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.

Instructors' capabilities have to be improved regarding the effective utilization of some behaviors related to evaluation, personal characteristics, and nursing competency. In this respect, the use of comprehensive teaching programs can be quite beneficial.

Background Medical care that has therapeutic effects without significant benefits for the patient is called futile care. Intensive Care Units are the most important units in which nurses provide futile care. This study aimed to explain the causes of futile care from the perspective of nurses working in Intensive Care Units are. Method The study was conducted using a qualitative approach. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Study participants were 17 nurses who were working in the Intensive Care Units are of hospitals in the north of Iran. They were recruited through a purposeful sampling method. Data was gathered using in-depth, semi-structured interviews from March to June 2021. Recruitment was continued until data saturation was reached. Results Two main themes, four categories, and thirteen subcategories emerged from the data analysis. The main themes were principlism and caring swamp. The categories were moral foundation, professionalism, compulsory care, and patient’s characteristics. Conclusion In general, futile care has challenged nursing staff with complex conflicts. By identifying some of these conflicts, nurses will be able to control such situations and plan for better management strategies. Also, using the findings of this study, nursing managers can adopt supportive strategies to reduce the amount of futile care and thus solve the specific problems of nurses in intensive care units such as burnout, moral stress, and intention to leave.

Background Acceptance is considered a key variable in chronic diseases such as chronic renal failure. To achieve adaptation and acceptance, people face obstacles, and identifying these obstacles primarily requires self-awareness. logo-therapy can help a person achieve this goal. To this end, this study aimed to investigate the effect of logo-therapy on disease acceptance and self-awareness of patients undergoing hemodialysis referred to a medical centers supervised by Kerman medical science university in 2021. Methods This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pre-test-post-test research design on 80 patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis in Kerman. The patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected using convenience sampling and were then randomly assigned to intervention and control groups (40 patients in each group). The logo-therapy training program was performed for the participants in the intervention group during 4 sessions of 45–60 min, individually and three times a week. The instruments used for data collection were a demographic information questionnaire, the Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS), and the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire (SAOQ). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22). Results The analysis didn’t show a significant difference in the acceptance of illness scores in the intervention group before and after the intervention (P > 0.05). Besides, a statistically significant difference was observed between the intervention and control groups in terms of self-awareness, indicating that the intervention improved the dialysis patients’ self-awareness (P < 0.05). Also, the patients’ age, marriage length, and the number of children had statistically significant correlations with self-awareness and acceptance (P < 0.05). Conclusion The results of this study showed that meaning therapy intervention can positively affect disease acceptance and self-awareness of patients undergoing hemodialysis. Since logo-therapy has been effective in other patients and the patients in this study, health officials and managers are recommended to use this intervention method to promote disease acceptance and self-awareness in these patients.

Abstract Background Professional values are the basis of development of professional identity and commitment. Evaluation of professional values provides critical information regarding effective strategies for their integration in professional performance and clinical learning. The present study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of Nurses Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R) in Iranian population. Methods This methodological study was conducted on 439 students in the last semester of nursing selected from Iran’s universities using stratified single-stage cluster sampling. After back translation, its face, content, and construct validity were assessed. Its reliability was also evaluated by determining Cronbach’s alpha using internal consistency method. All analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical software, version 19. Results Considering face validity, all items’ impact scores were above 1.5. Regarding content validity, CVR and CVI of all components were > 0.6 and = 1, respectively. After exploratory factor analysis, the number of items was reduced to 25 and five factors explained 52.26% of the total variance. Moreover, the reliability coefficient was 0.53–0.83 for the factors and 0.91 for the whole scale. Conclusions The Persian version of NPVS-R had acceptable validity and reliability in Iranian context. Yet, further studies have to be conducted on this instrument with different cultural backgrounds.