Search

Background: Since "dignity" is one of the fundamental rights of every patient, consideration for patients' dignity is essential. Unfortunately, in many cases, especially in cancer patients, dignity is not fully respected. Dignity is an abstract concept, and there are only a few comprehensive studies on the dignity of cancer patients in Iran. Research objective: This study aimed to evaluate the perception of Iranian cancer patients on human dignity. Research design: A qualitative research approach was used as the study design. The data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Participants and research context: This study was conducted on cancer patients in internal medicine wards in Iran. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews from May 2017 to February 2018. Ethical considerations: The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of medical universities located in Southwest of Iran. The ethical principles were carefully followed throughout the study. Findings: Based on the results of the interviews, 3 main themes and 11 categories were determined. The main themes were identified as the "personal space and privacy," "respect for human values," and "moral support." Discussion: The results of the present study showed the necessity of care for cancer patients in a respectful manner. The key elements in such care were the preservation of their personal space and privacy, respect for their values, and the provision of adequate moral support. These measures will have a positive effect on the perception of such patients on human dignity. Conclusion: Considering the special care required by cancer patients, the Iranian healthcare and hygiene managers should design and implement a care plan that includes the ethical principles related to human dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Due to the stressful nature of prehospital emergency providers' duties, as well as difficulties such as distance to information resources and insufficient time to analyze situations, ethical decision-making in prehospital services is a daily challenge. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the experiences of Iranian prehospital emergency personnel in the field of ethical decision-making. Methods: The data were collected by semi-structured interviews (n = 15) in Iran and analyzed using the content analysis approach. Ethical considerations: This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of research ethics and national rules and regulations relating to informed consent and confidentiality. Results: The results obtained were categorized into three main categories that included "assessment of the scene atmosphere, assessment of patients' condition and their family, and predicting outcomes of decision-making." The central category was "field assessment," which demonstrated the strategy of ethical decision-making by prehospital providers when facing ethical conflicts. Conclusion: Although findings showed that the majority of prehospital providers make ethical decisions based on the patients' benefit, they also consider consequences of their decisions in dealing with personal and professional threats. This article identifies and describes a number of ethical values of prehospital providers and discusses how the values may be considered by paramedics when facing ethical conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Quality assessment and service delivery processes for cancer patients are the major components of palliative care. This study intends to explore stakeholder's perceptions of palliative care process challenges for cancer patients in Iran. Method: In this qualitative study, we conducted 22 semi-structured interviews from February 2016 to August 2017 in hospitals located in Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and included cancer patients, their family caregivers, healthcare providers, and policy-makers. The interviews were analyzed by qualitative directed content analysis based on the Donabedian model. In order to assess the accuracy and validity of the study, we used Lincoln and Guba's four criteria. Results: After analysis of the interviews, we categorized the codes into a main category, "process", and three identified subcategories - "weakness of stakeholders' engagement policies", "standardized care", and "applying educational and research approaches". Conclusion: Palliative care in Iran is a recent discipline. The results have shown that the process of providing services requires the attention of the health system to the standard models for providing palliative care services. In addition, it is necessary to train human resources in generalist and specialist palliative care groups, design palliative medicine curricula, inform general public about cancer, and empower patients and caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient safety, which is a patient's right, can be threatened by nursing errors. Furthermore, nurses' feeling of "being a wrongdoer" in response to nursing errors can influence the quality of care they deliver. Research objectives: To explore the meaning of Iranian nurses' experience of "being a wrongdoer". Research design: A phenomenological approach was used to explore nurses' lived experiences. Nurses were recruited purposively to take part in semistructured interviews, and the data collected from these interviews were analyzed using Van Manen's thematic analysis. Participants and research context: Eight nurses working in three private or governmental hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Ethical consideration: The research design was approved in each participating hospital, and all interviews were carried out at a predetermined time in a private place. Findings: Five themes were extracted from the data: "wandering in unpleasant feelings" (with two subthemes: "unpleasant physical feelings" and "unpleasant emotions"), "wandering in the conscience court" (with three subthemes: "being the accused," "being the victim," and "being the judge"), "being arrested in time," "time for change" (with three subthemes: "promoting accountability," "promoting learning," and "strengthening supportive relationships"), and "spiritual exercise". Discussion: Some of our results are supported by the model of self-reconciliation and the recovery trajectory of "second victims" theory. Conclusion: The meaning of "being a wrongdoer" has positive and negative aspects. Feelings of wandering provide nurses the opportunity to reflect on and re-embrace the professional and moral responsibility of nursing. Nursing managers can convert their "defeats" into a prelude to learning, increase their accountability, and improve the quality of nursing care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Moral distress represents one of the common ethical issues among teachers. These tensions can affect the teachers' work life and the quality of teaching. The objective of the current essay is as saying the experience of nursing teachers of moral distress characteristics. Method: 13 nursing teachers participated in this qualitative study in the form of face-to-face and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed by conventional qualitative content analysis method. Findings: The chief classes acquired out of the experience of nursing teachers as regards moral distress were consisted of valuation of the situation, getting entangled in the situation, mental involvement and