Introduction: Due to lack of specific tools for assessing meaning of life in women with breast cancer, this study was conducted to design and determine the psychometric properties of meaning of life scale in women with breast cancer. Methods: This sequential exploratory mixed method study was performed in hospitals affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences in three stages: 1) the concept of meaning of life was explained (with 22 women); 2) Item pool was developed; 3) The psychometric properties of the tool was determined using content, face and construct validity (215 women). Sampling adequacy was confirmed by KMO=0.84. The extraction method used was principal component analysis (PCA), and an oblique rotation (oblimin) was applied. Internal consistency reliability and stability was determined. Results: First stage led to the formation of a theme entitled "evolution in the process of life" with 7 main categories. Then the primary tool was compiled, face and content validity by quantitative and qualitative method was determined. Construct validity (with 215 women) through exploratory factor analysis led to identifying four factors (better understanding of the value of life, striving for spiritual evolution, atempt to adaptation to disease, mental challenges due to disease) with 37 items in final scale. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.95 and intra-class correlation coefficient was calculated as 0.97. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the newly developed meaning of life scale for Iranian women with breast cancer demonstrates acceptable content, face, and construct validity, along with good reliability. This culturally adapted and validated instrument can be used by researchers in future studies and psychosocial intervention programs targeting this population.

Relationship of Spiritual Well-being with Meaning of Life and Social Support in Women with Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND:Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care refers to the ability of nurses to manage their emotions, establish effective communication, and respond to the physical and psychological needs of patients. This hermeneutic phenomenological study investigated the experiences of nurses in delivering Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care. METHODS:This hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted from April 2023 to September 2024, involving the participation of eight nurses working in intensive care, emergency, and internal medicine departments of educational hospitals. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews served as the primary data collection tool. Purposeful sampling was employed to select nurses with substantial experience in providing Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care. The study aims to elucidate nurses' lived experiences in delivering this type of care, with the central research question being: "What are nurses' lived experiences of providing Emotional Intelligence-Based Nursing Care?" For data analysis, Van Manen's interpretive phenomenology approach was utilized. To ensure the trustworthiness of the research findings, the criteria of credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability were applied. RESULTS:The data analysis revealed three main themes-'compassionate care,' 'professional care,' and 'emotional competence'-along with 13 sub-themes: 'empathetic understanding,' 'human-centered perspective,' 'interactive care,' 'sense of satisfaction,' 'trust-building,' 'professional development,' 'spirituality,' 'self-control,' 'conflict management,' 'adaptive interaction,' 'clarification,' 'situational decision-making,' and 'continuous monitoring.' CONCLUSIONS:The findings indicate that nurses, by employing emotional skills and empathy, have enhanced the patient experience and improved the quality of nursing care. These results can provide a basis for developing educational programs and enhancing nursing performance across various hospital departments. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER:Not applicable.

Introduction: Family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) has become a globally debated practice, offering both potential benefits and challenges. In Iran, however, family members are generally excluded from the resuscitation area. This study aimed to explore the attitudes of Iranian emergency department (ED) staff toward FPDR. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 124 nurses and 24 physicians in the EDs of four hospitals in Northwest Iran. Participants were selected using a census sampling method. Data were collected through a 27-item questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results: Over half of the ED nurses and physicians (52.4% nurses and 54.2% physicians) supported FPDR when the patient was the ED nurse’s or physician’s immediate family member. However, this support significantly declined and shifted toward opposition when the patients were neither ED nurses or physicians themselves nor their immediate family members (78.2% of nurses and 91.7% of physicians). Similarly, opposition remained high when the ED nurses or physicians imagined themselves as the patient undergoing resuscitation (91.1% of nurses and 83.3% of physicians opposed FPDR). Conclusion: The study findings suggest that attitudes toward FPDR among Iranian ED nurses and physicians are influenced by their connections with the patient. While the majority initially opposed FPDR when treating unrelated patients or considering themselves as patients undergoing resuscitation, their opposition decreased significantly, and their attitudes shifted towards support when considering themselves as immediate family members of patients undergoing resuscitation.

Introduction Teaching inhaler techniques to nursing students is crucial. Objective This study aimed to investigate the effect of simulation-based education on patient training correct inhaler technique in nursing students. Methods This is a single-blind, randomized controlled trial in which nursing students are randomly allocated into two groups of control (n = 41) and intervention (n = 40). The students’ mean score of correct inhaler technique was measured before and one week after intervention, using checklists of inhaler techniques. Results The mean score of control group was significantly lower than the intervention group ( p < .001). The results also revealed that there was no significant difference in students’ level of confidence regarding the ability to educate patients on inhaler techniques before the intervention, while all students were shown to have higher levels of confidence in this term after the intervention. Conclusions Simulation is an effective way to train nursing students in the correct inhaler techniques.

