[General health and its association with sleep quality in two groups of nurses with and without shift working in educational centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences [IUMS]]

The health condition of nurses as caregivers influences the quality of care received by patients. To reach the maximum performance, nurses themselves need be health. Nurses, because of the nature of their career confront many types of stresses in their work environment and they are among people that are prone sleep disorder because of working in morning, evening, night and especially, rotation shifts. The aim of this study is comparison of the general health and sleep quality of nurses in two groups of without shift and with shift working in IUMS- 2006. It was a descriptive - analytical study. The setting was hospitals affiliated to IUMS. Five hundreds and twenty nurses were recruited using stratified random sampling. To survey the general health and sleep quality of nurses General Health Questionnaire - 28 and Pitsberg Sleep Quality Index tools were used. Chi - Square test indicatod that there was a significant difference between general health of without shift and with shift workers, so that general health of without shift workers was better than rotation shift ones. The sleep quality of without shift nurses was also better than rotation shift ones [r=0.692, P<0.001]. There was a direct correlation between general health state and sleep quality [P<0.001]. Based of the finding of this study, appropriate and efficient managmant and careful planning of working shifts is suggest to reduce sleep disturbances in nurses. Promotion of nurse's quality of sleep can promote their general health and eventually promotes the quality care of patients

[Relationship between cancer characteristics and quality of life in the cancer patients under chemotherapy referred to selected clinic of Tehran university of medical sciences]

This descriptive study was performed to find the relationship between cancer characters and the life quality of patients under chemotherapy referred to selected clinic of Tehran university of medical sciences. The sample consisted of 200 patients with different types of cancer [solid tumors] selected by simple sampling method. A questionnaire was filled for each patient using patients' files, self-reports and interviews. Chi-square test was used to find the statistical relationships. Thirty-five percent of the subjects had gastrointestinal cancer, 35.5% were at the stage 3 of the disease, in 61.5% the duration of disease from diagnosis time was less than a year, 41% had mild pain, 91% had accepted their disease, 84.5% had a decrease or loss of organ's function and 69.5% had a moderate intensity of fatigue. The quality of life of the majority of the subjects was moderate [66%]. There were significant relationships between characteristics of cancer like type of the cancer [P < 0.01], intensity of pain [P < 0.01], decrease or loss of organ's function [P < 0.01], or the degree of fatigue [P < 0.001] and the life quality, but there was no correlation between acceptance or refusal of the disease, duration of disease from diagnosis time or stage of cancer and quality of life