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Background:  Nurses play a significant role in contributing to various health priorities globally, including research. Identifying the status of national nursing research priorities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region is crucial to cultivating these priorities. This expert opinion paper highlights the existing status of national nursing research priorities in Eastern Mediterranean Region countries concerning their existence and publicity., Methods:  Experts from nine Eastern Mediterranean Region countries, including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report. They participated by completing a cross-sectional survey and providing a narrative description of their opinions., Results:  The findings revealed that 58% of the participating countries have existing national nursing research priorities, while 25.8% do not, and 16% are under development. Governmental organizations developed the largest portion of the priorities (38%). Midwives were not considered in half of the published priorities. The vast majority of national nursing research priorities (65%) were developed by experts' opinions and consensus, and 33% only have an associated strategy, outcome measures, and/or funding opportunities. Generally, most published research priorities were not updated regularly., Conclusion:  Eastern Mediterranean Region countries face a challenge with the need for more nurses, which may hinder their involvement in research projects or continued education. Despite this, all countries involved in this report emphasized the importance of developing nursing education and research as priorities for improving their current nursing workforce. Health policymakers, nurse practitioners, academic researchers, educators, and nursing leaders should collaborate to develop operational plans to foster national nursing education and research., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Nursing Research Ethics Committee at Hazam Meberik General Hospital issued approval Nur/20Aug/22. All methods followed relevant guidelines and regulations or the Declaration of Helsinki. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Nashwan et al.)

Background: The Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL) questionnaire assesses the quality of life of people with fertility problems. The present study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the FertiQoL in infertile couples in Jordan., Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design among 212 participants with infertility problems. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to investigate the underlying structure of the novel Arabic version of the FertiQoL tool., Results: The Cronbach's alpha values for the FertiQoL core domain, the FertiQoL treatment domain, and the total FertiQoL scale were 0.93, 0.74, and 0.92, respectively. The EFA indicated a two-domain model, with the first factor having 24 items and measuring "Core QoL". The second factor has 10 items and measures "Treatment QoL" in the context of infertility. The EFA and the CFA supported a two-factor model whereby the two factors explained 48% of the shared covariance between the analyzed quality of life indicators. The indices of goodness-of-fit of the model showed acceptable fit as follows: the chi-squared test (χ2) = 7.943, the comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.999, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.001, and the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.989., Conclusion: The study's findings demonstrated the reliability and validity of the Arabic version of the FertiQoL for assessing the quality of life of infertile couples or those in Jordan with no pregnancy or childlessness., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Perinatal mortality is a fundamental indicator of the quality of the healthcare provided to women during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as the healthcare provided to neonates in the first week of life. At the national level, determining the direct and indirect causes of these deaths is vital, as it will assist in tracking the quality of antenatal, natal and postnatal care and help to detect the areas for avoidance. This study aimed to identify the main determinants of perinatal deaths in Jordan from the perspectives of health care providers (HCPs)., Methods: A descriptive qualitative approach using focus group discussion was used. Four focus groups were conducted in each of the four hospitals where the approached HCPs are employed. An average of 5 HCPs were interviewed in each focus group with a total of 80 HCPs participating in the 16 focus groups. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the data., Results: The HCPs provided a detailed description of the determinants of perinatal and neonatal death from their points of view. Four main themes with multiple subthemes emerged, namely maternal factors (ignorance, concealment of medical condition, and husbands' negligence), sociocultural factors (socioeconomic status, tribal and consanguineous marriage, and harmful cultural practices), political factors (early marriage driven by displacement and war consequences on maternal health), and health system-related factors (services management including capabilities and logistics, overcrowding of emergency rooms, discharge against medical advice, and unskilled general practitioners in private maternity clinics)., Conclusions: As perceived by HCPs, maternal factors, sociocultural factors, political factors, and health system-related factors are the main determinants of perinatal deaths in Jordan. Improvement in the quality of maternal and neonatal health care services, maternal health education, and maternity staff training are strongly recommended.

Fear of infection and measures taken to mitigate infection, such as social distancing, lockdown and isolation can lead to anxiety and depression across the life course, but especially in pregnancy. We set out to identify the prevalence of depression in pregnancy, using Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during national quarantine and to examine women's knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) in regard to potential COVID-19-related depression. Following ethical approval, an observational design, with an online questionnaire and snowball sampling was used to recruit 546 pregnant women (231 primi and 315 multiparous) in Jordan via common social media platforms (facebook, WhatsApp). Over one third (36.7%) reported depressive symptoms. There were significantly lower depression scores among pregnant women who exhibited more knowledge about COVID-19 (in high [vs low] knowledge groups, mean EPDS = 10.8 [vs 12.2]; p = 0.007). Depression scores were not significantly associated with attitude nor with practice. This suggests that enhanced knowledge levels may protect pregnant women against depression. Our findings contribute to understanding of the experience of pregnant women in developing countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare Professionals should provide health education to all pregnant women and timely services to pregnant women with depressive symptoms. This may lead to the prevention of serious symptoms and reduce negative consequences on the next generation, not only in Jordan, but worldwide., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Abujilban et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)