Equality in distribution of human resources: the case of Iran's ministry of health and medical education

Equity in access to and utilization of health services is a common goal of policy-makers in most countries. The fair allocation of human resources is one of the dimensions of equity, which was evaluated in this study. We evaluated the equity of human resources' distribution among Iran's medical science universities between 2005 and 2009 by inequality measures including Lorenze curve, Gini coefficient and Rabin hood indexes. In the distribution 60403 recruitment licenses among medical universities with 72456140 covered populations, Gini coefficient was 0.167 and Robin Hood Index 0.11. Calculations indicated Recruitment licenses are equitably distributed in MOH and ME of Iran. However a portion of recruitment licenses should redistributed for achieving perfect equal distribution among all public medical universities of Iran

[ effect of empowerment programs on geriatric depression in daily rehabilitation Farzanegan center of Khorramabad city]

This study examined the effect of empowerment programs on geriatric depression in daily rehabilitation center Farzanegan of Khorramabad city. In this interventional study, 40 elderly subjects were participated in the city of Khoramabad with a mean age of 65 years old. They were 8 men and 12 women in each group. These people have the ability to perform common tasks without dependence on others and they had no systemic and restrictive disease. Subjects randomly divided into two groups [case and control]. In case group, empowerment programs was performed for 40 days and 3 hours in a day. Empowerment program included lifestyle education, rehabilitation services, support services, cultural, sports, arts, tourism and leisure services. Part of the program was general such as training of healthy lifestyle and daily exercise and another part of services was presented based on assessment and diagnosis of treatment and rehabilitation team. This program was produced by designers and experts from the office of country welfare elderly. Depression scores in both group, before the intervention and at the end of intervention was assessed by the beck depression inventory. Using the empowerment program, depression scores were reduced after intervention [P

[Structural relations between job satisfaction and organization citizenship behavior among nurses of Qazvin and Isfahan hospitals]

Background: Citizenship behavior is a useful valuable behavior manifested by individuals voluntarily. Thus, in the challenging world we live in, organizations seek competitive advantages by employing individuals who act beyond their tasks

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the structural relations between job satisfaction and organization citizenship behavior among nurses of Qazvin and Isfahan hospitals

Methods: In this cross-sectional study was performed on 481 randomly selected nurses of Qazvin and Isfahan hospitals during the winter 2011. Data were collected through the "job satisfaction questionnaire" developed by Smith, Kendall, and Halyn" and the "organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire" employed by Gonzalez and Garsyakarazv in their study. Data were analyzed by descriptive correlation method and structural equation

Findings: The study of each individual aspect of job satisfaction revealed that nurses were satisfied with both the nature of their job and their colleagues [P<0.001] while they were neither satisfied with their job promotion nor their supervisors [P<0.05]. The nurses also showed a high degree for all three aspects of organization citizenship behavior including organizational participation, delivery of service, and organizational loyalty [P<0.001]. Job satisfaction was shown to have significant direct effect on every dimension of organizational citizenship behavior [R2=0.32]

Conclusion: As demonstrated by the findings of the present study, while the level of job satisfaction was low among the nurses, the level of their citizenship behavior was high

[Assessment of the factors influencing the nurses' intention to leave their job]

Financial and human costs for the nurse's turnover are high in the world. Prediction of this turnover is essential to reduce unnecessary costs in the health organizations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of individual and organizational factors with job satisfaction and the nurses' intention to leave their job. This study was a descriptive-correlative study which included 89 female nurses. Using Lisrel 8.5 software, the data were analyzed by means of structural transactions model and path analyzing. The results of this study showed the following significant relationships: age with colleagues' support [0.32], marriage with colleagues' support [-0.38], work background with intention to leave [-0.37], colleagues' support with head nurses' support [0.35], head nurses' support with job satisfaction [0.31] and job satisfaction with intention to leave [-0.52]. Individual and organizational factors can influence the intention of nurses to leave their job. Considering the differences between the individuals, it seems that managers of the hospitals can have positive influence on job satisfaction and decrease in intention to leave their job by proposing suitable work shifts and work teams

[Analyzing the relationship between organizational culture and personnel's creativity in the ministry of health and medical education]

Background and aims: Regarding the rapid development of technology and increasing competition, only the organizations will survive that consider efficiency promotion using personnel creativity. This research was performed to study the role of organizational culture in the promotion of personnel's creativity in the ministry of health and medical education

Methods: In this descriptive analytical study, 437 personnel of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were selected randomly. Data were collected using round step creativity and Jafarinia's organizational culture questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using independent sample t-test and correlation coefficient test

Results: There was a significant positive correlation between organizational culture and personnel's creativity, with no correlation between creativity and gender. There was also a positive correlation between creativity and educational level, but career background was not an important factor for creativity

Conclusion: The result showed that organizations can increase their staff's creativity with an agreement on the existing organizational culture and values, adapting to the changes and modifying the personal and organizational goals. We understood that programmers can not make decisions to increase the creativity without paying attention to organizational culture

[Assessing physical spaces of hospitals affiliated to universities of medical sciences in Iran]

Proper site selection, number of manpower and their composition, physical space, optimal allocation of resources, active beds etcare the most important factors affecting the cost of current construction, income and other financial institutions in hospitals. This study assesses economic relationship between physical spaces and the hospital costs and determines hospital scale efficiency in selected hospitals across the country. This is a descriptive study which was conducted in 1386 in139 hospitals [out of 530] covered by the medical universities throughout the country. The sample hospitals selected and grouped based on a combination of factors such as be a teaching and non-teaching hospital, located in deprived and rich areas and also size of hospitals in terms of number of active beds. Information was collected using a questionnaire designed for the study and also through hospital websites. The collected Information included the number of employees, total hospital expenditures and income and information about the physical space of all wards in the hospitals. Findings: Out of total 650/4 hectares physical space of the hospitals, 240/5 hectares were developed [structured building], which 117/3 hectares allocated to treatment [clinical] and rest was administrative and supportive service. The results showed that the hospitals in the second and third groups had lower maintenance costs than the other groups, in a way that they could have more than 10.5% savings of scale through development of hospitals from first into third group

Gender inequity in Saudi Arabia and its role in public health

In Saudi Arabia, local interpretations of Islamic laws and social norms have a negative impact on the health and well-being of women. The objective of this literature review was to discuss gender inequity in Saudi Arabia and its relation to public health. Despite the scarcity of recent statistics and information regarding gender inequity in Saudi Arabia, this review is an attempt to explore this sensitive issue in this country. Women's roles and rights in Saudi society were examined, including education, marriage, polygamy, fertility, job opportunities, car driving and identification cards. Further research to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices towards health care of Saudi men and women is recommended