Background:Patient adherence to the treatment regimen is an important goal of treatment; finding appropriate strategies to improve treatment adherence is a nursing challenge. This study aimed to explore strategies to improve nurses' performance to enhance cardiovascular patients' adherence to treatment regimens. Materials and Methods:This is a qualitative content analysis study that was performed in an educational hospital of the Urmia University of Medical Science. Data were collected through semi-structured individual and group interviews. Sixteen individual interviews were conducted with nurses, patients, and physicians. A focus group was conducted with the presence of six nurses and nursing managers. Data were analyzed by conventional content analysis using MAXQDA 2020. Results:After analyzing the interviews, five strategies were explored; these strategies include: follow-up of the patient after discharge (systemic and organizational follow-up, educational follow-up, counseling follow-up, and motivational follow-up), sending reminders for necessary cases to the patients (risk reminders, care reminders); improving patient education methods (modern and up-to-date education, conventional and routine education), improving support services (home care services, social support, Psychological support), and optimizing the structure and processes of the hospital (making structural changes, making process changes). Conclusions:Much needs to be done to improve patient's adherence to treatment. Nurses are at the forefront of this work. In this study, we introduced ways to improve nurses' performance in order to increase patient adherence.

BACKGROUND:Social support has an important role in improving health outcomes and is considered as one of the crucial aspects of the modern care in cancer patients. Therefore, this article aims to explain the perceived experiences of women suffering from breast cancer towards social support. METHODS:In this qualitative study, 22 women with breast cancer were selected through purposive sampling from 5 hospitals affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed by the Conventional Qualitative Content Analysis and Graneheim's and Lundman's approach, using MAXQDA software, version 10. RESULTS:After completion of the analyzing process, 6 categories were appeared including "creating an empathic atmosphere by family and community," "being in relationship with others," "adaption to disease," "giving meaning to life," "satisfaction with the role of healthcare providers," and "the impact of others support in fighting with the disease." CONCLUSION:According to the findings, good social support during the illness can result in the spiritual, mental, and physical well-being of the patients and is one of the most effective factors in fighting the disease and feeling of recovery. The findings of this study can be used to develop plans to help the patients to achieve more support from the family, healthcare providers, and the community and even providing the required supportive care for this group of women.

Background: The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led many institutions and universities around the world to bring about a sudden shift to virtual education to continue their educational activities. Objectives: This study aimed to explain the challenges of the sudden shift to asynchronous virtual education in nursing education throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted during 2020, on nursing faculty members and undergraduate nursing students in the Urmia School of Nursing and Midwifery, Iran. A total of 12 faculty members and 8 students were enrolled in the study using purposive sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews and then analyzed through the content analysis method. Results: Participants identified “inappropriate groundwork” and “low inclination to virtual education” as the main challenges of the sudden shift to asynchronous e-learning in nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The authorities of nursing schools should provide the appropriate groundwork for virtual education by the provision and upgrading of the required hardware and software, teaching how to use the facilities, and developing standard protocols for virtual education.

Background: Despite the introduction of e-learning in recent years, it has not been utilized as a major educational method in numerous universities, especially in the area of medical and health sciences, until the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives: This study aimed at explaining the strengths and weaknesses of asynchronous e-learning in nursing education throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: In this qualitative descriptive study, a total of 14 nursing faculty members were selected using the purposive sampling method. The interviews were conducted face-to-face with semi-structured questions.The researcher recorded all interviews with the participants' consent. Data analysis was conducted in four phases using the content analysis approach (Graneheim and Lundman). Results: Nursing faculty members cited "low quality of educational content", "cold and soulless education", "low efficiency in clinical education", and "insufficiency in educational assessment process" as the weaknesses and "maintenance of safe education during the COVID-19 crisis" as the strength of asynchronous e-learning in nursing education during the COVID-19 crisis. Conclusion: Asynchronous e-learning was shown to have various weaknesses in nursing theoretical and clinical education. However, the most striking strengths of this method in the COVID-19 pandemic were found to be the protection of the safety and health of individuals, followed by the maintenance of academic activities and education. Therefore, it is worthwhile for all nurse researchers, academic education policy-makers, and faculties to put conscious effort into developing standard protocols for the preparation of educational content, empowering lecturers in the area of online education, and using other methods to promote dynamic interactions.

Abstract Background: The chronic condition of children negatively affects them and their whole family, causing various psychosocial stresses. Meanwhile, parents use coping strategies to reduce these stresses and adapt to the child's health condition. Therefore, the present study aimed to explain the strategies employed by parents of children with chronic kidney conditions to cope with the child's condition.Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in Shahid Motahari Hospital, Urmia, Iran. In this study a total of 22 parents of children with chronic kidney conditions were recruited using purposive sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews, and the concepts were then extracted using content analysis.Results: The theme entitled "Striving for stability" was extracted from the results and consisted of two sub-themes of "Self-management" and "Situation management". The sub-theme of "Self-management" included concepts of "Seeking solace through inculcation" and "Taking refuge in spirituality" and the sub-theme of "Situation management" included concepts of "Striving to learn", "Determination to continue treatment", and "Striving to solve the problem".Conclusion: Awareness of parents' experiences of caring for a child with a chronic kidney condition is of critical importance in meeting the unmet needs of children and their parents and can serve as a guide for other parents. This knowledge can also be important in designing community-based interventions, where parents play a key role in implementing and evaluating the intervention.

