Introduction: Nowadays continuing education is considered an essential part of nursing education. This study was planned to evaluate the effect of continuing education of neonatal intensive care nursing on knowledge and the practice of nurses who were working in the children’s hospitals.

Materials and Methods: A semi-experimental study was carried out including 42 nurses of the children’s hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences during 18 months in 1999- 2000. The data were collected by a questionnaire and a checklist. The questionnaire included demographic information and 60 multichoices questions based on the knowledge of the neonatal intensive care nursing. The observation checklist contained 5 parts, how to establish: resuscitation operation, endotracheal suction, management of the patient under mechanical ventilation, nasogastric tube insertion and feeding by gavage. At the end of the training courses the questionnaire and the checklist were completed again individually. The result of the pre and post tests and checklist were compared in the areas of knowledge and practice. The data was analyzed by 2 and paired t Student test.

Results: Statistical analysis showed a meaningful difference in the knowledge and practice after the continuing nursing education (p<00001).               

Conclusion: This research revealed the positive effect of the continuing nursing education on the knowledge and the practice of the nurses who were working in the pediatric wards. It is important to consider the continuing nursing education program to promote the health care system.

Introduction: Education of patients and helping them to be independent in process of self-care in both health and disease is one of the basic responsibilities of nurses.

Methods and Materials: This descriptive-analytic research was done to study perceptions of 317 nurses working in hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences of factors affecting the process of patient education. Data was gathered by means of a questionnaire containing 30 questions about facilitating factors and 17 about inhibiting factors. We used Likert score to measure questions. Data analysis performed by SPSS software. Statistical test were Chi square, t test, variance analysis and correlation of variance.

Results: The highest percentage of nurses (52.1%) believed that enough attention is not being paid to facilitating factors such as considering patient education as priority in patient care, nurses being responsible for patient education, considering patient education as a criteria in nurses annual evaluation, importance of patient education for nurse administrators, having in-service education about patient teaching and having proper time, place and personnel for patient education. Majority of nurses (57.4%) believed factors such as shortage of nurses, lack of proper place, time and patient motivation for receiving education, nurses and nurse administrators’ inattention to patient education and negative attitude of doctors toward patient education by nurses are inhibiting factors in process of education. Statistical tests showed a meaningful relation between demographic variables such as sex, clinical background, shift work and position and facilitating factors. There was also a meaningful relation between variables like working in more than one shift, having clinical experience of patient education and being evaluated for patient education during study of nursing and inhibiting factors.      

Conclusion: This study shows low level of facilitating factors for patient education in hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Science. To improve patient education in these hospitals it is necessary to improve facilitating factors.

Introduction: It is necessary to understand that psychological reactions after a natural disaster are as complex as disaster itself. Following a catastrophic earthquake like Bam’s, such reactions can be seen in nursing team members as well.

Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive cross sectional analytic research, conducted with cooperation of Japanese Nursing Association to identify somatic and psychological problems of nursing team members of Bam. A total of 92 members of nursing team affiliated to healthcare centers of Bam were studied. Data collection tools were 2 questionnaires first for evaluating demographic characteristics and general health and second- questionnaire of Goldberg and Williams- for evaluation of four domains of psychosomatic problems, anxiety and insomnia, psychosocial functioning and severe depression. Each domain contained seven questions, each scored from 0 to 3 based on Likert score. Complete score of general health was 0-84. Scores were classified in four groups: 0-20 as optimal, 21-4 as approximately optimal, 41-6 as approximately suboptimal and 61 and higher as suboptimal.

Results: One year after the earthquake, evaluation of general health of nursing team members showed 30.3% of subjects had optimal psychosomatic status, 34.8% had moderate problems of anxiety and insomnia, 40.2% had approximately optimal psychosocial functioning and 44.2% of subjects were not severely depressed. Overall, 38.4% of nursing team members had approximately optimal general health.

Conclusion: This study showed that following a catastrophic earthquake, most of the victims suffer from several psychological and somatic reactions. In addition to on time rescue procedures, other important allaying factors are cultural and religious values and believing in God.

