Contributors to fatigue among nurses working in critical care units: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Fatigue is a growing concern among nurses who provide care to unstable and critically ill patients in critical care wards. It has various negative consequences for both nurses and patients. AIM: To explore and describe contributors to fatigue among nurses working in critical care units. STUDY DESIGN: A qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Participants were 21 nurses chosen using purposeful sampling. They were working in different critical care units at different hospitals in nine urban areas of Iran. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, and conventional content analysis was used to develop categories and subcategories. The analysis of data on the nurses' perspectives and experiences led to developing nine categories as contributors to fatigue: 'compassion fatigue', 'extensive network of interactions', 'sound and alarm fatigue', 'psychological tensions', 'managerial and organizational tensions', 'lack of motivation and incentives', 'individual characteristics of nurses', 'physical and mental pressure', and requirements of special care and situational complexity'. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the factors that influence the experience of fatigue among nurses working in critical care units is essential for maintaining a reliable and high-quality health care environment within health care facilities. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The experience of fatigue by critical care nurses can increase the possibility of practice errors, reduce patient safety and quality of care, and enhance staff burnout and turnover. Proactive policies should be formulated to assess nurses' fatigue levels and implement strategies for effective fatigue management. This approach aims to enhance both patient safety and job satisfaction in the workplace.

Critical care nurses' experiences on dishonesty: A qualitative content analysis.

BACKGROUND: Providing information to patients is an essential aspect of care. The way in which such information is transmitted is also important and is affected by different variables. The perceptions of dishonest nursing staff have not been sufficiently discussed to date. AIM: The purpose is to explore the reasons for dishonesty in transmitting information to patients. DESIGN AND METHOD: In this qualitative content analysis study, data were collected using semi-structured interviews with Twelve Iranian Critical Care Nurses from January 2020 till August 2020. Data were analyzed according to Graneheim and Lundman approach. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: The research protocol was authorized by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Sciences University of Tehran (Register number: 95-04-99-33485). RESULTS: The findings indicated that dishonesty in giving information to the patients has many reasons. Although lying is not compatible with ethical care, working conditions sometimes forced nurses to hide the truth. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Nurses believed honesty was an integral aspect of professional practice, but situational specifics have an effect on whether the truth is told or withheld. Finally, the nurses noticed a big gap between what they want to tell and what they were doing in practice.

Iranian lifestyle factors affecting reflux disease among healthy people in Qom.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common digestive system disorders. Life style factors may increase the risk of reflux disease. We aimed to determine prevalence of reflux and related life style-factors in the population living in Qom. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 1500 residents of Qom in 2014. Individuals were selected through multi-stage sampling. They completed two questionnaires: FSSG questionnaire for diagnosis of GERD and a general questionnaire to measure demographic and lifestyle factors. Univariate and multivariate were used for analysis of data. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20. RESULTS: A total of 1130 individuals were analyzed in which 52.4% of them were female. Prevalence of GERD was 28%. Adjusted findings showed use of PPIs (OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 2-5), taking H2RAs (OR: 4.7, 95% CI: 2.3-9.4), the habit of quick eating (OR: 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1-2), extra salt consumption on daily meals (OR: 1.5, 95% CI: 1.05-2), lack of sleep (OR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.5-4.8), and consumption of white bread (OR: 1.7, 95% CI: 1.05-2.7) were related to increased risk of GERD. CONCLUSION: Our findings showed lifestyle factors such as habit of quick eating, extra salt on regular meals, lack of sleep and use of white bread were associate with increased risk of GERD. However, habit of midnight snack, having dinner just before bedtime, lack of breakfast, smoking, drinking tea and coffee were not associated with increased risk of GERD. It is recommended to carry out a cohort study among the Iranian population to evaluate the effect of life-style risk factors on GERD.

The lived experiences of clinical nurse managers regarding moral distress.

Ethical management with minimum moral distress is one of the main duties of nurse managers. There is no doubt that a better understanding of the experiences of nurse managers in morally challenging situations could have an effective role in improving health care systems. The present study aimed to investigate the lived experiences of clinical nurse managers regarding moral distress. This hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative research involved the use of semi-structured interviews with nurse managers. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by the Diekelman, Allen and Tanner approach. For this purpose, a total of 14 Iranian nurse managers with at least five years of experience in nursing management in hospitals were purposefully selected. The findings related to nurse managers' experiences of moral distress contained two main themes (psycho-emotional trauma and professional desperation syndrome) and four sub-themes (shame, emotional dissociation, helplessness, impaired professional identity). The findings of the study indicated that in order to understand the phenomenon of moral distress among nurse managers, it is essential to investigate the moral distress experienced by them. We also found that although they experience moral distress in their daily decisions repeatedly, they are not fully aware of this phenomenon According to the results, for clinical nurse managers, moral distress is an ambiguous situation like suspension along with uncertainty, fear and so on. They believed that experiencing this kind of conscious mistake is the reason for the occurrence of professional desperation syndrome and psycho-emotional trauma.