unavoidability. Findings: The results of the current study showed that moral distress can affect the values, beliefs and creeds of the teachers. Its characteristics of repeatability and unavoidability together bring about a situation where nursing teachers face situation management challenges and this affects the educational quality. Then it is suggested some strategies to be thought for identification and reduction of moral distress in nursing teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nursing begins with education and educational ethics guarantees the health the process of teaching and learning in the universities. Exact definition of the ethical values related to learning and education helps the students to receive the best education they deserve. Moreover, it also helps to recognize the status of science and dignity of the educators. This study was adopted in order to determine ethical values for nursing education in various countries. Materials and Methods: This literature review was conducted based on the Center for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines in 2016-17. The search of article in English was carried out in Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid and Proquest databases. The search of article in Persian was conducted in databases of Magiran, SID, and Irandoc publication. After assessing and analyzing the obtain data, 14 articles were chosen and subjected to a thorough study. Results: The search led to the identification of 3 main competencies related to ethical values in nursing education, including personality competency, technical-professional competency, and socio-cultural competency. Discussion: Analysis of the literature related to ethical values in nursing education suggests that categorizing ethical values based the three aforementioned major competencies may provide a proper framework for the assessment of these values in different areas of education, research, and management in nursing education institutes and to evaluate their performance. However, considering the cultural diversity and prevailing philosophy in different societies, it is important to define these values clearly in the context of the target educational population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Spirituality is one of human capabilities providing problem solving and coping strategies; in addition, it creates a sense of meaning, against disaster and confusion, as a social support resource. Spiritual well-being is a state of health expressing emotions, behaviors, and positive cognitions of self-, others, nature, and a super entity communication. Elderly is an undeniable evolutionary period of human being. Getting older, elderlies would undergo several physical and mental problems including cancer. Knowledge of cancer may influence several life aspects among elderlies, the most important of which may include death anxiety and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction indicates the individual positive attitude to the world where he lives. It is inclusively related to the individual needs. With the knowledge of cancer, there would be an inconsistency between the individual's needs and natural tendencies leading to life dissatisfaction among the patients suffering from cancer. Purpose: The present research is conducted to study the correlation between spiritual well-being with life satisfaction and death anxiety among patients enduring cancer at major hospitals in Tehran. Given the increased population of elderlies, high prevalence of cancer and its malicious effect, and regarding cancer incidence in recent decades influencing different life aspects including life satisfaction and death anxiety; and otherwise, the effect of life satisfaction and death anxiety on cancer progression, the present research is significant considered as national research priorities. Research methodology: This is a descriptive-correlation study. Research statistical population included Iranian elderlies enduring cancer at major hospitals in Tehran in 2016. 185 research samples were selected based on inclusion criteria through convenience sampling method using a demographic questionnaire, spiritual well-being scale (Ferry and Dollman), satisfaction with life scale (SWLS; Diener), and death anxiety scale (Templler). Research data were analyzed through SPSS 20 using multiple linear regression analysis, independent t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Further, the correlation between the two variables was tested by Pearson correlation coefficient at significance level 0.05. Findings: The research showed that there is a positive significant relationship between spiritual well-being and life satisfaction (at 0.05). In other word, spiritual well-being can predict satisfaction with life in understudied elderlies. In addition, there was seen a significant inverse relationship between death anxiety and spiritual well-being. As a result, the individuals with higher spiritual well-being would experience less death anxiety. Conclusion: Spiritual well-being is of effective factors of death anxiety and satisfaction with life among elderlies suffering from cancer. Spirituality and meeting spiritual needs are considered as nursing care priorities for elderlies. Paying attention to the elderlies' spirituality by nurses may shield against individual difficulties; furthermore, it also reduces mental disorders and improves mental health and satisfaction with life in elderlies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Education is considered the first function and mission of the university, and observing educational ethics guarantees the health of the teaching–learning process in the university. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore ethical values in nursing education from the perspective of Iranian nursing students and educators. Research design: This qualitative study was conducted using the Thematic Content Analyses method. The data were collected from seven semi-structured individual interviews and three focus group discussions from July to November 2015. Participants and research context: The participants were faculty educators of nursing and nursing students in Tehran, capital of Iran, who were selected through purposive sampling. They were recruited gradually. Sampling was continued until data saturation when no new codes were extracted. Ethical committee: This study was conducted after obtaining the approval of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee, and informed consent were ensured before conducting the research. The principles of voluntariness, confidentiality, and anonymity were respected during the research process. Findings: Seven major themes emerged: human dignity, constructive human relations, educational justice, competency enhancement, excellence view, wisdom, and commitment and accountability. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that although many of the values, as universal values, were similar to those of other countries—which can be a reflection of the globalization process in the nursing profession and the presence of humanistic and spiritual approaches at the roots of the discipline, some differences could be found in the content of values due to factors such as the people’s beliefs, culture, and religion. Iranian nursing students and educators revealed a unique and culture-based set of ethical values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]