Facilitators and barriers of adaptation to diabetes: experiences of Iranian patients

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most challenging and burdensome chronic diseases of the 21st century and More than 1% of the Iranian urban population older than 20 years develops Type 2 diabetes each year. Living with diabetes mellitus has been described as a dynamic personal transitional adaptation, based on restructuring of the illness perceived experience and management of the self. Adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes mellitus is an integral part of diabetes care.This study explored the experiences of facilitators and barriers adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes by Iranian patients.Methods: This study was conducted by using qualitative content analysis. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured and face to face interviews with 15 patients with type2 diabetes.Results: Three themes emerged from collected data, including a) individual context with Beliefs, personal background, and previous experience subthemes. b) supportive system with Family, Society and Health organizations subthemes and c) self-comparison with comparison with other diabetes and comparison with other diseases subthemes.Conclusions: Identifying and managing Facilitators and Barriers adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes mellitus are an integral part of diabetes care. This study provides a better understanding of the factors from perspective of patients and it can be utilized by health care providers to adapt their health care and education contents to better meet the needs of people with diabetes. © 2014 Karimi Moonaghi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Struggling towards diagnosis: Experiences of Iranian diabetes

Background: Healthcare-seeking behavior is one of the factors determining the uptake and outcome of healthcare. However, few studies have discussed how and why diabetics seek healthcare assistance before meeting a physician. Objectives: In this study, we explored the subjective experiences of healthcare-seeking behavior among Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Patients and Methods: A qualitative approach was adopted using a conventional content analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out in the Diabetes Association in Tabriz (Iran) with 15 participants suffering from type 2 diabetes. Participants were recruited by the purposeful sampling method. Results: Five themes emerged from the study: 1) warning by physical signs; 2) personal processing; 3) self-remedy and its outcomes; 4) seeking information, and; 5) diagnosis and verification of information by healthcare staff. Conclusions: Individual social context plays an important role in the decision-making process when seeking healthcare for diabetes. The results of this study can be utilized by healthcare providers to facilitate interventions to increase diabetics' active involvement in their healthcare, and encourage a wider knowledge of its symptoms and outcomes to facilitate appropriate healthcare-seeking and service use. © 2014, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Road Life Perspectives and Experiences Among Iranian Truck Drivers: a Qualitative Study

Truck drivers are one of the largest occupational groups in Iran. Evidence from previous studies suggests that working and living conditions on the road engender many concerns for truck drivers, and their families and communities. This research aimed to explore the experiences of Iranian truck drivers regarding life on the road. This qualitative study was conducted among Iranian truck drivers working in the inter-state transportation sector. A purposeful sample of 20 truck drivers took part in this research. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. After analysis of the data, three main themes emerged: "Individual impacts related to the hardships of life on the road life", "Family impacts related to the hardships of road life", and "Having positive attitude towards work and road". These findings represent the dimensions of perspectives in the road-life of truck drivers. Although truck drivers possess positive beliefs about their occupation and life on the road, they and their families face many hardships which should be well understood. They also need support to be better able to solve the road-life concerns they face. This study's findings are useful for occupational programming and in the promotion of health for truck drivers

Medical faculties’ view about the importance of educational roles

Samaneh Abolbashari,1,2 Hossein Karimi Moonaghi,3,4 Mojtaba Mousavi Bazzaz5 1Department of Medical Education, Medical Faculty, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; 2Students Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; 3Evidence – Based Caring Research Center, Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, 4Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; 5Department of Community Medicine, Medical Faculty, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Background: Changes in medical education have drawn attention to student-based learning. It is necessary that teachers’ educational roles be redefined to conform to these changes. While numerous educational activities are listed for medical teachers, it seems that they involve themselves in only some of these roles. We conducted this study to assess the importance of different educational roles in the view of medical faculties.Methods: A questionnaire that consisted of a total of 12 roles classified into six categories including information provider, role model, facilitator, examiner, planner, and resource developer was prepared. Faculty members were asked to score the importance of each role using a 1–10 scale.Results: Participants assigned the highest score to “on-the-job role model” (9.47) and the lowest score to “curriculum planner” (8.31) from their own point of view. They also assigned the highest score to “planning or participating in student exams” (8.10) and the lowest score to “learning facilitator” (6.51) from the perspective of the importance of roles in their school’s programs.Conclusion: Faculty members are generally familiar with different educational roles but they need to be informed about some of the roles which have gained lower scores in this study. Keywords: medical education, faculty member, teacher rol