Pathology of apprenticeships for masters of nursing critical care

Introduction: The increasing complexity of patient care conditions in intensive care units, along with the development of these units, has increased the need for qualified nurses and health professionals. Therefore, due to recent changes and in response to the shortage of capable nurses, a master’s major in intensive care nursing has been created. One of the main challenges of this curriculum is to ensure that graduates have the required competencies. The current study aimed to explain the pathology of apprenticeships for a masters in nursing critical care. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted for masters in nursing critical care students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2014-2015. The sampling was purposeful. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 15 students. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Three categories “ineffective management, unfavorable context for achieving skills, and lack of clinical instructors and sufficient competence” were extracted. Conclusion: Preparing settings for entering students such as having an adequate training field and expert educators, providing conditions for orientation of educators and participation in the related workshops, and recruitment of experienced instructors in the apprenticeships field can increase the quality of MS levels

Malaria Four-year Epidemiological Trends in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, Iran

Introduction: Malaria is one of the foremost public health concerns in Iran, where more than 90% of malaria cases are reported in the southern and south-eastern areas of the country. The aim of this study was to assess the epidemiological trends of malaria over a four-year period in in the Sistan and Baluchistan province in south east of Iran. Methods: This descriptive epidemiological study examined malaria trends in Sistan and Baluchistan province from 2011 to 2014. The study used data collected in accordance with the Iranian Ministry of Health’s malaria control and elimination protocol. This protocol has digitized the data reporting system for malaria, and all information were sent online to the Center of Disease Control in the Ministry of Health. In this manner, information on malaria cases in Sistan and Baluchistan were made available for the researchers to analyze. Descriptive and comparative analyses were conducted using the SPSS version 13. Results: Annual incidence rates reported in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 showed the prevalence of 89.9, 43.9, 38.3 and 36.6 (per 100,000 persons), respectively. Across all 4 years, the highest numbers of cases were found in persons 16–25 years old and among males. Most of the infected individuals were villagers and workers. In total, 64.8% of patients were Iranian and 29.5% were Pakistani. The highest number of cases was diagnosed in the cities of Sarbaz and Chabahar, with 1,742 and 1,707 cases, respectively. The results showed that over the last 4 years, 50.8% of cases have entered into Iran from foreign countries. The majority of cases involved parasites in the trophozoite stage of the life cycle. In terms of surveillance, passive care was reported in the majority of cases, and vivax malaria had the highest prevalence in comparison with other types. Conclusion: The findings are showing that the care, control and treatment system applied to Sistan and Baluchistan province has had a positive effect on decreasing the prevalence rate of Malaria disease. Meanwhile, it is recommended to policy makers to provide more health controls for border entries, stop irregular immigration and apply more precise case searches in order to have a complete and on time treatment in a way that the chain of transmission of the disease would be cut. Health education and knowledge-ability promotion programs are better to be set in order to develop self-protection and environment improvement among peopl

The Effect of Utilizing Organizational Culture Improvement Model of Patient Education on Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Patients’ Anxiety and Satisfaction: Theory Testing

Introduction: Due to the increasing prevalence of arteriosclerosis and the mortality caused by this disease, Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) has become one of the most common surgical procedures. Utilization of patient education is approved as an effective solution for increasing patient survival and outcomes of treatment. However, failure to consider different aspects of patient education has turned this goal into an unattainable one. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of utilizing the organizational culture improvement model of patient education on CABG patients’ anxiety and satisfaction. Methods: The present study is a randomized controlled trial. This study was conducted on eighty CABG patients. The patients were selected from the CCU and Post-CCU wards of a hospital affiliated with Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, during 2015. Eshpel Burger’s Anxiety Inventory and Patients’ Satisfaction Questionnaire were used to collect the required information. Levels of anxiety and satisfaction of patients before intervention and at the time of release were measured. The intervention took place after preparing a programmed package based on the organizational culture improvement model for the following dimensions: effective communication, participatory decision-making, goal setting, planning, implementation and recording, supervision and control, and improvement of motivation. After recording the data, it was analyzed in the chi- square test, t-independent and Mann-Whitney U tests. The significance level of tests was assumed to be 0.05. SPSS version 18 was also utilized for data analysis. Results: Research results revealed that variations in the mean scores of situational and personality anxiety of the control and experiment group were descending following the intervention, but the decrease was higher in the experiment group (p≤0.0001). In addition, the variations of the mean scores of patients’ satisfaction with education were higher in the experiment group than the control group (p≤0.0001). Conclusion: Utilization of the organizational culture improvement model of patient education reduces stress in CABG patients and increases their satisfaction with the provided education considering the factors involved in patient education, which were incorporated in the designed model

Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran: Results from an epidemiological study in urban and rural provinces

Objective: To examine the prevalence and clinical manifestations of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in Iran between 2011 and 2013. Sampling, preparing, developing, and fixing of suspicious skin lesions were completed in healthcare centers in 31 Iranian provinces as well as in the Academic Reference Laboratory and the National Reference Laboratory. The information was then analyzed at the Ministry of Health's Information Management Center of Contagious Diseases. Results: Over a three-year period, the number of people identified with CL was 56546. The highest incidence was reported in 2011 (27.5 per 100000). Wet CL accounted for 43.7% of cases while 43.3% resulted from sporotrichoid leishmaniasis. The results showed that there was a higher incidence of CL due to Leishmania major (50.2%) than to Leishmania tropica. The results of this study found that the highest incidence of CL had happened respectively in Ilam, Fars and, Khorasan Razavi Provinces between 2011 and 2013. Conclusions: Although the incidence of the disease is declining, CL is still a public health concern and disease control protocols need to be established. Therefore, further studies are needed to identify the vectors, reservoirs, and disease species as well as to develop appropriate disease control strategies