How to Write Scientific Journals of the Highest Standards

One of the requirements of a Ph.D. or Master is to write traditional and systematic reviews, critiques, letters to editors (LTE), case reports or case studies, at least one original article, and sometimes a meta-analysis, all with proficiency and inspiration. This presentation focuses on the ideas from research to publication, i.e., how to depict a distinct image in our mind in order to convert our research into various types of academic papers. Also, this presentation provides a general approach and some key points for writing and successfully publishing journal papers. The presentation will also cover some publication ethics guidelines, ethics of reporting questionnaire-based research, authorship criteria, plagiarism detection and how to avoid plagiarism, duplicate publication, and salami publication

Writing an eye-catching and evocative abstract for a research article: A practical approach

It is an important and difficult job to write an eye catching abstract. A large percentage of the manuscripts that are submitted to academic journals are rejected because their abstracts are poorly written. This paper provides a new and step by step approach for writing a good structured abstract

Critical Literature Review: Preparation Strategies

The imperative needs for, and characteristics of an effective critical literature review, provide the foreground baseline deliberation. A visual model depicting synthesized major modular components of a research project delineate impact points of literature review inputs. The three major modules represent preparation, data capture, and data rendering-analysis-interpretation phases of research. Within each module, the literature review elements to be incorporated are elaborated. Steps and optimal articulation-action strategies are highlighted and embedded with examples from literature and theses. Development of competency and efficacy in critiquing and evaluating, which comprised mandatory skills to acquire, is especially focussed

Quality improvement in clinical documentation: does clinical governance work?

Introduction: The quality of nursing documentation is still a challenge in the nursing profession and, thus, in the health care industry. One major quality improvement program is clinical governance, whose mission is to continuously improve the quality of patient care and overcome service quality problems. The aim of this study was to identify whether clinical governance improves the quality of nursing documentation. Methods: A quasi-experimental method was used to show nursing documentation quality improvement after a 2-year clinical governance implementation. Two hundred twenty random nursing documents were assessed structurally and by content using a valid and reliable researcher made checklist. Results: There were no differences between a nurse’s demographic data before and after 2 years (P.0.05) and the nursing documentation score did not improve after a 2-year clinical governance program. Conclusion: Although some efforts were made to improve nursing documentation through clinical governance, these were not suffcient and more attempts are needed

Determinants of left ventricular hypertrophy among elderly hypertensive in Malaysia

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has high prognostic value on cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. However, echocardiography is not routinely performed among elderly hypertensives in the primary-care setting due to limited resources. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of LVH and its associated risk factors in a multi- ethnic elderly hypertensive population in a primary-care clinic in Malaysia. This study was a sub-analysis of a cross-sectional study of 359 patients with hypertension in a primary-care clinic. All test subjects recruited for the study were hypertensive patients aged 60 and above. Blood pressure, height and weight were measured. All patients underwent an echocardiogram examination for diagnosis of LVH. One hundred and ninety-nine patients were studied for the analysis. The mean age and duration of hypertension was 64.8 (SD 2.9) and 10.4 (SD 7.7) years, respectively. The study found that 44.7% of respondents achieved target blood pressure. The prevalence of LVH was 23.6%. Using multiple logistic regression, factors associated with LVH among elderly patients with hypertension were diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 3.346, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.458-7.676), higher diastolic blood pressure (OR: 1.088; 95% CI: 1.024-1.156), higher body mass index (OR: 1.113; 95% CI: 1.031-1.203) and poorer blood pressure control was 23.6%. Using multiple logistic regression, factors associated with LVH among elderly patients with hypertension were diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 3.346, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.458-7.676), higher diastolic blood pressure (OR: 1.088; 95% CI: 1.024-1.156), higher body mass index (OR: 1.113; 95% CI: 1.031-1.203) and poorer blood pressure control (OR: 2.924; 95% CI: 1.180-7.258). Poor hypertension control, higher diastolic blood pressure, presence of diabetes and obesity are the predictors for the development of LVH in elderly hypertensive

