Journal of

Background and Aim: Work engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Since the quality of care delivery to patients depends on nurse's practices, the objective of this study was to determine work engagement & its effective factors among nurses of general hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was performed among 273 in-patient nurses of Namazi and Faghihi hospitals using 2 stages of sampling. Our questionnaire was validated by experts opinions and Cronbach's alpha index (86%). Descriptive statistics and correlation tests were used for the analysis of data by SPSS.

Results: According to the results obtained, mean work engagement was 58.95 ± 10.51 and there was a significant correlation between work engagement and organizational - supervisor support, organizational justice, job characteristics, reward & recognition, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, turnover( p<0.05). The relationship between work engagement and reward was the strongest(r=0.512).

Conclusion: The results imply the importance of work engagement and its related factors. Nurses are one of the biggest health system groups, and their burnout disadvantages hospitals and community. Thus, work engagement should be noticed in all policy-making related to nurses.

Background and Aim: Recognition of expectations and perceptions of customers is essential for quality improvement . The aim of this study was to determine the quality gap of educational services in the viewpoints of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) educational administrators, faculty members and medical students.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at TUMS in 2012 among educational administrators, faculty members and students of medicine. A total of 384 students, 384 faculty members and 83 administrators were selected randomly. The five-dimensional SERVQUAL questionnaire was applied for data collection. The educational services quality gap was determined based on the differences between administrators , faculty members and students΄ perceptions and expectations. Descriptive and analytic (one-way ANOVA) statistics were performed using SPSS v.18.

Results: The results show that there is a negative quality in all five dimensions of educational services quality. Among all three groups of students, faculty members and administrators, the maximum means of quality gap pertained the dimension of “responsiveness” (-1.42,-1.17,-1.09, respectively) the minimum figures, however, were related to “confidence” (-1.07,-0.87,-0.77, respectively).

Conclusion : In all aspects, students, faculty members and administrators’ expectations were higher than their perception of the current situation. To reduce the gap, it is recommended that attention be paid to all aspects of service quality, particularly to the responsiveness dimension. Also, better planning to serve employees and enhancing their communication skills are suggested as ways to reduce the educational services quality gap.