Search

Background: The most crucial issue in the disaster and accidents is the health management of the affected community because accidents and disasters always have a significant impact on hygiene, general health, and the wellbeing of the stricken community. Considering the hospitals’ function and their front line position in managing the victims of accidents and having to continue and even increase their activity at the time of accidents and disasters, they should have a program of coping with accidents. In this regard, the current study investigated the preparedness of hospitals in Ardabil Province, Iran, in response to unexpected events. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional study conducted in 15 hospitals in Ardabil Province in 2017. To collect study data, a two-part questionnaire was used. Its first part investigated the demographic data of the hospitals. The second part was the national tool to assess hospital preparedness in accidents and disasters with 91 questions in 9 areas of preparedness (command and control, communication, safety and security, triage, capacity increasing, continuity of essential services, workforce, resource management, and post-disaster recovery). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The findings of this study revealed that out of the 15 studied hospitals, only 4 were well prepared, 3 were poorly prepared, and 8 hospitals were moderately prepared for crisis management. On average, out of the 9 investigated aspects, triage, human resource management, and recovery after disasters had the lowest status. Conclusion: Considering the obtained results and the importance of preparing for unexpected events, it can be useful to plan and have an explicit instruction, and then implement and evaluate it to increase the preparedness to confront unexpected accidents in all hospitals.

Background: As the number of elderly people referred to hospitals increases, so does the number of discrimination reports in the care of the elderly, compared with younger people. This study aimed to investigate the status of ageism in caring for elderly patients from nurses' perspective. Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study that was conducted in three selected hospitals of Ardabil province, Iran, in 2019. A total of 482 nurses were recruited by convenience sampling. The data were collected using a demographics questionnaire and the Ageism Scale in Hospital Care and analyzed using descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (the Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Scheffe post hoc test) in SPSS V. 20. Results: The mean age of the participants was 33 years. Most nurses showed moderate ageism when providing care to older adults. The level of ageism was significantly associated with age (P=0.002), gender (P=0.001), work experience (P=0.032), and the ward in which the nurses worked (P=0.001). Conclusion: The findings revealed that the study hospitals suffered ageism. Also, the level of ageism was associated with the age, gender, admission ward, and work experience of the nurses. Thus, it is suggested to consider appropriate interventions to prevent ageism, when designing and planning care for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Given the aging population increase, providing quality care to the elderly is one of the major challenges of health care systems. The purpose of the present study is to explain the perception of nurses about the causes of ageism in providing hospital care to the elderly referred to hospital settings in the city of Tehran. Methods: The study utilized a qualitative design with individual interviews and with Conventional Content Analysis Approach. In this qualitative study, participants were selected through a purposive sampling method. Semi-structured and in-depth interviews with health care providers were conducted in the city of Tehran in 2018 guided by data saturation. All interviews were recorded and implemented and then analyzed by Graneheim and Lundman method. Results: Analysis of data extracted from interviews divided into five main categories "patient related factors", "care provider related factors", "factors related to care provider system", "socio-economic factors" and "family related factors", each of which was under positive and negative subcategories. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that there is a negative discrimination in the provision of nursing care services in the hospital settings, which is not a good predictor of good health care for the elderly. Therefore, it is recommended that culture-building, training and awareness-raising and proper planning be carried out in care settings to combat ageism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]