Ethical leadership, nursing error and error reporting from the nurses' perspective.

BACKGROUND: Nursing errors endanger patient safety, and error reporting helps identify errors and system vulnerabilities. Nursing managers play a key role in preventing nursing errors by using leadership skills. One of the leadership approaches is ethical leadership. AIM: This study determined the level of ethical leadership from the nurses' perspective and its effect on nursing error and error reporting in teaching hospitals affiliated to Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. RESEARCH DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: A total of 171 nurses working in medical-surgical wards were selected through random sampling. Data collection was carried out using "ethical leadership in nursing, nursing errors and error reporting" questionnaires. Data were analyzed with SPSS20 using descriptive and analytical statistics. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Medical Research. Ethical considerations such as completing informed consent form, ensuring confidentiality of information, explaining research objectives, and voluntary participation were observed in the present study. FINDINGS: The results showed that the level of nursing managers' ethical leadership was moderate from the nurses' point of view. The highest and the lowest levels were related to the power-sharing and task-oriented dimensions, respectively. There was a significant relationship between nursing managers' level of ethical leadership with error rates and error reporting. CONCLUSION: The development of ethical leadership approach in nursing managers reduces error rate and increases error reporting. Programs designed to promote such approach in nursing managers at all levels can help reduce the level of error rate and maintain patient safety.

Relationship of stimulated whole saliva cortisol level with the severity of a feeling of dry mouth in menopausal women.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship of stimulated whole saliva cortisol level with the severity of a feeling of dry mouth (DM) in menopausal women. BACKGROUND: A feel of DM is a major complaint for many elderly individuals and strongly associated with the menopause. The exact mechanisms that mediate sensation of DM in menopausal women have not been firmly established. METHODS: A case-control study was carried out on 104 selected menopausal women with/without a feeling of DM, conducted at the Clinic of Oral Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Xerostomia Inventory (XI) score was used as an index of DM severity. Stimulated whole saliva cortisol concentration (stimulated by chewing standard-sized paraffin for 60 s) was measured by ELISA. Statistical analysis by Student's t-test and Spearman correlation was used. RESULTS: The mean cortisol concentration of saliva, but not saliva cortisol output, was significantly higher in the cases than in the controls. There was significant positive correlation between XI score and concentration (r = 0.357, p = 0.000) or output (r = 0.223, p = 0.017) of stimulated whole saliva cortisol. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that stimulated whole saliva cortisol is high in menopausal women with a feeling of DM.

A localized sclerosing osteomyelitis at the periapex of a vital tooth: report of a misdiagnosis.

Osteomyelitis is an inflammatory infectious condition of bones, occurringeither acutely or chronically. The clinical course of the disease leads to destructive or sclerosing patterns of the involved bone. This report presents a case of chronic focal sclerosing osteomyelitis in a 19-year-old male with a history of an uncontrolled convulsive condition. The lesion was first diagnosed as an osteoblastoma. Chronic trauma or traumatic occlusion has the potential to induce osteomyelitis and should be considered a possible diagnosis in differentiating periapical radiopacities, even in relation with vital teeth.