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Introduction: Educational environment has a great impact on student’s success, satisfaction, happiness, improvement, and job selection. In fact, inappropriate educational environments cost lots of finance. The present study aimed to compare the male and female undergraduate surgical technologists toward a quality of educational environment in Iran University of medical sciences in 2016-2017.
Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study has been performed in 2016-2017. 143 undergraduate surgical technologists filled the (DREEM) questioner. This questionnaire contain 50 questions with the score range of (0-200). Higher scores indicate a better educational environment; on the other hand, lower scores indicate a worse educational environment. DREEM questionnaire divided to 5 aspects including: Student perception of learning, Student perception of teachers, Student perception of their abilities, Student perception of academic atmosphere, and Student social self-perception. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 22.
Results: The current study demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between views of male and female about their educational environment (P=0.02). Male undergraduate surgical technologist had more positive views than female. Furthermore, getting older has been affected on the understanding of the quality of educational environment.
Discussion and Conclusion: Male students had more positive view than female student. Moreover, the age group of 30-33 had the highest score among the others.
 

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Introduction: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hand eczema and its related factors in the surgical technologists of the Iran University of Medical Sciences educationa hospitals in 2017 and 2018.
Methods and Materials: This descriptive cross-sectional study has been carried out among the surgical technologists working in the educational hospitals affiliated to Iran University of  Medical Sciences. Census sampling was used as the sampling technique and the sample size was 200 individuals. Data were collected using two questionnaires. Self-administered questionnaire on hand dermatitis that was scored based on two-point Likert Scale (Yes=2, No=1) with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.89) and standard Job Stress Questionnaire designed by UK Institute of Health and Safety that consists of 35 questions scored based on the five-point Likert scale (Never=1, Often=5).This questionnaire had the validity and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.78. Data were analyzed by chi-square test using SPSS version 21.
Results: The results indicated that 72% of the examined technologists were female. 33.15% of them were between the ages of 31 to 40. Chi-square statistical analysis revealed that there was not any significant relationship between development of hand eczema of surgical technologists (P=0.064) based on the age (P=0.232), working hours per week (P=0.119), type of scrub solution (P=0.366), and the frequency of using gloves each day (P=0.053). However, the same relationship was significant in terms of frequency of hand disinfection in each shifts (P=0.043),  the average hours of using gloves per day (P=0.047), and occupational stress (P=0.027).
Discussion and Conclusion: Since there are no clear statistics on skin diseases in healthcare professions, there is a concern about the skin health status of the personnel due to their exposure to blood-borne pathogens, which should be taken into account in the hospital indices.

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Introduction: Motivation is one of the significant tools in promoting employees to reach a better result and to create a positive working environment for successful implementation of the planned programs. This study was conducted to determine the job motivation of the surgical technologists in educational hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2016 and 2017.
Methods and Materials: This article was descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on 128 surgical technologists selected from operation rooms of educational hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences by census sampling. Data were collected using the 40-item questionnaire of Herzberg Occupational Motivation. Data analysis was performed using independent t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient by SPSS software.
Results: The mean score of occupational motivation was 3.33 ± 0.52 (out of 4), which indicated medium to high occupational motivation among the surgical technologists. Among the internal factors, the nature of work and appreciation of employees were the most and the least important factors respectively. Among the external factors, salary and wage were the most important factors and supervision and the work policy had the least important factor. The results demonstrated that external factors are more important than internal factors in creating occupational motivation of surgical technologists.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results showed that the occupational motivation of the surgical technologists was higher than the average and the external factors were more important compared to the internal factors in creating occupational motivation.

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Introduction: Effective healthcare team among healthcare providers is important to improve the quality of services and to provide safe and effective care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the of healthcare team work and its related factors in operating room
Methods and Materials: The current study is a descriptive-analytic study and the study population consisted of 217 healthcare providers who work in operating rooms of nine educational hospitals in Isfahan, Iran. For gathering data in this study, two assessment tools including a researcher designed questionnaire and a Team Assessment Questionnaire (TAQ) had been used. Finally, healthcare providers were divided into five groups according to the scoring system.
Results: From 217 samples, 132 were female and 85 were male. The mean of age were 34.9 respectively. The mean score of the teamwork in this study was 194.67 ± 2.05; which according to the scoring system of questionnaire it was considered strong for this study.
Conclusion: Healthcare providers in the operating rooms mostly had a strong or relatively strong teamwork score. But the difference between the various groups inside operating room team represents different perception about the healthcare team behaviors. The results of this study also indicated that the advancement of technology, learning new methods and rewards system are factors influencing the teamwork in the operating room

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Introduction: Surgical technologists are prone to chronic fatigue because of their occupational nature. The aim of this study was to determine the severity and dimensions of fatigue and its related factors in surgical technologists.
Methods and Materials: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The population of study consisted of 194 surgical technologists who were selected by stratified random sampling. Data collection was performed using the demographic and Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory Questionnaire. The data was analyzed using SPSS20 software and applying descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test and t-test.
Results: The total fatigue score in surgical technologists was 59.6±7.8. survey of fatigue dimensions in surgical technologists showed that general fatigue (14.4±2.1) and decreased activity (9.8±2.1) had the highest and lowest mean, respectively. Among demographic characteristics, work experience and body mass index had a positive and significant correlation with total fatigue score.  
Discussion and Conclusions: According to the results of this study which indicates high level of fatigue in surgical technologists, it is recommended to pay more attention to the special features of operating room wards that may lead to fatigue in surgical technologists.

