The Need for Education and Improvement of Occupational Knowledge: Experience of Telephone Triage Nurses in the 115 Emergency Call Center of the Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Management Center at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Background & Objective: Efficient emergency call answering services are vital for the medical emergency services all around the world. The provision of emergency services is based on ordering and prioritizing received calls. In addition, educating this kind of services has a prominent role in answer time and quality. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of telephone triage nurses in 115 Emergency Call Center of the Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Management Center at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in form of phenomenological qualitative study. The sample was selected based on purposive sampling method including 5 nurses in emergency medical services at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, with at least 5 years of experience in the 115 Emergency Call Center. Data were collected using deep unstructured individual interviews. The average time of each interview was 63 minutes and an electronic recorder was used to record the interviews. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi method. The collected data were reconsidered by the researcher in order to confirm their reliability. Results: From the interviews, 737 summarized concepts were extracted and formed 9 thematic categorizations. Finally, the 3 themes of “performing cultural and societal roles”, “performing professional and organizational roles”, and “performing personal roles” were obtained. Experiences of nurses were stated in the form of a compact and continuum set between strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats. Conclusion: The findings of the study can be summarized in two fundamental points. First, evaluation skills which are used in face-to-face consultation cannot be transferred directly by telephone. This shows that specific training on telephone consultation, treatment evaluation, and decision-making skills should be provided for triage nurses who work at such centers. Second, a greater degree of job satisfaction can be achieved among the emerging class of telephone triage nurses through allowing independent decision-making and decreasing decision-making errors by consistent telephone triage instructions, and creating suitable educational methods in order to control experienced stresses. These are points that must be considered by the Medical Emergency and Disaster Management Centre to promote occupational knowledge of nurses in 115 Emergency Call Center. Key Words: Triage nurses, Telephone triage, Experience, Emergency medical dispatcher, Disaster Management Center, Educatio

An Analysis of the Effect of Brand Evidence and Brand Hearsay on Customer Choice Persuasion of Healthcare Services with Mediating Role of Brand Image (Study of Medical Diagnostic Laboratories in Isfahan)

Objective: Healthcare providers are of considerable significance due to the sensitivity of their services. Identifying the desired factors to choose a healthcare center helps managers to develop their own programs and strategies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the selection of medical diagnostic laboratories. In doing so, the impact of brand evidence, brand hearsay, brand trust and brand image on encouraging customer selection has been analyzed. Methods: The present study is applied In terms of purpose and descriptive survey in terms of data collection. The statistical population consists of diagnostic laboratories in Isfahan. Results: The results indicate that brand evidence and brand hearsay affect brand then again brand trust in fluencies brand image as well. On the other hand, brand image has an impact on customers' selection. Conclusion: Of the nine hypotheses of the study the impact of brand evidence on brand image and the mediating role of brand image on the impact of brand evidence on the customers' persuasion in choosing healthcare services, have not been verified

A Data Mining Approach for Evaluating the Tourist Destination Loyalty

The aim of this study is to evaluate the tourist loyalty through data mining approach. The study has exemined 880 domestic tourists who have stayed in more than one night in four and five star hotels of Isfahan in spring and summer 2014 and 2015. SPSS and Clementine12 was used for data analysis.Also, Mixture Algorithm PSO-KM was applied for tourism clustering.The results showed that tourists can be classified in two categories. The first category have a high average in length of communication with tourism and travel recency and the cost and frequency of travel are less than average. Therefore, the customers are loyal and uncertain. The second category has a high average in travel recency and the length of communication with tourism, cost and frequency of travel is less than average. Therefore the customers are new and uncertain