Background: Nurses as the largest group of health care providers should enjoy a satisfactory quality of working life to be able to provide quality care to their patients. Therefore, attention should be paid to the nurses' working life. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the quality of nurses' working life in Kashans' hospitals during 2012. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 nurses during 2012. The data-gathering instrument consisted of two parts. The first part consisted of questions on demographic information and the second part was the Walton's quality of work life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software. For statistical analysis T test and one way ANOVA were used. Results:The results of the study showed that 60% of nurses reported that they had moderate level of quality of working life while 37.1% and 2% had undesirable and good quality of working life, respectively. Nurses with associate degrees reported a better quality of working life than others. A significant relationship was found between variables such as education level, work experience, and type of hospital with quality of working life score (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between quality of working life score of nurses with employment status (P = 0.061), salary (P = 0.052), age, gender and marital status (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Nurses' quality of work life was at the moderate level. As quality of work life has an important impact on attracting and retaining employees, it is necessary to pay more attention to the nurses' quality of work life and its affecting factors.

Background: Nurses as the largest group of health care providers should enjoy a satisfactory quality of working life to be able to provide quality care to their patients. Therefore, attention should be paid to the nurses' working life. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the quality of nurses' working life in Kashans' hospitals during 2012. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 nurses during 2012. The data-gathering instrument consisted of two parts. The first part consisted of questions on demographic information and the second part was the Walton's quality of work life questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software. For statistical analysis T test and one way ANOVA were used. Results:The results of the study showed that 60% of nurses reported that they had moderate level of quality of working life while 37.1% and 2% had undesirable and good quality of working life, respectively. Nurses with associate degrees reported a better quality of working life than others. A significant relationship was found between variables such as education level, work experience, and type of hospital with quality of working life score (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between quality of working life score of nurses with employment status (P = 0.061), salary (P = 0.052), age, gender and marital status (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Nurses' quality of work life was at the moderate level. As quality of work life has an important impact on attracting and retaining employees, it is necessary to pay more attention to the nurses' quality of work life and its affecting factors.

Background:Patients waiting for coronary angiography are often anxious and worried, experiencing considerable emotional problems before the procedure, which can result in an increase in blood pressure (BP), heart rate, respiratory rate and the myocardial oxygen demand. Such maladaptive responses may not only increase the patients need for sedative drugs, but also could increase the length of post angiography hospitalization. Therefore, it is important to implement some supportive actions to decrease the patients' anxiety and to stabilize their vital signs before coronary angiography. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of a multimodal preparation package on vital signs of patients undergoing coronary angiography. Patients and Methods: A matched trial was conducted on 66 patients waiting for coronary angiography. Patients were assigned in intervention (n = 33) and control (n = 33) groups. A multimodal preparation package was implemented in intervention group, two hours before angiography. The data collection instrument consisted of questions on demographic characteristics and a table for recording the patients' vital signs including systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), heart rate, respiratory rate and body temperature. Vital signs were measured three times, the day before angiography, 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after the angiography, using a thermometer and a monitoring device. Data analysis was performed using the Kolmogo-Smirnov test, t test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: From the total number of 66 patients, the 63.3% were male and married. No significant differences were observed between the mean of SBP and DBP and also the heart rate in the intervention and control groups, on the day before angiography. However, the mean SBP and DBP and heart rate of the intervention group were significantly lower compared to the control group, both 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after angiography. The intervention did not significantly change the respiration rate and temperature in the intervention group. Conclusions: The study showed that preparation package was effective in decreasing SBP and DBP, as well as heart rate. Therefore, using multimodal comprehensive preparation packages, such as the package used in the present report, is suggested.

The headcount ratio of the exposure to catastrophic health expenditures in urban and rural households was 2.5% (2.43% - 2.64%) and 3.6% (3.48% - 3.76%), respectively. The difference in households' income levels was the main contributor in explaining the inequality in facing catastrophic health expenditures between poor and nonpoor households. [Correction added on 02 June 2018, after first online publication: The "Results" section of the Abstract of the published article has been correctly updated on this version.] CONCLUSION: Even after implementing the HTP, the headcount ratios of catastrophic health expenditure are still considerable. The results show that income is the greatest determinant of inequality in facing catastrophic health expenditure and in urban households.

BACKGROUND:The move to universal health coverage and consequently health promotion is influenced by political, socioeconomic and other contextual factors in a country. Iran, as a developing country with an upper-middle national income, has developed policies to achieve universal health coverage through financial protection. This study aims to investigate barriers to develop financial protection as a requirement to achieve universal health coverage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted using 20 in-depth interviews with experts in social welfare, health insurance and financing. The framework analysis method was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The results have been categorized in three major themes that were extracted from ten sub-themes. The major themes included the political, social and economic context of the country, the context and structure of healthcare system and dimensions of UHC. CONCLUSION:Achieving financial protection as a long-term objective should be considered as a priority among Iranian policy makers that requires an inter-sectoral collaboration with a defined in-charge body. Health policy makers in Iran should develop a more comprehensive benefits package for diseases and health conditions with catastrophic consequences. They also should develop a plan to cover the poor people.