[Studying the managers' viewpoint of east Azerbaijan province about earthquake relief operation in Red Crescent society in 2012]

Natural disasters occur in communities and sometimes led to tragic disasters. In the meantime, earthquakes are the most surprising one, which becomes a human tragedy in the absence of community prevention and preparedness, and have a destructive effect on human beings, habitat and the community directly and indirectly. This study aims to answer this question how to take proper managing of relief operations; and to explore and identify the strengths and weaknesses points of relief operations management by asking directors' and officers' point of views of Red Crescent society and its branches involved in relief working to the affected people in Eastern Azerbaijan. In this qualitative study, managers, deputies and heads of branches were selected and studied in the affected areas of Eastern Azerbaijan [Varzeqan, Ahar and Harris] in 2012. Using purposive sampling, data was collected and analyzed by content analysis and in-depth interviews technique. The reliability coefficient was C. [R=0/71]. The results show that attendance time of relief workers category was appropriate than others categories in carrying out relief operations of Red Crescent society in East Azerbaijan and other categories were very inappropriate/low inappropriate/somewhat inappropriate. According to the results, a crisis management committee including different organizations and agencies are required to plan properly for the way to deal with disasters and relief working, and timely and equitable of facilities distribution. In one hand, this planning should be at the macro level between all agencies and organizations including military and armed forces, ministries [roads and transportation, power, telecommunications, health care, etc.], municipality, councils and governors, county, and Red Crescent society. On other hand, this planning should be at the micro-level [coordination between various parts of Red Crescent society] inside Red Crescent society and in form of a protocol job description defined clearly

[ study of relationship between burnout and demographic variables in RCS relief workers in Tehran province]

Burnout is a psychological syndrome concerning emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Burnout occurs often in people who deal with others in their business. Relief workers may also experience burnout, so it is important to know the burnout related factors in order to prevent psychological disorders in them. The aim of this study was to verify the relationship between some of the demographic variables and burnout in relief workers. This was a cross-sectional survey to study the correlation between burnout and demographic variables in relief workers. The study population was all the relief workers of Red Crescent society in Tehran province. Census method was used for collecting data. About 297 relief workers which were all male participated in the study. Demographic data was collected by using a self administrated questionnaire. Maslach Burnout Inventory [MBI] was used as a research tool for assessing burnout levels. According to the findings, there was a positive and significant but poor association between both age and number of shifts in a month with personal accomplishment. No association was found between past occupational experience [as a relief worker], number of participations in past month incidents, educational level and type of serving [as a volunteer or non-volunteer relief worker] with burnout components. The results showed that there is no relationship between burnout and demographic variables studied in this survey in relief workers

Early and intermediate prognosis of intravenous thrombolytic therapy in acute ischemic stroke subtypes according to the causative classification of stroke system

Intravenous thrombolytic therapy has established acceptable results in treating ischemic stroke. However, there is little information on treatment outcome especially in different subtypes. The aim of current study was to evaluate early and intermediate prognosis in intravenous thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke subtypes. Forty eligible patients [57.5% male with mean age of 63.18 +/- 13.49 years] with definite ischemic stroke who were admitted to emergency department of Imam Reza University Hospital, in the first 180 minutes after occurrence received recombinant tissue plasminogen activator. All investigation findings were recorded and stroke subtypes were determined according to the Causative Classification of Stroke System. Stroke severity forms including modified Rankin Scale [mRS] and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS] scores were recorded for all patients in first, seven and 90 days after stroke and disease outcome was evaluated. The etiology of stroke was large artery atherosclerosis in 20%, cardio-aortic embolism in 45%, small artery occlusion in 17.5% and undetermined causes in 17.5%. NIHSS and mRS scores were significantly improved during time [P < 0.001 in both cases]. Three months mortality rate was 25%. Among the etiologies, patients with small artery occlusion and then cardio-aortic embolism had lower NIHSS score at arrival [P = 0.04]. Caplan-meier analysis showed that age, sex and symptom to needle time could predict disease outcome. Intravenous thrombolytic therapy is accompanied by good early and intermediate outcome in most patients with ischemic stroke. Small artery occlusion subtype had less disease severity and higher improvement