Background & Aim: High frequency of traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries in one hand and improvement of the health care condition to restore patient&aposs life in the other hand has increased the frequency of comatose patients in ICU. These patients often experience physical, cognitive, behavior or sensory defects, and the sensory input reduction in intensive care units expose them to cognition disorders. It seems that using sensory stimulation programs may be effective in preventing from sensory deprivation and facilitating recovery process.

Methods & Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 30 comatose patients who were hospitalized in ICU in Shariati and Sina hospitals were sought to be studied. The subjects were selected randomly using matching that was placed in case and control group. In the intervention group, patients received an auditory stimulation for 2 weeks, 6 days of a week, 2 times a day. The auditory stimulator was a recorded tape (5-10 minutes) of a familiar voice for 30 minutes. The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was used for measuring the level of consciousness (LOC). LOC was measured before and after each intervention 4 times a day. The control group LOC was measured in a similar manner to the case group. At the same time, homodynamic symptoms (blood pressure, pulse rate, and mean arterial pressure) were measured. Non-parametric test was used for analyzing data. The data was analyzed through SPSS V.11.5 computer software.

Results: The findings indicated that there was a significant difference in LOC of the intervention group at the first day and after fourteen days of the intervention (P<0.001), but not in the control group (P=0.769). Although 2 groups were similar in LOC of the first day (P=0.605) but there were a significant difference between their LOC at the fourteenth day (P=0.001).

Conclusion: The results showed that the auditory stimulations with familiar voice were effective in increasing LOC in the comatose patients. It is suggested that nurses expose comatose patients with auditory stimulations using a recorded tape of familiar voice in ICU.

Background & Aim: Increasing understanding of death anxiety among different cultures and patient populations is critical to provide quality patient care. Researchers who investigate death anxiety, are looking for a reliable and valid instrument compatible with culture in order to achieve this goal. The aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale-Extended (TDAS-E) among a sample of chemical veterans of Iran–Iraq warfare.

Methods & Materials: In this methodological study, 300 veterans completed the Persian version of the 51-item TDAS-E in 2015. The face, content and construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity) of the TDAS-E were assessed. Also, its reliability was measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, construct reliability and intra correlation coefficient.

Results: Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted four stable distinct factors including fear of the hereafter, fear of facing death, fear of the shortness of life, fear of dying following an incident and mishap. The fitness of the four-factor model of the Templer’s death anxiety construct was approved based on standard indices (c²/df=2.832, GFI=.915, AGFI=.873, PCFI=.657, PNFI=.612, RMSEA=.078). Discriminant and convergent validity of all factors were acceptable. Also, scale reliability was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.88), construct reliability (higher than 0.70) and intra correlation coefficient (0.87).

Conclusion: The results of the current study revealed that the four-factor construct of TDAS-E had suitable validity and reliability among Iranian chemical warfare veterans. Given the proper psychometric properties, this scale can be used in future research to evaluate death anxiety in this population.

Background & Aim: Increasing understanding of death anxiety among different cultures and illness populations is critical to provide quality patient care. Researchers who investigate death anxiety, are looking for a reliable and valid instrument compatible with culture in order to achieve this goal. The aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale-Extended (TDAS-E) among a sample of chemical veterans of Iran–Iraq warfare.

Methods & Materials: In this methodological study, 300 veterans completed the Persian version of the 51-item TDAS-E in 2015. The face, content and construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity) of the TDAS-E were assessed. Also, its reliability was measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, construct reliability and intra correlation coefficient.

Results: Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted four stable distinct factors including fear of the hereafter, fear of facing death, fear of the shortness of life, fear of dying following an incident and mishap. The fitness of the four-factor model of the Templer’s death anxiety construct was approved based on standard indices (c²/df=2.832, GFI=.915, AGFI=.873, PCFI=.657, PNFI=.612, RMSEA=.078). Discriminant and convergent validity of all factors were acceptable. Also, scale reliability was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.88), construct reliability (higher than 0.70) and intra correlation coefficient (0.87).

Conclusion: The results of the current study revealed that the four-factor construct of TDAS-E had suitable validity and reliability among Iranian chemical warfare veterans. Given the proper psychometric properties, this scale can be used in future research to evaluate death anxiety in this population.