Asian Journal of Nursing Education and Research

Abstract

Background: Palliative care requires nurses to be knowledgeable about and maintain a positive attitude towards different aspects of care they provide for dying patients. This study thus was conducted to examine the correlation between nurses' knowledge about and attitude towards palliative care in southeast Iran.

Method: For this descriptive correlational study, Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (PCQN) and a selfadministered questionnaire were used to assess respectively the palliative care knowledge and attitudes of 140 oncology and ICU nurses from three hospitals supervised by Kerman University of Medical Science.

Results: In PCQN, the mean score was 7.59±2.28 out of 20. Participants had moderately negative to neutral attitudes toward palliative care (2.99±0.29 out of 5). There was a significant correlation between the subscale of "management of pain of and other symptoms" in PCQN and participants' length of experience caring for a dying family member. A significant correlation was found between nurses' attitudes toward palliative care and palliative care education, personal study about palliative care, level of education, and experience of caring for a dying family member. No correlation was found between nurses' knowledge about and attitude towards palliative care.

Conclusions: The study suggests that a continuing palliative care education may need to be added to the nursing curriculum in order to improve the quality of care at the end of life. Establishing specific palliative care units and creating a reflective narrative environment in which nurses can express their own feelings about palliative care and can improve palliative care knowledge and attitude.

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Objective: When a premature infant is hospitalized, parents experience lots of stresses. So, nursing support is needed to reduce parent's stresses. Specifying parent's stress and nursing support can be useful for improving quality of care. Thus the current study was conducted to examine the relationship between parental stress and nursing support.

Methods: In this study descriptive correlational design was employed. Using NPST (Nurse Parent Support Tool) and PSS (Parent Stressor Scale) questionnaires perceived nursing support and parenteral stress of 154 parents (77mothers and 77 fathers) of hospitalized premature infants in NICU of Afzalipur hospital in Kerman - Iran was evaluated. Data analysis was done with spss19.

Findings: Results showed that there was a negative correlation between nursing support and stress in category of "emotional support and parental role alteration"(P=0.009, r=0.209). Results revealed that in all categories of NPST mothers received more nursing support than fathers. While, in all category of PSS except "infant's appearance and behavior" fathers stress was more than mothers. Generally, fathers experienced more stress and receive less support.

Conclusion: According to the results nursing support can reduce parental stress. Hence, to providing high quality care it is necessary for nurses to be aware of individual differences and stressors of newborn parents' in neonatal intensive care unit.

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Background and Objectives: In the recent studies about patient family needs in deference society and cultures, a consensus has done about patient family needs definition. Inadequate attention to the needs of patient family causes inappropriate and incoherence care and increases conflict between patient family and caregivers. Attention to the needs of family of patients who are in crisis can lead to increase their sense of trust and support and can help them in getting their decisions in relation to their patient health. The aim of this study was comparison of the perception of nurses and families of patients admitted to the ICUs about the needs of families of patients in ICUs.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive comparative study which conducted in Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Convenience sampling was used and patient families of patients who admitted to ICUs and nurses who work in ICUs were participated in the study. The Critical Care Family Needs Inventory was used to data gathering. The patient families and nurses' socio- demographic data were gathered as well. Data analyses were done by using SPSS version 18. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used.

Results: Totally 105 patient families of ICU patients and 105 ICU nurses were participated in the study. Data analysis showed there were significant differences between patient families and nurses perception of ICU patient family needs (p<0.05). Data analysis according to deferent factors showed that except Comfort factor, the other factors including "Assurance and anxiety reduction", "Information", "Proximity and accessibility" and "Support" were significantly deferent between two groups (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Nurses' appropriate perception of ICU patient family needs can lead to adopt the best approach to meet these needs and can help them to provide family based nursing care as well.

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Objective: Hemodialysis, encounter end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with many physical and psychosocial stresses that negatively affect their quality of life. There is growing recognition that self-care self-efficacy in chronically ill patient is associated with improvement of quality of life (QoL). This study thus was conducted to examine self-care self-efficacy and its relationship to quality of life in hemodialysis patients in South-East of Iran.

Method: Using translated FS36 and SUPPH, QoL and self-care self-efficacy of 60 hemodialysis patients in Pastor Hospital supervised by Bam university of Medical Science assessed. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16.

Results: In SF36, participants' general quality of life (mean=45.82, SD=19.06) as well as overall physical health (mean= 45.52, SD=19.26) and overall mental health (mean= 46.27, SD=19.72) were low. Descriptive analysis indicated that participants were moderately unconfident of being able to perform self-care behaviors related to the illness (mean=2.94, SD=0.69). The results indicated that there was a positive correlation between participants' quality of life and their self-care self-efficacy.

Significance of results: Findings from this study suggest that with the purpose of improving hemodialysis patients' QoL, heath care professionals need to first identify patients who lack the self-care efficacy required to self-care, and then focus on specific educational interventions to build confidence in self-care during hemodialysis sessions.

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Introduction: Elderly with Alzheimer requires care to continue their lives and such care is given mostly by families. Care of elderly with Alzheimer is a stressful process and it has negative consequences on physical and mental health of caregivers and reduces their quality of life. The present research aims to determine the effect of problem oriented coping strategies training on quality of life of family caregivers of elderly with Alzheimer.

Material and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial 72 caregivers were chosen by purposeful sampling and were divided randomly into control and experimental groups. Before the intervention, participants' quality of life was assessed by SF36 quality of life questionnaire. Eight sessions of educational intervention were held for the experimental group. The educational contents were included subjects such as problem solving, anger management and making an affective relationship. Two weeks after the intervention, information was recollected.

Results: Finding indicated that in intervention group, caregivers' quality of life significantly increased after the educational intervention (P=0.001). After the intervention, caregivers' quality of life in experimental group was more than control group but such difference was not statistically significant (P=0.112).

Conclusion: Problem-oriented coping strategies training can enhance most dimensions of quality of life of caregivers and such education can be effective on their lives.

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Background and aim: The transition from nursing student to practice nurse is stressful, challenging and dreadful process which can negatively effects on nursing care. This study was conducted to determine novel nurses' perception of role transition from nursing student to practice nurse.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all novel nurses who employed in hospitals supervised by Kerman University of Medical Sciences were recruited. Novel nurses’ perception of role transition was examined by NPRTS questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive and analytic statistics and SPSS19 software.

Results: Findings showed that, 131 novel nurses who participated in this study, had perceived moderate level of simplicity (3.05 ± 0.64 from 5) during the process of role transition. The least perception of role transition ease were respectively related to the categories of Collegial Relationships (2.87 ± 0.77), Understanding of the Role by Clients (3.00 ± 1.03) and Confidence, Comfort, and Competence (3.19 ± 0.72). Nurses who graduated from Islamic Azad Universities, Nurses who had the chance to choose their work place and who pass orientation program, represent more perception of role transition ease compare to others.

Conclusion: This study confirmed that the two factors including “autonomy in selecting work place” and “passing orientation program” are related to the alleviation of role transition challenges. The other strategies that might enhance novel nurses’ sense of competence, confidence, and belonging are pregraduational educations, students’ residency in hospital, interships programs, preceptorships or mentorships programs, and peer support.

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