Introduction: Thalassemia is a chronic blood disease, which imposes adverse effects on patients and their families. Parents of such patients, given that they had the thalassemia trait, hold themselves responsible for their children’s disease in addition to other difficulties, bear the burden of guilt and hopelessness and worry about the health and future of their children. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of parents of children with thalassemia. Methods: The present research was conducted using a descriptive phenomenological approach. A purposive sampling was carried out until data saturation. Participants included 15 parents of children with thalassemia who were referred to the Thalassemia Center of Zabol to perform therapeutic procedures for their child in 2016. Results: Extracted interviews were analyzed employing Colaizzi’s method, and four main themes were obtained, including “Gray marriage consanguinity”, “Burdened with increased number of thalassemia children”, “Socio-familial worries” and “Inexpressible wishes for having an ideal society”. Conclusion: The results revealed that parents of children with thalassemia experience a wide range of problems in different aspects, such as physical, emotional, mental, social, economic and familial dimensions. Their experiences are valuable and can help in achieving a better understanding of their problems, which in turn can enable the members of the treatment team to play a more active role and the society to have a better understanding of this disease.

Families encounter some issues after the death of their loved one due to COVID-19. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the family’s views on the death of their loved one due to COVID-19. This integrative review was conducted from May to Jan 2021. We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, CINHAL, Magiran, and SID databases. Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The results were classified into two categories, including before and after death. The issues raised before the death of the loved ones include no visit and absence at death time, fear of being infected with the COVID-19, death anxiety, failure to perform religious rites at death, and psychological problems. The after-death issues were related to funeral, burial, rituals, prolonged grieving, maladaptation, loneliness, and repeated mourning. Therefore, health policymakers should provide support before and after the death of loved ones for families.

Patients with intervertebral disc herniation (IVDH) seek complementary and conventional medical therapies to manage related problems. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Reiki compared with physiotherapy to relieve the lower back pain intensity and to improve the activities of daily living (ADL) in the IDVH patients. In this clinical trial study, 60 patients with IVDH were randomly assigned to one of the Reiki, physiotherapy, and drug therapy groups. The severity of pain and the ADL were measured using visual analog scale (VAS) pain and ADL–Instrumental ADL questionnaire before and after the intervention. A significant difference was found in pain intensity and ADL improvement between Reiki and the drug therapy. However, there was no significant difference between Reiki and physiotherapy groups in managing pain and improving ADL. Reiki and physiotherapy are effective methods in managing pain and improving ADL in patients with IVDH; however, Reiki is more cost-effective and faster treatment method than physiotherapy.

Background: Nurses form the largest group of burn care treatment team. They have valuable experiences regarding the care of burned patients that needs to be explored. Therefore, the present study was aimed to explain the experiences of nurses who work in the burn unit. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in the burn units of Zabol and Zahedan Hospitals in 2018. Accordingly, the data were collected through a semi-structured deep interview with 16 nurses. Purposeful sampling method was used for data collection. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: The data analysis ultimately led to the development of 4 themes and 16 sub-themes. The extracted themes included burden of burn unit, toil of burn unit as a deal with God, need for continuing the education program, and work-life imbalance. Conclusions: Nurses in burn unit experience many challenges that can affect their job and life, which require special attention of the authorities, their families, and other colleagues. For better patient care, there is a need for up-to-date facilities and training. The hospital managers should pay more attention to the nursing staff of the burn units through increasing staff number, changing the working units, and offering financial and motivational vacations.