[Effect of distraction on children's behavioral responses to pain during IV catheter insertion]

Pain is an unpleasant experience related to potential or actual tissue damage. Distraction is an effective technique to control pain. This study aimed to examine the effect of pressing a small soft ball during intravenous catheter insertion on pain related behavioral responses of children. A randomized clinical trial study was conducted in surgical ward of the Qods hospital in Qazvin, Iran in 2010. Sixty children aged 4-6 were selected through a simple randomized sampling method. The children were allocated into two equal intervention and control groups. Data were collected using the FLACC scale. In the intervention group, children were asked to press a soft ball during IV catheter insertion. The researcher marked the FLACC during the procedure. In the control group, no distraction was made during the IV catheter placement. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent-sample t-test, Chi square at P<0.05. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic variables including gender, birth order, race, age and type of disease. In the intervention group, none of the children experienced severe pain during IV catheter insertion; and 63.3% of the children had moderate pain. In the control group, 50.0% of children had moderate pain and 23.3% of them experienced severe pain during IV catheter insertion. There was a significant difference in perceived pain between the children of two groups [P<0.001]. Distraction is an effective, non-expensive, and easy-to access technique to control and reduce pain in children during IV catheter placement. This study showed that distraction through pressing a soft ball was effective in reducing the behavioral responses of pain in children who underwent IV catheter placement

[Comparison of diagnostic value of fasting plasma glucose with 100 gram oral glucose tolerance test in gestational diabetes mellitus screening]

Many different tests have been introduced for screening of gestational diabetes mellitus [GDM]. The objectives of this study were comparison of diagnostic value of fasting plasma glucose [FPG] with 100 gram oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT] and determining the suitable cut-off point of plasma glucose with best sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus [GDM]. This study was a clinical trial and carried out on 242 women in Kara-Iran. After doing 50 gram glucose challenge test [GCT], if 1- hour plasma glucose was >/= 130 mg/dl, the 3 hours 100 gram OGTT was performed. The diagnostic values of FPG and 1, 2 and 3 hours plasma glucose were compared by receiver operating characteristic curve [ROC]. Overall 50 gram GCT was positive in 41/3%. Then 100 gram OGTT for these was performed, 36% were identified as GDM. With using below surface of ROC curve for FPG [0/75], 1-hour [0/87], 2-hour [0/95] and 3-hour [0/75] plasma glucose determined that FPG with cut-off point >/= 91 mg/dl had 63.89% sensitivity rate and 76/56% specificity rate for diagnosis of GDM. However, 2-hour plasma glucose with cut-off point >/= 153 mg/dl had highest level of sensitivity rate [91/67%] and specificity rate [89/06%]. Two-hour glucose with cut-off point >/= 153 mg/dl had the best sensitivity and specificity rate in diagnosis of GDM. Therefore, 100 gram OGTT recommended for screening of GDM

[Verbal abuse against nurses in hospitals in Iran]

The rising rate of doing behavioral violence to people working in health-care centers is a major problem for nurse's population. This study was run with the aim of ascertaining how much nurses working in hospitals all over the country [Iran] are under verbal violence and finding out its relation with some individual and environmental factors. This study is a descriptive cross-sectional one which was run with 1317 nurses as the participants in hospitals all over the country of Iran during 2007. Data collection was done through self-report questionnaire. 87.4% of nurses experienced verbal violence at least once in their working surroundings during the last six months. Most of the verbal violence [64.4%] was done by patients' relatives, [44.2%] between 7:30 am to 14:30 pm in the patient's room [48.3%]. Results show that only 35.9% of verbal violence was reported by nurses. Investigating the frequency of verbal violence, the results of correlation analysis [x[2]] showed that there is a significant relationship between verbal violence and variables such as age [P=0.009], sex [P=0.001], job experience [P=0.007], work hours [P=0.001] and job rank [P=0.048]. Since lots of violence happens and the risk factors were investigated, more attention must be paid to this issue and the necessary steps must be taken in this regard. The findings of this study can be helpful to reduce, prevent and control the violence to nurses