The Information Needs of Parents of Children with Cancer: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Cancer is one of the chronic diseases in children. Parents of children with cancer, as members of the healthcare team with the special role, need enough information about cancer. The aim of this study was exploring and identifying the information needs of parents of children with cancer. Method: This was a qualitative research using content analysis method with a phenomenological approach. 14 parents were selected from Children's Medical Center Hospital of Tehran, Iran, and interviewed using semi-depth method for three months. The obtained data were constantly analyzed through constant comparison analysis method. Results: The obtained data were categorized into 4 themes and 14 subthemes. Medical information about child with cancer, physical healthcare, psycho-educational care, and lifestyle information were the main concerns of parents. Conclusion: Medical information, psycho-educational, and physical healthcare information have been identified as the most important concerns of parents in relation to the child with cancer. Thus, it seems essential to develop suitable parents’ education plans. Keywords: Child, Cancer, Parents, Information sharing, Needs, Qualitative researc

Identification and Prioritization of Factors Affecting E-teacher’s Performance based on Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Introduction: Information and communication technology has changed the traditional role of teachers and learners. It’s important to detect factors influencing e-teachers’ role to improve their performance more than ever. So in this study we identified and prioritized factors influencing e-teacher’s effective performance. Methods: In this descriptive study, 15 e-learning experts from Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected through purposeful sampling. Having focus group sessions held, their viewpoints about main factors affecting e-teacher’s performance were collected. In order to collect the views toward the significance of each criterion, a questionnaire was developed regarding the main criterion and its subordinates in which there was a comparison table for each criterion. Then Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process decision making was used for prioritizing and weighting factors (ie., criteria). Results: Totally 5 factors influencing e-teachers’ performance were extracted. The factor of professional knowledge had the highest weight (0.28) was recognized as the most important factor. This factor did not have any subordinate. Technology with the lowest weight (0.137) was identified as the least important factors affecting e-teacher’s performance. Factors (and their most important subordinates with the highest coefficients) were as follows: skillfulness in e-teacher role playing (mastery in pedagogy), technology (mastery in information technology), management (management of virtual classroom), and personality factor (interest in virtual training). Conclusion: In order to select an e-teacher and develop his capabilities, it must be considered that IT expertise is of the least importance and teachers who encompass factors such as professional knowledge and are able to act as an effective teacher, are also able to act as a successful e-teacher

Impact of the Mobile App “Cognogene” on University Students\' Communication Skills

Introduction: The notion of electronic mental health care is suggested in today's world. With the aid of this care, people's talents are no longer limited by time or location, and those in need of mental health care can get these services by downloading and installing software on their mobile devices. The Cognogene application software has been created to provide electronic mental health services on the smartphone platform. This study aimed to measure the impact of the mobile app “Cognogene” on university students' communication skills. Method: The statistical population of this study included 104 students studying at Tehran University in the winter semester (2021-2022). They were randomly divided into two 54-member groups (experimental and control). The experimental group received electronic psychological education (consisting of short video clips, daily homework, motivational letters, etc.) in 21 sessions, while the control group did not. To collect data, Queen Dom's communication skills questionnaire was used in two stages: pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed using the one-way analysis of variance. Results: Results showed that the intervention made a significant difference in the mean score of all components of the study of communication skills except the components of "receiving and sending messages" and "emotional control". Conclusion: This finding suggests that training through the Cognogene application can be used as a complement to other training methods to improve communication skill

Measuring Attitude and Practice of Physician toward Breaking Bad News to the Breast Cancer Patients: Development and Validation of a Questionnaire

Background: Breaking bad news to cancer patients is one of the important responsibilities in the oncology setting. The purpose of this study is develop and validate a new theoretically based tool for measurement of attitude and practice of physicians toward breaking bad news. Methods: The psychometric properties of the scale were established by following the guidelines of Clark and Watson. In the first phase, a literature review was performed to create items; then items were assessed for content validity through individual interview (n = 12) and construct validity was assessed by using factor analysis. Reliability was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha. Research data was gathered from physicians working in breast cancer setting. Results: A total of 12 expert reviews concluded that a large amount of items of attitude and practice questionnaires were important and essential (Content Validity Ratio > 0.73). The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for a sample of physicians (n = 200) indicated a 12-item of attitude scale with three factors: full disclosure, non-disclosure and individual disclosure. Cronbach’s Alpha for the factors returned 0.746, 0.834 and 0.795, respectively. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for a sample of physicians (n = 200) indicated a 20-item of practice scale with six factors: preparation, setting of the interaction, communicate well, use of the “cancer” word, patient’s right to know and close the interview, and summarized. Cronbach’s Alpha for the factors returned 0.765, 0.63, 0.65, 0.793, 0.759 and 0.7, respectively. Conclusions: A resultant 12 items of attitude and 20 items of practice questionnaire were developed to assess how physicians are giving bad news to breast cancer patients. The reliability of the new tools needs to be evaluated for further studies. This new questionnaire will provide researchers and clinicians with a thorough and suitable instrument to measure belief and practice regarding disclosing the truth to breast cancer patients