Resilience training: Effects on occupational stress and resilience of critical care nurses.

AIM: Working as a nurse, by its nature, causes a high degree of stress. Nurses are exposed to the higher levels of occupational, physical, and mental stresses in critical care units than the nurses in other units of a hospital. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of training for resilience on the intensive care unit nurses' occupational stress and resilience level. METHODS: This study is a quasi-experimental intervention study that was done by recruiting 30 nurses who were selected from critical care units of an educational hospital in Sari City, Iran, through convenience sampling between April 2015 and February 2016. The resilience training was provided in 5 sessions of 90 to 120 minutes. The pretest-posttest approach was used in this study, and the nurses completed the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Expanded Nursing Stress Scale, before and 2 weeks after the training program. RESULTS: The mean score of the occupational stress of the participants decreased significantly after the intervention (P = .001), and the mean score of resilience increased significantly after the intervention (P = .001). CONCLUSION: The results confirm the effectiveness of resilience training on occupational stress and resilience level of nurses working in the intensive care units.

Factors associated with post-surgical delirium in patients undergoing open heart surgery.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study is to determine the incidence of delirium and the associated factors in patients undergoing open heart surgery. METHOD: This is an Analytic-descriptive study conducted on 404 patients undergoing elective open heart surgery in Fatemeh Zahra Heart Center, Sari, over the period of 6 months from July to December 2011. Sampling was achieved in a nonrandomized targeted manner and delirium was assessed using NeeCham questionnaire. A trained nurse evaluated the patients for delirium and completed the risk factor checklist on days 1 to 5 after surgery. Data analyses were accomplished using survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression) on SPSS software version 15. RESULTS: We found that variables, including ventilation time, increased drainage during the first 24 hours, the need for re-operation in the first 24 hours, dysrhythmias, use of inotropic agents, increased use of analgesics, increased arterial carbon dioxide, lack of visitors, and use of physical restrainers were associated with the development of delirium. In addition, we found a delirium incidence of 29%. CONCLUSION: Diagnosis of cognitive disorders is of utmost value; therefore, further studies are required to clarify the risk factors because controlling them will help prevent delirium.