Background:Radiological examinations for patients who are hospitalized at intensive care units are usually performed using portable radiography devices. However they may require knowledge and safety precautions of nurses.Objectives:The aim of the study was to investigate ICU nurses’ knowledge of radiation safety and their behaviors towards portable radiological examinations.Materials and Methods:In total, 44 intensive care nurses were recruited for this cross-sectional descriptive study using census sampling during April and May 2014. The study setting was at intensive care units of Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Kashan, Iran. An eleven-item questionnaire and a five-item checklist were used for evaluating nurses’ radiation protection knowledge and behaviors, respectively. An expert panel consisting of ten nursing and radiology faculty members confirmed the content validity of the questionnaire and the checklist. Moreover, a Geiger-Müller counter was used for measuring ionizing radiation during portable radiological examinations. Study data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 13.0. Mean, standard deviation, frequency and one-sample t test were used for description of the data. The level of significance was set at below 0.05.Results:The mean of participants’ radiation protection knowledge was 4.77 ± 1.38. The most prevalent radiation protection behavior of nurses was leaving the intensive care unit during portable radiological examinations. Only 6.8% of nurses stayed at the nursing station during radiological examinations. The highest dose of radiation was 0.11 micro Sievert per hour (μSv/h), which was much lower than the highest permitted level of radiation exposure i.e. 0.25 μSv/h.Conclusions:Portable radiological examinations did not expose healthcare providers to high doses of ionizing radiation. Nurses’ radiation protection knowledge was limited and hence, they require in-service education programs.

Background: Quality of life is considered as the sense of well-being and life satisfaction. The healthcare professionals' final mission is health amelioration to increase the patients' life quality. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of different factors on the quality of life in patients discharged from critical care units. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 325 patients admitted to critical care units of Kashan Shahid Beheshti hospital using a convenience sampling method in 2015. Data were gathered one month after patients' discharge through a demographic questionnaire, the quality of life standardized ShortForm-36 (SF-36) questionnaire, and the post-traumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL). The obtained data were analyzed using statistical tests such as t-test and (one-way) ANOVA test. Results: The enrolled sample consisted of 185 (56.9%) males and 140 (43.1%) females with a mean age of 54 ± 16.15. The mean total score of life quality in the study sample was 54.32 ± 27.52 and the total score of PCL was 43.99 ± 19.94. The mean score of the life quality was lower among patients with features including over 60 years, unemployed, a long-term hospitalization, more than five children, drug abuse, using mechanical ventilation, and post-traumatic stress disorder; however, the mean score was higher in employed and highly educated people. This analysis indicated no relationship between quality of life and patient's gender, type of critical care unit, marital status, and admission for trauma reason. Conclusion: The mean score of the quality of life of patients discharged from intensive care units is low. Some of the individual and medical features such as age, drug abuse, a long-term hospitalization, using mechanical ventilation, and post-traumatic stress disorder are risk factors that decrease the quality of life. Nurses can identify and control the risk factors in intensive care units.

Background and Objective: Anxiety, stress, and depression can cause chest pain. On the other hand, spiritual health plays an important role in acceptance of disease. In this study, we attempted to investigate the relationship of stress, anxiety, and depression with spiritual health in patients with acute coronary syndrome. Materials and Methods:This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 294 patients with acute coronary syndrome during 10 months in teaching hospitals affiliated to Qom University of Medical Sciences. Data collection was performed by using demographic and clinical data, depression, anxiety, stress, and spiritual health questionnaires. To analyze the data, indices of the central tendency, independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient were used in SPSS, version 13. Results: There were significant correlations between anxiety and stress and existential health (r=-0.196, P=0.001 and r=-0.171, P=0.003, respectively) and between depression and both existential and religious health dimensions (r=-0.294, P=0.001 and r=-0.244, P=0.001, respectively). In addition, the depression and stress levels were higher in more advanced ages, while existential health was lower. Depression, stress, and existential and religious health were higher in patients with a history of chronic diseases. In those with a history of taking cardiac medications, the levels of stress, anxiety, and existential and religious health were higher. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, in patients with acute coronary syndrome, those who obtained higher spiritual health scores experienced less anxiety and depression. Thus, nurses are recommended to implement self-care training programs with the presence of religious counselors in hospitals and even after discharge to increase patients' spiritual health and diminish their anxiety, stress, and depression. In this case, special attention must be paid to patients aged more than 50 years, with a history of chronic diseases and taking cardiac medications.

Introduction: Long-term complications of diabetes leads to physical and mental weakness and reduce their quality of life. One of the complications is the chronic wounds of extremities. Because of its outcome, patient's adaptation can be reduced. The aim of this study was to compare depression between diabetic patients with and without foot wounds. Materials and methods: The comparative-descriptive study was performed on diabetic patients with and without foot wounds that admitted to the hospitals in Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2014. 100 patients with chronic wounds and 100 patients without the wounds was recruited by available sampling method for the study. We employed the "Demographic and clinical" and "Beck depression" questionnaires for gathering the data. The study data were analyzed by independent t and Chi-square tests using the SPSS (version 13) statistical software. Results: Mean and standard deviation of age in patient with and without chronic wound was 52.1±3.9 and 51.5±4.1 years, respectively. Depressive score of patient with and without chronic wound was also 25.6±9.5 and 8.7±2.1, respectively. Depression score of patient with underlying disease was higher than patients without underlying disease. The depression score rises with age. The depression scores were similar in both male and female gender. Conclusion: The depression in patient with chronic wounds was higher than patient without the wounds. Also, depression in patients with underlying disease and older age, rises.