Iran Journal of Nursing

  This is a descriptive study about nursing care of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis in Hospitals of Ministry of Health and Medical Education , Tehran. Data collection tool in this study was a questionnaire that prepared by researcher and was delivered to the research samples in the ministry of health hospitals. Results showed that majority of nurses had approximately good knowledge about Rheumatoid Arthritis disease but had approximately moderate to low knowledge about nursing care of these patients (nursing care in various field has been investigated). According to the findings continuing education is required for nurses about nursing care of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

  The 21^st century is the era of continuous changes in the way modern medical and scientific world functions, thus the need for adaptation in complex systems becomes paramount. In such a dynamic society optimum standard of survival may depend on the ability of individuals and groups to investigate multiple alternatives or choices and finally make wise decisions. Therefore, the need for critical thinking skills is an absolute vitality for today’s health science professionals.

  Education is the most powerful tool in developing learning skills and the main aim of every educational institution is to assist students and trainees to achieve such end. Besides professional competency, the main aim of medical sciences education is to develop students’ ability in decision making ability and problem solving, and leading them to become efficient critical thinkers.

  Critical thinking skills are vital in coping with the unprecedented rapid changes occurring in health care field. In order to cope with the complexity of today’s medical issues, nurses and physicians need to equip themselves to critical thinking ability so that they can offer the most effective services and treatments for their patients and clients.

  It seems that there is challenge in training capable and skilful graduates in Iran medical education system. Hence, essential actions are needed to uplift the standard of medical education in this country. To this end, urgent priority should be given both to development and improvement of critical thinking skills of students and trainees of health field.

  First, based on authors’ experiences, some of the barriers for critical thinking skills nursing of students is reviewed. Then, based on literature review and panel of experts’ viewpoints a suggested solution in a graphical format, is suggested. Planning for an urgent action is also suggested to improve critical thinking skills of students and trainees in health field which seemingly is a challenge in iran nursing education system.

  Background and Aim : This paper describes the views of clinical nurses regarding the utilization of nursing research in practice. Many studies have taken a quantitative approach and have focused on why nurses constrain to develop research for nursing and research participation. There is a need to understand the factors restricting clinical nurses in using research findings. The aim of this study was to discover practising nurses' view of factors they perceived as restricte to their research utilization.

  Material and Method : Data were collected within a 6 months period by means of face-to face interviews followed by one session of focus group. Analysis was undertaken using a qualitative content analysis aided by MAXQDA software.

  Results: In this study, the findings disclosed some key themes perceived by nurses as restrictive to them in using research findings: “level of support to be active in research”, “to be research minded”, “the extent of nurses knowledge and skills about research and research utilization”, “level of educational preparation relating to using research”, “theory –practice gap”, and “administration and executive challenges in clinical setting”.

  Conclusion : This study identifies constraints that require to be overcome for clinical nurses to get actively involved in research utilization. In this study, nurses were generally interested in using research findings. However, they felt restricted because of lack of time, lack of peer and manager support and limited knowledge and skills about research process. This study adds a qualitative perspective about the subject under study. Albeir the findings are not generalizable, they support quantitative study findings regarding this subject. This study also confirms that research utilization and the change to research nursing practice are complex issues which require both organizational and educational efforts.