The present study aimed to assess the productivity of Urmia Medical Sciences University (UMSU) in the fields of education and research. In this descriptive-analytical study, changes in the total fa...

Background: Missed nursing care is defined as required care that has been delayed, partially completed, or not completed at all. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the causes of missed nursing care from the viewpoints of employees in public, private, and social security hospitals. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 453 nurses working in five educational hospitals, four private hospitals, and a social security hospital in Urmia in 2018. Regarding data collection, the “missed care questionnaire” was distributed to nurses by convenience sampling method. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the faculty members of Urmia Azad University, and the reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (0.9). The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (p<0.05), and SPSS software version 16. Results: The most common reasons for missed nursing care in educational, private, and social security hospitals were the patients' emergency conditions (42.9%), the insufficient number of nursing assistants (38.7%), and an unexpected increase in the number of patients (18.5%). Moreover, the causes of missed nursing care in all three areas of communication, financial, and human resources were significantly different between educational, social security, and private hospitals (p=0.0001). Conclusion: Lack of nursing staff, patients' emergency conditions, and an unexpected increase in the number of patients are the main reasons for missed nursing care in educational, social security, and private hospitals. Therefore, it is recommended to apply appropriate policies to provide nursing staff, manage the admission, transfer, and distribution of patients to the hospital.

BACKGROUND: Nonadherence with the medication regimen in patients with heart disease can lead to treatment failure. The purpose of this study was to identify the causes of nonadherence in people with myocardial infarction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is a qualitative conventional content analysis. Data were collected through semistructured interviews. Thirteen individual interviews and a focus group were conducted with nurses, patients, and doctors. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis. RESULTS: Four main themes were identified, which are organizational-managerial causes and factors (drug-related problems, educational system-related problems, weak performance of hospitals, and problems related to insurance companies); sociocultural causes and factors (factors related to cultural problems and factors related to social problems); causes and factors related to care providers (skill problems of care providers and functional problems of care providers); and causes and factors associated with caregivers (factors related to social characteristics of the patient, factors related to patient characteristics, and factors related to the patient's belief). CONCLUSIONS: Many individual and organizational factors affect nonadherence, which can be reduced by fundamental changes.

BackgroundTo improve the quality of education, many academic medical institutions are investing in the application of blended education to support new teaching and learning methods. To take necessary measures to implement the blended learning smoothly, and to achieve its goals, we aimed to identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) from its key users' viewpoints.MethodsA qualitative study consisting of 24 interviews with lecturers and students and document analysis was conducted at Urmia University of Medical Sciences, in Iran, in 2018. The SWOT framework was used to analyze the data.ResultsThe most important strengths were the promotion of lecturer-student interactions, the focus on students' learning needs and self-learning, and problem-solving skills. The supports of university executives, alignment with the national health education transformation plan, and access to the shared infrastructures of the national virtual medical science university were opportunities to facilitate its implementation. However, this endeavor had weaknesses such as bottlenecks in technical, organizational, and human resource infrastructures and lack of culture readiness. The threats envisioned for its maintenance were its dependency on the education transformation plan and the lack of an independent e-learning center for better planning and support services, lack of proper evaluation and supervision of virtual activities, and insufficiency of the privileges considered for users.ConclusionsOne of the important implications of this study is that different aspects surrounding blended learning might work as a double-edge sword from time to time, which requires a thorough overview. While retaining the strengths and enjoying the opportunities in such interventions, the weaknesses should be recognized and threats are faced and addressed. Therefore, if the SWOT items are considered mindfully, they can help to adopt the right implementation strategies to reap full benefits.

Background The meaning of life is of great importance in upgrading various dimensions of the quality of life in women with breast cancer. Therefore, the present study aims to find out and describing the meaning of life for women with breast cancer on the bases of their life experiences.Methods In this qualitative study, 22 women with breast cancer were selected following purposive sampling. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews and then were analyzed by the Directed Qualitative Content Analysis according to the Middle-Range Theory of Spiritual Well-Being in Illness and Graneheim and Lundman’s (2004) approach using MAXQDA software, version10.Results Two themes and 10 categories have appeared. 7 categories in the “development in the process of life” theme include: feeling the change in the life routine, achieving a better recognition of the life value, relative life satisfaction despite the illness, hope and acceptance on the ending of the illness, trying to cope with the illness, tolerating the pain and suffering from illness, worrying about future of the children. 3 categories in the “the attempt to upgrade spiritual well-being” themes include: personal belief, spiritual contentment and religious acts.Conclusion The meaning of life in these women includes the development in the process of life and the attempt to upgrade spiritual well-being. These findings could be beneficial as a conceptual basis for explaining the concepts in other studies and designing intervention models and even carrying out supporting actions for this group of women. So, the health system must include spirituality and build a proper relationship with these patients.