying folic acid supplement in women at reproductive ages

M Mirmohammadaliei

Introduction: Folic acid is one of the most important vitamins for women of reproductive ages, especially before conception and during pregnancy. Many researches have shown the role of folic acid in prevention of fetal malformations especially neural tube defects, anemia, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

Material and Methods: This research is a semi-experimental study. A sample of 130 married women at reproductive ages (15-45 year) referring to health centers in Kermanshah was selected randomly. The tool for collecting data was questionnaire. After filling the pretest questionnaire, each woman participated in a face to face 15 minutes educational session. Two weeks later the same questionnaire was filled by the participant. To analyze the data, the descriptive statistics, frequency distribution charts, the mean and central tendency as well as validating statistics (2 test and t test) was used.

Results: The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in amount of knowledge (p 0.0001, t=-27.381) and the amount of usage (p=0.0001, 2 = 42.968) of folic acid supplement before and after education. This difference was more prominent in women between 25-29 years of age, self-employed, with diploma degree, housewives, having diploma holding husbands and first time pregnancies.

Conclusion: The amount of information and usage of folic acid supplement increased significantly after education. This finding reveals the importance of health education and the important role of health personnel such as midwives. Therefore, it is suggested that women of reproductive ages be informed of importance of taking folic acid supplement.

Survey of causes of faculty nursing documentation

N Hanifi

Introduction: Documentation of nursing care and procedures is an evidence of performance and quality of these cares. Failure to document could be a sign of inadequate care performance.

Method and Materials: This study was carried out to determine causes of inadequate nursing documentation in wards of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Zanjan, in 2003. This study was a descriptive survey a checklist was designed according to standard principles of nursing documentation which was validated by 10 academic members. Patients&apos files were assessed based on this checklist. Also, 20 nurses were interviewed (open question) to determine of causes of incorrect nursing documentation.

Results: The results showed that 17% of items of checklist had been documented correctly, documentation’s of 35.81% of these items were incomplete and 48% of items had not been documented. The interviews showed that the inadequate nursing documentation was related to inattention to these documentation’s and lack of control of nursing documentation, work overload of nurses, educational problems and unawareness of legal and occupational issues.

Conclusion: Documentation of nursing care was inadequate. The most important causes were inattention and lack of control. Considering importance of nursing documentation, ways to solve these problems must be sought.

Survey study of effective factors on maternal mortality in Kurdestan province from 1998 to 2002

Sh Golyan Tehrani

Introduction: Pregnancy is a natural phenomena and basis of birth but can induce various dangers to mother and fetus. Since mother is the central part of family, maternal mortality would be an irreparable damage to the community. On average 10100 live births and 12 maternal mortalities occur in Kurdestan province each year the maternal mortality rate is therefore 118/100000 live births which in comparison to similar figure in whole country (37/100000 live births) is three times higher.

Materials and Methods: This research is an analytic case-control study. Cases and controls were matched for place of residence and age at gestation. Cases (n=55) were chosen by census and controls (n=220) were chosen by random sampling. The tool used to collect data was questionnaire, validity and reliability of which was tested by content validity and test-retest method. The statistical testing used in this study were Chi square and odds ratio. Data were analyzed by SPSS .11 software.

Results: Most of maternal mortalities had occurred in women 18-35 years of age, illiterate and living in rural areas. Marivan had the highest maternal mortality compared to other surveyed cities (29.1%). Prenatal care (OR= 22.7), parturition agent (OR= 9.85), use of one of the method of family planning (OR= 2.5) and parturition method (OR= 2.3) had meaningful relationship with maternal mortality.

Conclusion: According to findings of this research, it is possible to decrease the maternal mortality by improving prenatal care and family planning and preventing parturition by uneducated midwives and avoiding unnecessary cesarian sections.

A comparative investigation on health behaviors of students in primary schools with and with out health educator

S Jolaee

Introduction: Children&aposs health is an important issue in activities of many international organizations. To prepare the children to understand and practice the ways of healthy life, the schools should play their important role by planning and performing effective health education programs.

Materials and Methods: This research is an analytical-descriptive study. The samples included 330 students who were selected through multistage stratified sampling method. The data was gathered by a questionnaire and were analyzed by using the inferential and descriptive statistics.

