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Background & Aim: Pressure ulcers are a common complication in patients hospitalized in intensive care units. This complication continues to be a major problem in all health care systems and reflects the quality of nursing care in hospitals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between nurses’ knowledge and quality of nursing care for prevention of pressure ulcers in intensive care units.

Methods & Materials: This was a descriptive correlational study on a purposive sample of 92 nurses employed in intensive care units of four hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Data were collected through a questionnaire containing demographic and occupational information, the Pieper’s nursing knowledge questionnaire, and a checklist to assess the quality of nursing care for prevention of pressure ulcers. Descriptive and inferential statistics (independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation) were used to analyze data on SPSS software v. 21. The level of significance was considered at P≤0.05.

Results: The study results showed that the average score of nurses’ knowledge of pressure ulcers prevention was a total of 75.7±6.9. The quality of nursing care in more than half of cases (54.3%) was relatively favorable. There was no significant correlation between nurses’ knowledge and the quality of nursing care for pressure ulcers (P=0.86, r=0.01).

Conclusion: In addition to inadequate knowledge of pressure ulcers prevention, the nurses did not fully implement what they knew in clinical practices. Therefore, a more accurate evaluation is recommended in this regard.

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Background & Aim: Moral courage is a virtue that helps people overcome their fears and limitations and make the right decision and take the right action when encountering any situations. Due to the nature of their profession, nurses daily face many moral issues, and their correct decisions and performances require moral courage. The aim of this study was to determine the moral courage of nurses employed in hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Methods & Materials: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015. The research population was composed of nurses employed in hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The study samples were 155 people. The moral courage questionnaire of Sekerka and colleagues (2009) was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA on the SPSS software v.22.

Results: The mean score of moral courage of nurses was 63.72±5.91 (15-75). The highest and lowest mean scores were for the dimensions of moral agency (13.73±1.22) and endures threats (11.40±1.80) respectively. The work experiences of nurses had a significant positive relationship with moral courage and beyond compliance (P<0.05).

Conclusion: In this study, moral courage of nurses was at a desirable level. According to the findings, while taking steps to strengthen this virtue, we could strengthen nurses’ moral reasoning to make right decisions and perform ethical practices. In addition, strengthening nurses’ moral courage and reasoning can help them play their role as the patient advocate.

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Background & Aim: Error always occurs in the health system and it can lead to irreparable consequences. Therefore, error prevention must be taken into account by the health systems. Detection of factors contributing to error is a key factor for the prevention of error. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore factors contributing to nursing error in emergency department.

Methods & Materials: This study was conducted using a qualitative approach. 17 emergency nurses participated in this study. Semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. Sampling was started as the purposive sampling and continued until the saturation of data was reached. Data were analyzed using the Elo & Kyngas (2008) qualitative content analysis approach. To achieve trustworthiness, participants were selected with maximum variation in terms of age, gender, work experience, and educational background.

Results: The analysis of data led to the emergence of 500 open codes and four categories including the predisposing factors of nurse-related error, predisposing factors of organization-related error, predisposing factors of error related to the culture of emergency department and predisposing factors of patient-related error.

Conclusion: Factors contributing to nursing errors in emergency department were very wide and multifactorial. Identifying the factors contributing to error is a first step to prevent errors. For reducing nursing error, nursing managers should pay special attention to the contributing factors of error identified by this study and implement interventions to reduce and mitigate these factors.

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Background & Aim: Cancer as one of the most common illnesses in the world is associated with mental, physical, social and financial problems, which affects not only the patients, but also the family caregivers and creates a burden of care. Some studies have shown that spiritual well-being is effective in reducing the burden of care. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the correlation between spiritual well-being and burden of care in family caregivers of cancer patients.
Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional correlational study, 150 family caregivers of cancer patients referred to Taleghani, Shohadaye Tajrish, Masih Daneshvari and Imam Hossein hospitals in Tehran were selected by the convenience sampling method from August to November 2017. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients, independent t-test, analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: The mean and standard deviation of spiritual well-being score and burden of care were 90.36±17.70 and 25.54±11.79, respectively. There was a significant relationship between spiritual well-being (and its components including religious well-being and existential well-being) and burden of care (r=-0.421, P˂0.001). The result of regression test showed that spiritual well-being significantly predicted the burden of care.
Conclusion: The burden of care is experienced by family caregivers during caring for cancer patients, which is related to their spiritual well-being. Therefore, paying attention to the spiritual well-being of these caregivers is emphasized.