Death anxiety among nurses and health care professionals: a review article

Death anxiety, a negative affective state that is incited by mortality salience, may be experienced by nurses and other health care workers who are exposed to sickness, trauma, and violence. This paper examines death anxiety and management strategies among health providers in different health settings across cultures. A literature review of the research published since 2000 in the English language was conducted using PubMed, Science direct, CINAHL, and PsychInfo databases. Death anxiety is commonly experienced and is associated with more negative attitudes about caring for dying patients and their families. Performing educational and psychological interventions to help nurses build strong coping strategies for managing death anxiety are recommended to offset negative consequences such as leaving positions, poor communication, and decrements in personal health and quality of life

effect of vitamin B12 infusion on prevention of nitrous oxide-induced homocysteine increase: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

Nitrous oxide is a common inhalation anesthetic agent in general anesthesia. While it is widely accepted as a safe anesthetic agent, evidence suggests exposure to this gas, leads to hyperhomocysteinemia. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of single-dose intravenous infusions of vitamin B12, before and after the induction of nitrous oxide anesthesia on homocysteine levels after the surgery. This double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted on 60 patients who were scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia, presumably lasting for more than two hours. The subjects were randomly allocated to three groups of 20. For the first group, vitamin B12 solution [1 mg/100 ml normal saline] and 100 ml of normal saline [placebo], were infused before and after the induction of anesthesia, respectively. The second group received placebo and vitamin B12 infusion before and after the induction of anesthesia, respectively. The third group received placebo infusions at both times. Homocysteine levels were measured before and 24 hours after the surgery. The mean homocysteine and vitamin B12 levels were significantly different within the three groups [p<0.001]. In patients who had been infused with vitamin B12 before the surgery, homocysteine levels were significantly lower than the other two groups. In the placebo group, homocysteine levels significantly increased after the surgery. Nitrous oxide causes hyperhomocysteinemia after general anesthesia. Since vitamin B12 infusion is a safe and inexpensive method to decrease homocysteine levels in these patients, it may be recommended for patients undergoing nitrous oxide anesthesia to be used before induction of anesthesia

Nurses' attitude to patient education barriers in educational hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences

The purpose of this study was to explore nurses' attitudes to the barriers of patient education as a right for getting information based on work situation of nurses, educational facilities in hospitals, and patients' situation. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional design. The populations consisted of 240 nurses affiliated in the Educational Hospitals. The data were gathered by a questionnaire. Demographic variables and three domains were studied. Twenty questions were about their working situation, 4 questions about hospital educating facilities, and 12 questions were about patients' situation in hospital. The type and frequency of education barriers were evaluated, and variables associated with reporting an obstacle were analyzed. In our questionnaire, we used a Likert scale for determining severity of three domains as the barriers of patient education that ranged from 0 to 4. Generally, it was obvious that educational condition in our hospitals was not good and most of the nurses believed that patient education is not their duties, facilities in hospitals are not sufficient and shortness of time is the most important cause of insufficiency of patient education. The interactions of patient, physician and systemic factors have implications for the implementation of patient education. The failure of adequate patient education may be attributed to the lack of patient adherence, the failure of nurses' knowledge and skill level or the insufficient funding and organization of necessary programs in the current health care system.

[Association between seasonal patterns and birth weight]

Season of birth is one of the environmental factors that may affect birth weight. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between seasonal patterns and birth weight in an educational center in Iran, 2010. In this cross sectional study, the check list was used for checking of 3076 women that delivered on vaginal method [NVD]. Exclusion criteria included twin delivery, intrauterine fetal death [IUFD], abortion in current pregnancy and delivery by caesarean. 81.2% women were primiparous and 53.3 percent of newborns were boys. The gestational age of 7.4, and 92.6 percent women was preterm and term, respectivly. Average neonatal birth weight was 3248.18 +/- 458 and women mean age was 25.33 +/- 5.7 years. There was a significant relationship between seasonal changes and the mean birth weight [P= 0.018] as the highest weight was in spring and lowest in summer. The highest average birth weight term was the 21 March to 20 April and the lowest month was the 23 August to 22 September [P = 0.064]. Although birth weight can be different with seasonal changes, the role of other environmental factors should not be ignored.