Journal of

Background and Aim: Organizations have to establish modern management systems to progress and to obtain maturity. One of the techniques which started in Europe in the last two decades and is considered in management area of country during recent years is the model of organizational promotion (EFQM). The purpose of this study was Performance Evaluation of Rajaei Hospital Based on «EFQM» Organizational Excellence Model.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in year 2010 in Qazvin Rajai Hospital. Data collection tool, was EFQM organization Excellence Model questionnaire which was completed by all the managers. Validity and reliability of questionnaire was calculated. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Results indicated that this hospital has acquired 99.183 scores out of 500 in enablers factor(88.36 percent of optimum score). Also has gained 183.71 scores out of 500 (36/75 percent of optimum score). Overall, this hospital has obtained 366.7 scores out of 1000 as the total score in the model for performance evaluation in year 2010.

Conclusion: Findings indicated that based on Excellence model criteria, this hospital is in a moderate level. Applying this model for Iranian hospitals which often meet serious problems in this area is informative and practical. Strong systematic view, paying attention to organizational process-based management and being result-oriented are advantageous of using this model.

 Background and Aim: Today, many families either have pets or work in animal husbandry units. It is very important to investigate the mental outcomes of animal care and also to study their keepers’ personality traits. This study aims to perform a comparative examination of owners’ mental health and character specifications or those of animal husbandry units’ personnel.

 Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, about 500 people were selected through available sampling technique. They had contact with animals or worked in a husbandry unit in the suburbs of Tehran. After referring to the veterinary clinic of Tehran University, they were studied using a general health questionnaire and an international personality question bank. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software as well as multivariate and follow-up tests.

Results: The results of the present study show that all general mental health sub-scales except for anxiety are different in these groups. However, no difference was observed regarding responsibility and extroversion. Meanwhile, the adaptability of dog owners was lower than that of sheep owners moreover, cattlemen were more irritable than sheep owners.

Conclusion : In sum, the mental health of pet owners of the present study is at a lower level compared to that of those in other countries. It seems that the difference is due to religious and cultural differences existing between the two.

Background and Aim: The Effectiveness and success of an organization depends on two factors one is the employees’ Performances and the other is the level of understanding between managers and employees in prioritize of different job motivators. The aim of this study was to determine factors that affect staffs’ performances in Qazvin teaching hospitals based on the Herzberg’s theory.

Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive study. To achieve the main aim of this study, one hundred and ten employees were selected through a multi- stage sampling method .In this study, for data collection a self-report questionnaire was used. The five-point Likert scale was used to determine the degree of importance of any hygiene and multinational's factors affecting the performance of the employees.

Results: Among hygiene factors, the prevailing place was for Job security with an average 4/39 and then followed by a suitable salary with an average 4/38 of 5 scores. Among multinational's factors, job responsibility with an average 4/38 and job interest with an average 4/38 were placed as the most important factors in employees’ performance. %70/8 employees mentioned that two factors of suitable salary and job security are the most important obstacle for improvement of employee’s performance.

Conclusion : The data of this study reveals that, Attention and Planning in providing

 proper salary and job security as hygiene factors and sense of responsibility and success as motivational factors, may play a more effective role in improving employees’ performance than any other factors.

Background and Aim: Purchasing hospital equipment is one of the most important decisions made by managers and health professionals. Gray systems theory is an approach to deal with issues under uncertainty conditions where decision makers are facing a small number of unspecified data. The purpose of this paper is to apply the gray theory for the purchase of anesthesia machine .

Materials and Methods: This study was a survey in which mathematical analysis was used. Data collection devices included documents, interviews and questionnaires. In order to solve multiple criteria decision making in uncertain conditions, a model based on gray system theory was used. Data analysis was performed using Excel software.

Results: The findings show that among anesthetic equipment bought by public and private hospitals, brand A is superior to other brands. However, the gray possibility degree for the other brands is significantly different from brand A.

Conclusion: In addition to helping to purchase anesthetic equipment for hospitals, the results of this study are also useful for companies manufacturing medical equipment to evaluate their situation in terms of the studied criteria and take appropriate measures to develop their strengths and improve their weaknesses.

Background and Aim: Lung cancer is the most common cancer among men around the world. The aim of this study was to determine the expression levels of CK19 mRNA marker in the affected patients’ peripheral blood.

Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with lung cancer (NSCLC type) were compared with 30 healthy controls. After taking peripheral blood samples and extracting total RNA, cDNA was synthesized and examined by Real-time RT-PCR technique. Then, the CEA antigen was measured by ELISA.

Results: The CK19mRNA was positive in 7 out of 30 lung cancer patients. Hence, its sensitivity was determined to be 23.3 %. The serum level of CEA antigen was positive in 11 out of 30 lung cancer patients. The mean serum level of CEA antigen markers was higher in patients than in controls; the difference was statistically significant (P< 0.001). The sensitivity of this test was determined to be 36.6 %.

Conclusion: This study showed that the sensitivity of CK19 mRNA in peripheral blood was low, but it had a high specificity for the diagnosis of primary lung cancer. Also, it was found that CEA antigen could be the specific marker for the early detection of lung cancer in patients’ peripheral blood.

Background and Aim: Nurses’ main tasks include the provision of healthcare services at the highest levels of quality and quantity standards, and based on the findings of scientific research. The aim of the present study is to identify and determine the barriers of evidence-based practice among nurses of Qazvin hospitals, in Iran, at 2013.

Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional research was a descriptive- analytic study conducted among 260 nurses practicing in six hospitals of Qazvin in 2013. The barriers scale questionnaire developed by Funk, et al. was used to examine the four dimensions of evidence-based practice (EBP) barriers including adopter, organization, innovation and communication characteristics. To analyze the data, descriptive and analytic statistics were used.

Results: The mean score of EBP barriers among subjects was 3.07 out of 4. Among the barriers, "organization" and "adopter" dimensions had the highest and lowest mean scores, respectively. There was no significant statistical relationship between gender and EBP performance, But a significant relationship was observed between organizational dimension with age, employment type and work experience.

Conclusion: Since “organization” was found to be the main  barrier to  the use of research in nursing performance, policy-makers and administrators should pay attention to the use of research in performance, the establishment of a research culture in organization, the creation of appropriate infrastructures, and the allocation of sufficient time to the nursing personnel to have access to evidences.