A Comparison of the Psychiatric Nursing Master`s Curriculum in Iran and Canada

Background: One of the most important tasks of a university is to assess weaknesses and build upon strengths. As the education and skill level of psychiatric nursing graduates in Iran is often unpredictable, we hope to improve the current curriculum by comparing it to a successful educational program. Objectives: This study compared the MSc psychiatric nursing curriculum in Iran with Canada. Methods: This is a descriptive comparative study conducted in 2018. The required information was collected from the Iran Health Ministry curriculum and Canadian universities offering psychiatric nursing graduate programs. The method used was a Beredy model that includes description, interpretation, neighborhood, and comparison Results: The University in Canada has been established earlier than Iran. The educational program at Brandon University is focused on community needs. It is possible to complete program on a part- or full-time basis. Some courses are optional.Admission requirements include practical psychiatric nursing care experience and a relevant degree. In Iran the requirements are limited to a bachelor’s degree in nursing and an entrance exam. The program primarily focuses on theory, and was only offered on a full–time basis. Conclusion: The Iran educational program has weaknesses. In order to improve the quality of education, it is suggested students volunteer to have psychiatric nursing care experience. The curriculum should include administration, education, and practice. A more flexible curriculum based on the needs of Iranian society should be offered. Keywords: Curriculum, Master, Mental Health Nursing, Comparative Study, Canada, Ira

Factors Associated with Self-Management in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

AbstractIntroduction: Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases that is also highlyprevalent among adolescents. The present study was conducted to determine therelationship between demographic characteristics and self-management in adolescentswith type 1 diabetes.Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 426 adolescents withtype 1 diabetes aged 13 to 18, and diagnosed for at least one year. The research toolsincluded a demographic information form covering the patients’ personal, family,and health details, and the Self-Management of type 1 Diabetes in Adolescence(SMOD-A) with five subscales of collaboration with parents, diabetes care activities,diabetes problem-solving, diabetes communication, and diabetes goals. The contentvalidity of the measure was then evaluated by a group of experts and found to beacceptable (SCVI = 98%). In the assessment of the measure›s reliability, the intraclasscorrelation showed an overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88. The test-retest showed aconsistency of 0.73 for the measure.Results: The results obtained showed that the presence of another diabetic memberin the family leads to higher levels of self-management in some dimensions, includingproblem-solving, communication, and goals, yet to lower levels in some others,including collaboration with parents and diabetes care activities. A direct relationshipwas observed between the duration of time since the diagnosis and the scores obtainedby the adolescents. An inverse relationship was observed between the type of physicianin charge and the scores obtained in the subscales of collaboration with parents,problem-solving, communication, and goals. The scores obtained were directly relatedto having a school health record and having access to diabetic care tools at school.Family income was found to be directly related to diabetes care activities and inverselyto problem-solving, communication and goals. P of ≤ 0.05 was considered significantfor all relationships.Conclusions: Self-management was found to be moderate to good among Iranianadolescents with type 1 diabetes; however, it could be further improved with thesupport of both families and medical teams involved

The relationship between social support and the quality of working life of neonatal intensive care unit nurses in selected hospitals of Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences-2016

AbstractIntroduction: Social support has a key role in improvement of quality of working lifeof nurses. The present study aimed at measuring the quality of nurse’s working life andperceived social support and examine their relationship in neonatal intensive care unitnurses.Methods: In the present descriptive-correlational study, the statistical populationconsisted of nurses working at neonatal intensive care units of selected hospitalsaffiliated to Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences, selected by census. Overall, 98nurses were selected. Since the number of employed nurses was approximately thesame, all nurses were selected by the census method and based on the inclusioncriteria.Tools used included the "Demographic Questionnaire”, “MultidimensionalScale of Perceived Social Support" and "Quality of Nurses' Work Life". Validity of thequestionnaires was confirmed by 12 experts, and its reliability was confirmed by theCronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed using the SPSS-20 software.Results: The highest mean value in social support belonged to the "family" dimension(5.19± 1.05) and the lowest to "friends" (4.50± 1.11), and overall mean social supportvalue was 4.78 ± 0.99. The quality of working life had the highest mean value in the"working life" dimension (3.67± 0.72) and the lowest in "personal life" (3.38± 0.89),and overall mean value of quality of working life was 3.57± 0.57 in nurses. The obtainedresults showed a positive correlation between social support and the quality of workinglife in nurses (r=0.25, P=0.02).Conclusions: The obtained results showed a significant and positive relationshipbetween perceived social support and quality of nursing working life. However, therelationship between subscales of these two variables was mildly confirmed. Generally,the present study results are in accordance with the results of previous studies