The effect of education through conceptual mapping on critical thinking of nursing students.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of conceptual mapping on nursing students' critical thinking. METHODS: The quasi-experimental case-control study was conducted from April 2015 to October 2016 at the University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, and comprised students of Fatemeh-Zahra School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz. The students were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Baseline data was collected using a two-part questionnaire, including demographic items and California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Both groups underwent 24 six-hour training sessions 3 times a week. The intervention and control groups were trained by conceptual map and integration methods, respectively. Post-intervention data was collected using the same questionnaire and was analysed using SPSS 13. RESULTS: Of the 81 subjects, 41(50.6%) were in the intervention group and 40(49.4%) in the control group. The mean age was 25.12}3.71 years in the intervention group and 25.5}4.10 years in the control group (p>0.05). At baseline, there was no significant difference between the mean critical thinking scores of the two groups (p=0.781). Postintervention values increased in both groups, but the mean critical score was significantly higher in the intervention group (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Concept mapping was found to be an effective approach for improving students' critical thinking skills.

Job Satisfaction Challenges Of Nurses In The Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is an important factor in health care settings. This concept is not a single factor; rather, it is the product of factors such as the conditions and relationships that govern the workplace, the organizational system of employment, and social, cultural, and economic factors. Therefore, awareness of its related factors is important for medical staff including nurses in special units and nursing managers. The aim of the present study was to investigate job satisfaction challenges in intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. METHODS: This was a qualitative study using conventional content analysis approach. This study was performed in a general ICU of Amol City, Iran. Thirteen nurses employed in the ICU were recruited until data saturation was reached. Research data were collected through interviews, a focus group and field notes. Findings were analyzed using a conventional method. RESULTS: According to data analysis, 6 themes including "nursing education", "organizational resources", "management", "multiple occupational stresses", "professional performance" and "professional identity" were developed. CONCLUSION: This study provided better and clearer understanding of job satisfaction challenges of nurses working in an ICU. The findings of this research can be helpful in developing management programs for understanding the factors affecting job satisfaction of nurses and job satisfaction promotion.

Impediments to the formation of intensive care nurses' professional identify.

BACKGROUND: Nurses face challenges regarding professional identify. Being unaware of these challenges and not owning positive professional identify leads to a lack of self-confidence. Thus, nurses face problems in interpersonal communication and lose their attachment to their profession. Few studies have engaged with impediments to forming positive professional identity in relation to intensive care nurses. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impediments to forming positive professional identity in nurses working in intensive care unit. RESEARCH DESIGN: In this study, the conventional content analysis method was used in order to obtain the impediments to forming positive professional identities in nurses. Data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus group interviews from March 2015 to June 2016. Purposive sampling was used and participants were recruited until data saturation was reached; they were then analyzed using the conventional content analysis method. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: In total, 24 intensive care unit nurses from one hospital in Northern Iran were selected through purposive sampling. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. FINDINGS: Four main themes of professional identity challenges were extracted from the analysis of the data: neglect of professional status of nursing; distrust of nursing knowledge; unprofessional performance; and low professional attraction. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Nurses stated that the neglect of the professional status of nursing and distrust of nursing knowledge have always been a hindrance in forming a positive professional identity. They also mentioned that unprofessional performance and low professional attraction are the other influencing factors in this regard. Thus, detecting these factors can guide nurses and their managers towards creating positive professional identity, and as a result, will improve their job satisfaction, professional advancement, and durability.

Job satisfaction and related factors among Iranian intensive care unit nurses.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to determine the levels of job satisfaction and to collect information about the factors affecting job satisfaction of Iranian ICU hospital nurses. RESULTS: The participants included 124 nurses working in the ICU section of hospitals in the city of Amol in Iran, who were selected by census method. The instruments for gathering the information included Demographic Information Questionnaire and also the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. The results revealed that the average score of job satisfaction among ICU nurses was 2.50 ± 0.51. Also job satisfaction among women was higher than men (P = 0.03, t = 0.4). One way analysis of variance showed a significant relation between job satisfaction level with employment status and overtime work. Also older nurses had higher levels of job satisfaction. Hospital directors and managers, can use the results of this study in order to have a deeper understanding of job satisfaction among nurses, and the factors affecting it.

Investigation of Content and Face Validity and Reliability of Sociocultural Attitude towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3) among Female Adolescents.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of sociocultural attitude towards appearance questionnaire in female adolescents. Method: This was a methodological study. The English version of the questionnaire was translated into Persian, using forward-backward method. Then the face validity, content validity and reliability were checked. To ensure face validity, the questionnaire was given to 25 female adolescents, a psychologist and three nurses, who were required to evaluate the items with respect to problems, ambiguity, relativity, proper terms and grammar, and understandability. For content validity, 15 experts in psychology and nursing, who met the inclusion criteria, were required. They were asked to assess the qualitative of content validity. To determine the quantitative content validity, content validity index and content validity ratio were calculated. At the end, internal consistency of the items was assessed, using Cronbach's alpha method. Results: According to the expert judgments, content validity ratio was 0.81 and content validity index was 0.91. Besides, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed with Cronbach's alpha = 0.91, and physical and developmental areas showed the highest reliability indices. Conclusion: The aforementioned questionnaire could be used in researches to assess female adolescents' self-concept. This can be a stepping-stone towards identification of problems and improvement of adolescents' body image.