[Demographic factors involved in nurses' clinical decision making]

Clinical decision making as the pillar of professional nursing practice sets nurses apart from other non- professional health care staff. Clinical decisions made by nurses affect quality care more than other factors and contribute to identification of patients' needs and the best nursing interventions. This study aims to determine demographic factors involved in nurses clinical decision making. It was a descriptive cross- sectional study. The sample consisted of 285 nurses working in selected wards of hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. They were recruited by stratified random sampling. Data was collected by a check list and Participation in Decision Activities Questionnaire [PDAQ] and analyzed by SPSS-PC [v.15]. There were significant relationships between nurses clinical decision making and their age [p= 0.003] sex [p=0.001] ward [p=0.002] employment status [p=0.005] and years in work [p=0.025]. Considering the factors involved in nurse's clinical decision making, nurse manager could facilitate their participation in this process

[ physiological parameters in preterm infant in kangaroo and traditional methods]

Kangaroo method is a revolutionary way of taking a good care of infants, especially preterm infants. The studies have well demonstrated the positive effects of kangaroo method on physiological parameters of preterm infants. Skin to skin contacts can have effects on increasing the rate of oxygen saturation, decreasing the risk of hypothermia, stabilizing the heart rate, breath and sleep patterns. A cross over clinical trail was utilized to expose the infants and their mothers to both traditional and kangaroo methods. Sixty infants were selected through simple random allocation and divided into two groups. The infants in first group were removed from the incubator by kangaroo method which followed by the traditional method, for breastfeeding and the second groups vice versa. The infant's physiological parameters were measured at different times. The study demonstrated that the second group infants had different mean heart rate at 5th, 30th minutes, before removing from incubator and also five minutes after returning back [P=0.001, P=0.02, P=0.03]. It was also revealed that other physiological parameters [Breathing, oxygen saturation and temperature] didn't have any differences between groups. Mothers mostly preferred the kangaroo method to traditional way, especially those who had experienced infertility. All statistics were computed by the SPSS software [version 14]. Kangaroo and traditional method showed the same effect on physiological parameters. However, since the mothers preferred Kangaroo method, the researchers recommend it as a substitute for current nursing care methods