BackgroundAn understanding of nurses’ experiences in disasters can help to identify their problems in this area. These can be overcome with better planning and preparation. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of disaster nurses regarding their provision of disaster health care services.MethodsThis was a qualitative study using an inductive qualitative content analysis. Participants included 15 Iranian nurses who had experiences of health care delivery in disasters. A purposeful sampling was applied until data saturation was reached. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and then analyzed based on the principle of inductive content analysis.ResultsFive main categories emerged from the experiences and perceptions of nurses who were involved in providing health care services in disasters: afraid of probability of recurrence, necessity of providing healthcare services for an unknown period of time, challenge of what to prioritize, nurses’ own conflicting emotions, and their concern for their own families.DiscussionThere are several factors affecting the delivery of healthcare in disasters. Nurses, who feel better prepared and have some understanding of the ethical implications of working under different standards of care, may be more comfortable with care giving in disasters. Appropriately, training and preparing nurses for disasters is important for optimizing the safe functioning and minimizing emotional and psychological damage.

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About 30% of people with multiple sclerosis require some form of supportive assistance at home, and 80% of that assistance is usually provided by spouses or partners. So, the explanation and understanding of patients' experiences of support received from their spouses enable spouses and healthcare professionals to reform their actions toward positive support. This study aimed to explore the experiences of people with multiple sclerosis regarding support from their spouses. A qualitative content analysis method was used to conduct this study. The study participants were 25 patients with multiple sclerosis who were chosen through purposeful sampling from multiple sclerosis associations of Isfahan and Tehran (Iran). Data were collected through nonstructured interviews from September 2011 to August 2012. Four themes and nine subthemes emerged through data analysis. The main themes were play a supportive role, establish a friendly and comfortable relationship, help patient to fight the disease, and help to maintain and to improve patients' functional ability. The results could help in improving the quality of spouses' support in people with multiple sclerosis. Moreover, it could aid in determining the educational needs of patients as supported persons and spouses as supporters. The results could lead to increased knowledge of healthcare experts about the issue of how Iranian people with multiple sclerosis are being supported by their wives/husbands. Furthermore, it would help them to design caring models to promote successful supporting strategies for patients.

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