Development of a questionnaire for assessing factors predicting blood donation among university students: a pilot study

University students are a target group for blood donor programs. To develop a blood donation culture among university students, it is important to identify factors used to predict their intent to donate blood. This study attempted to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to be employed in assessing variables in a blood donation behavior model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), a commonly used theoretical foundation for social psychology studies. We employed an elicitation study, in which we determined the commonly held behavioral and normative beliefs about blood donation. We used the results of the elicitation study and a standard format for creating questionnaire items for all constructs of the TPB model to prepare the first draft of the measurement tool. After piloting the questionnaire, we prepared the final draft of the questionnaire to be used in our main study. Examination of internal consistency using Chronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total statistics indicated the constructs "In-tention" and "Self efficacy" had the highest reliability. Removing one item from each of the constructs, "Attitude," "Subjective norm," "Self efficacy," or "Behav-ioral beliefs", can considerably increase the reliability of the measurement tool, however, such action is controversial, especially for the variables "attitude" and "subjective norm." We consider all the items of our first draft questionnaire in our main study to make it a reliable measurement tool

Application of internet and information technology in recruitment of safe blood donors.

The present study focuses on the role of information technology in blood safety policies. In order to reach to higher levels of blood safety we have to put our maximum force in the recruitment of safe blood donors via public education. Innovative use of mass media in recruitment of blood donors especially the youth and those of higher education level and disseminating the basic information about blood donation can be our success key. There is an urgent need to find new ways of recruiting blood donors rather than traditional methods of donor education. Effectiveness of internet based educational intervention in other disciplines of health has already been proven; however, few researches exist concerning internet application for online recruitment of safe blood donors. Finally, internet users' population and blood donors are similar in many aspects of their socio-demographic determinants and it is reasonable to deduce that online education and dissemination of knowledge of safe blood donation can be considered an efficient modus of recruitment of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors

Pneumatic Tourniquet and Knee Surgery

The pneumatic tourniquet has been used in extremity surgery, especially in knee surgery. Both advantages and disadvantages were reported for using this co-operative instrument. The advantages, such as improving the surgical field and decreasing the blood loss were significant, however, disadvantages—such as increasing risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), nerve and muscle injuries—made its use controversial. In this review we evaluated the impact of the tourniquet on knee surgery, briefly focusing on its advantages and disadvantages in order to offer surgeons a more reliable guidelines. In previous studies there were several limitations in methodological design, tourniquet identifications, and post-operative anticoagulant regime, which made the results unreliable. Limitations such as not considering blinding assessors, assessing results with intention to treat principles, justification of sample size on the basis of power calculation and described cohort study were the most common problems in methodological designs. Lack of notification in assessing quality of life in tourniquet-used patients was a major problem which needs to be further evaluated. So we recommended designing a study that would preclude the aforementioned limitations

Effects of sports participation on psychological stress in female students in region 3 of Kermanshah

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of sports participation on the psychological stress levels of female students 15-18 years old. Psychological stress is defined as a collection of nonspecific reactions against organisms in reflections and exposure to any factor that should be faced. Stress control includes several factors, and, in particular, sports participation is thought to be effective. This quasi-experimental research was performed using pre-test plan–test, after-test, and control groups. Research subjects for the control group were 30 people chosen randomly. The subjects of stress were tested by a 40-item stress questionnaire and then tested in step independent variable “Sports participation” included volleyball education and skills training for three months and three weekly sessions of 75-90 minutes. This was carried out to investigate its effect on the dependent variable "stress." We did not observe any statistically meaningful difference between the mean scores of stress-control group and experiment group scores at pre-test in p<0.05; however, statistically meaningful differences were observed between the mean scores of stress control group and experiment group scores on the post test stage (p<0.05) and between the mean scores of stress in the control group pre-test and post-test in (p<0.05). In addition, A statistically meaningful difference was observed statistically meaningful differences were observed between the mean scores of stress in the experiment group pre-test and post-test (p<0.05)