Nursing care based on the Support-Based Spiritual Care Model increases hope among women with breast cancer in Iran.

PURPOSE: Taking care of cancer patients and treating them are among major challenges in the field of health. Several studies have shown that promotion of hope is an efficient strategy for effectively treating this group of patients, reducing their symptoms, and improving the quality of their life. It seems that spiritual care can boost hope in these patients. This study aims to determine the effects of nursing care based on the Support-Based Spiritual Care Model on boosting hope among women with breast cancer. METHODS: In this controlled clinical trial, 72 patients with breast cancer were selected through consecutive sampling and randomly assigned to two control and intervention groups (n = 36 in each group) based on four randomized blocks. The intervention was carried out based on the Support-Based Spiritual Care Model for the patients and their main caregivers in six sessions. Besides, the Snyder's hope scale was completed before and 1 month after the intervention by the participants in the intervention and control groups. RESULTS: The results of the independent samples t-test showed no significant difference in the mean scores of hope between the intervention and control groups before the intervention (P > 0.05). However, after the intervention, the mean scores of hope for the intervention and control groups were 46.71 ± 4.61 and 40.40 ± 5.42, respectively, showing a significant intergroup difference as verified by the independent samples t-test (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, providing nursing care based on the Support-Based Spiritual Care Model can raise hope in patients with breast cancer. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Healthcare professionals can boost hope in cancer patients through proper planning and adequate support in providing nursing care based on the proposed model.

Breast cancer research in Iran: a scientometric analysis of publications output from 1991 to 2015 in Scopus.

INTRODUCTION: As a common type of malignancy, breast cancer is one of the major causes of death in women globally. The purpose of the current study was to analyze Iran research performance on Breast Cancer in the context of national and international studies, shown in the publications indexed in Scopus database during 1991-2015. METHODS: Data were retrieved from the Scopus citation database in this scientometric study. The following string was employed; "breast cancer OR breast malignancy OR breast tumor OR mammary ductal carcinoma" keywords in the main title, abstract and keywords and Iran in the affiliation field were the main related keywords. The terms used were searched in Scopus using the tab specified for searching documents. Time span analyzed was 1991 to 2015 inclusive. Using the analyzing software of Scopus, we analyzed the results. RESULTS: Iran's increasing publication production during 1991-2015 in breast cancer research which indexed in Scopus, consists of 2,399 papers with an average of 95.96 papers per year, and achieved an h-index of 48. Iranian cancer research articles have received 15,574 citations during 1991-2015, and average citations per paper were 6.49. Iran ranked 27th among the top 30 nations with a worldwide stake of 0.67 %, the 20 top publishing journals published 744 (31%) Iranian research articles on breast cancer, among them, there were 15 Iranian journals. CONCLUSION: The number of Iranian research papers on breast cancer and also the number of citations to them, is increasing. Although the quantity and quality of papers are increasing, regarding the prevalence of breast cancer in Iran and also the ineffectiveness of screening programs in the early detection of the cases, more effort should be made, and Iranian policy makers should consider more investment on breast cancer research.

Scientific Production of Medical Universities in the West of Iran: a Scientometric Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to compare scientific production by providing quantitative evaluation of science output in five Western Iranian Medical Universities including Hamedan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kurdistan and Lorestan University of Medical Sciences using scientometrics indicators based on data indexed in Scopus for period between the years 2010 to 2014. METHODS: In this scientometric study data were collected using Scopus database. Both searching and analyzing features of Scopus were used to data retrieval and analysis. We used Scientometrics indicators including number of publications, number of citations, nationalization index (NI), Internationalization Index (INI), H-index, average number of citations per paper, and growth index. RESULTS: Five Western Iranian Universities produced over 3011 articles from 2010 to 2014. These articles were cited 7158 times with an average rate of 4.2 citations per article. H- Index of under study universities are varying from 14 to 30. Ilam University of Medical Sciences had the highest international collaboration with an INI of 0.33 compared to Hamedan and Kermanshah universities with INI of 0.20 and 0.16 respectively. The lowest international collaboration belonged to Lorestan University of Medical Sciences (0.07). The highest Growth Index belonged to Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (69.7). CONCLUSION: Although scientific production of five Western Iranian Medical Universities was increasing, but this trend was not stable. To achieve better performance it is recommended that five Western Iranian Universities stabilize their budgeting and investment policies in research.

Diabetes Research in Iran: a Scientometric Analysis of Publications Output.

INTRODUCTION: In the developing countries, diabetes mellitus as a chronic diseases, have replaced infectious diseases as the main causes of morbidity and mortality. International Diabetes Federation (IDF) recently estimates 382 million people have diabetes globally and more than 34.6 million people in the Middle East Region and this number will increase to 67.9 million by 2035. The aim of this study was to analyze Iran's research performance on diabetes in national and international context. METHODS: This Scientometric analysis is based on the Iranian publication data in diabetes research retrieved from the Scopus citation database till the end of 2014. The string used to retrieve the data was developed using "diabetes" keyword in title, abstract and keywords, and finally Iran in the affiliation field was our main string. RESULTS: Iran's cumulative publication output in diabetes research consisted of 4425 papers from 1968 to 2014, with an average number of 96.2 papers per year and an annual average growth rate of 25.5%. Iran ranked 25th place with 4425 papers among top 25 countries with a global share of 0.72 %. Average of Iran's publication output was 6.19 citations per paper. The average citation per paper for Iranian publications in diabetes research increased from 1.63 during 1968-1999 to 10.42 for 2014. CONCLUSIONS: Although diabetic population of Iran is increasing, number of diabetes research is not remarkable. International Diabetes Federation suggested increased funding for research in diabetes in Iran for cost-effective diabetes prevention and treatment. In addition to universal and comprehensive services for diabetes care and treatment provided by Iranian health care system, Iranian policy makers should invest more on diabetes research.

Epilepsy Research in Iran: a Scientometric Analysis of Publications Output During 2000-2014.

AIM: The aim of this study is to analyze the epilepsy research output of Iran in national and global contexts, as reflected in its publication output indexed in Scopus citation database during 2000-2014. METHODS: This study was based on the publications of epilepsy research from Iranian authors retrieved Feb. 2015 from Scopus Citation database [www.scopus.com]. The string used to retrieve the data was developed using "epilepsy OR epilepsies" keywords in title, abstract and keywords and Iran in affiliation field was our main string. RESULTS: Cumulative publication output of Iran in epilepsy research consisted of 702 papers from 2000 to 2014, with an average number of 46.53 papers per year. The total publication output of Iran in epilepsy research increased from 2 papers in 2000 to 88 papers in 2014. Hence, with 702 paper, Iran ranked 25(th) among the top 25 countries with a global share of 0.82 %. Iranian publication average citation per paper increased from 0 in 2000 to 7.88 in 2014. Overall, the received citations were 3184 citations during those years. CONCLUSION: Iran is collaborating with 36 countries with no more than 244 of its papers (35% of its total papers). It is necessary to prepare conditions for epilepsy researchers to collaborate more with international scientific societies in order to produce more and high quality papers.