Results: The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between health behaviors of students in schools with and without health educators in the domains of eye and skin health, nutrition, sleep, rest and physical activity, but there was a significant difference between health behaviors related to ear (2=8.58, p=0.014) and tooth (2=9.35, p=0.009) the students with educator had healthier ear and tooth behaviors than students who didn&apost have educator. In the domain of mouth and tooth the girls had healthier behaviors than boys. In the domain of physical activity the boys had better health behaviors than girls, having educator or not.

Conclusion: Overall, there was no significant difference between health behaviors of students in schools with and without health educators. Formation of healthy behaviors is a multifactorial issue and survey of all factors and variables affecting health behaviors can provide clearer measures for planning the health education programs and optimum usage of resources, manpower, budget and time to promote awareness and performance of health behaviors in schools.

Hypertension screening in truck drivers

Z Taraghi

Introduction: Hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Truck drivers are more exposed to hypertension due to sedentary life style and consequent obesity, improper food, job stress and high prevalence of cigarette smoking.

Materials and Methods: In this study, after completing a questionnaire by interview, the blood pressures of 122 members of ::::union:::: of truck drivers of Sari, Northern Iran, were measured in two separate occasions. Measurement of blood pressure in all drivers was performed from right arm by using a digital automatic OMRON sphygmomanometer. In order to measure correctly, guidelines of American Heart Association were noted. Analyze of data was performed by SPSS software and descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and Pearson correlation were used.

Results: Analyze of data showed that most of truck drivers (59.1%) were overweight and 14.8% of them were obese. Mean of BMI was 25.5 (standard deviation 4.65). Around 48.3% were smoker, 61.5% didn’t have physical activity and 36.9% had hypertension, which was mostly mild to moderate. Mean systolic blood pressure was 135.08 (standard deviation 17.44) and mean diastolic blood pressure was 82.86 (standard deviation 8.16). Seventy seven percent of hypertensive patients were not aware of their problem. Statistical tests showed that there was a significant correlation between job history, BMI and hypertension.

Conclusion: Regarding high incidence of hypertension in truck drivers, it seems that similar studies must be done in other long-distance drivers, such as bus drivers, and their blood pressures must be assessed at least once a year.

Use of Disaster Management Computerized Simulation System in a teaching hospital of Tehran University of Medical Sciences

J Nasl Seraji

Introduction: With a dramatic increase in costly mass casualty incidents over the past few decades, disaster planning and preparedness now represent a prominent part of health care policy and practice. Administration of computer technologies, including computerized simulation techniques, in hospitals can improve management of future incidents.

Materials and Methods: In this research, we used SIMAN/ARENA software of disaster management in one of the teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Data about the patients&apos need for specific surgeries, possibility of re-operation, length of operations and necessary equipment’s including number of operating rooms and staff, imaging facilities and treatment stations in emergency department were collected. Two teams took part in this program: a simulation team and the hospital staff team. Both teams were trained before taking part in this study.

Results: With the help of simulation system, the simulation team created various preplanned “events” and simulated in and out hospital situations. Hospital staff team reacted to these situations and was able to recognize and solve various problems in different critical points in hospital by using different tactical means.

Conclusion: Simulation technique used in this limited scale drill was useful in evaluating and improving preparedness of hospitals for managing a multi-casualty incident. The current system can be used in all hospitals in Iran to improve preparedness for receiving victims of a multi-casualty incident.

Impact of education of partogramm on quality of midwifery’s care

M Modarres

Introduction: According to WHO, prolonged labour is one of the most important causes of maternal and newborn mortality. This study was carried out to assess the impact of education of partogramm on quality of midwifery’s care.

Materials and Methods: This survey was a quasi experimental study with one group pretest-posttest design which was carried out in some of governmental hospitals in Tehran in 2002. Subjects were 53 midwives who were working in different hospitals. The data was collected with an special questionnaire, WHO’s partogramm, and a check list to assess quality of midwifery care in labour. Result were analyzed with SPSS software.

Results: The findings showed that after education of partogramm a statistically significant improvement occurred in recording of twelve of fifteen variables including fetal heart rate, condition of amniotic fluid, vaginal bleeding, vital signs of mother, urine examination, drugs and fluid use, correct plotting of cervical dilatation, correct movement of dilatation graph to alert line, number of vaginal exams, recording time of rupture of membranes and time of amniotomy (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate education of partogramm has a positive effect an quality of midwifery’s care and emphasis important of its education to midwifery’s students