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Introduction: Today advances in surgery and technology have made surgical technologists more in need of professional advancement in their work, since the presence of unskilled technologists in the health team can lead to a threat to public health. The present study aimed to investigate the scope of ability and its relationship with the clinical competence of operating room technologists at Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2017.
Methods and Materials: During this cross-sectional study, the clinical competency of 180 operating room technologists working in hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences was analyzed by the self-assessment method. The valid and reliable questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The first part of the questionnaire was about personal information, including age, gender, educational level and work experience, and specialized field, and the second part contains a clinical competency self-assessment questionnaire that
has 45 questions and 6 dimensions (general knowledge, legal ethics, evaluation, diagnosis and care of the surgical patient, interpersonal relationships, leadership and management, professional progress and research). Data was analyzed by using Kruskal-Wallis and U-Mann- Whitney Nonparametric tests using SPSS version 22.
Results: Operating room technologists reported their level of competence well. The general knowledge dimension had a high competency score. The evaluation of diagnosis and care of the surgical patient had an average of 78.4 and the lowest score of this study was related to the dimension of legal moral performance (15.75). There was a significant relationship between clinical competence and work experience, level of education, specialized field, age, responsibility, and employment relationship. (P<0.001)
Discussion and Conclusion: Considering that clinical competence is a result of different competencies, therefore identifying their strengths and weaknesses and applying the necessary corrective measures has a significant role in improving the performance of hospitals.
 

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Introduction: Operating room crises, such as malignant hyperthermia or unexpected bleeding, are rare; however, they are serious threats to the patient’s life in these critical situations. According to global statistics, 234 million surgeries are performed annually in the world. At least 3 million of them are faced the crises in the operating room. The aim of this study is to investigate the level of readiness for dealing with critical situations in the operating room of Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital as a trauma center in Kermanshah in 2018.
Methods and Materials: This study was performed as a descriptive-analytical study. The study population included members of the surgical teams of Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital’s operating room (anesthesiologist, technician of anesthesia, surgeon and surgeon assistant) and sampling method was the census. After receiving the letter from Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences and the School of Paramedical Sciences, the researcher distributed the standard questionnaire of surveying the readiness of the surgical team in the face of operating room crises among the members of the surgical team. After collecting the questionnaires, the data was analyzed using SPSS software version 22.
Results: The number of participants was 40 members of the surgical team. The interpretation of the data showed that the readiness of the surgical team in the operating room of Taleghani hospital is in very good level for controlling and managing fire crises, asystole and cardiac arrest (VF or VT). On the other hand, the level of readiness and awareness of the surgical team is at a low level to control air embolism crises, anaphylactic shock and malignant hyperthermia.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results of the present study show that the surgical team’s readiness against air embolism crisis, anaphylactic shock and malignant hyperthermia is at a low level. In addition the awareness of the surgical team to control this crisis is low. Thus, educational interventions are essential to increase awareness of the surgical team for controlling and managing these crises.

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Introduction: One of the primary duties that circulating and scrub nurses fulfill is to record instruments and procedures adopted during a surgical operation. The present research was performed to explore operating room personnel’s perspectives on both the existing and
improved checklist the one that was produced on the basis of evidence and guidelines.
Methods and Materials: This non-randomized descriptive study was performed on 28 operating room personnel on both the existing surgical safety checklist and the improved one. The researcher made checklist was provided on the basis of books, results of studies, and qualified specialists’ attitudes. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 19 as well as descriptive and analytical statistical tests.
Results: Data revealed that 25% (7 persons) and 75% (21 persons) of respondents were men and women respectively. There was statistically significant difference between personnel’s perspectives on the improved checklist and present checklist (24% compared with 77%). Moreover the present checklist is more comprehensive than the previous one (65% compared with 23%). That is to say the improved checklist is a more comprehensive guide than the existing checklist in recording procedure (p<0.05).
Discussion and Conclusions: It is essential to keep a complete and comprehensive checklist of procedures implemented and instruments used during a surgical operation. Therefore, it is essential to improve and complete the Surgical Safety Checklist on the basis of existing evidence and the results.

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Introduction: Emotional intelligence is a type of emotional information processing that includes the correct evaluation of self and others emotions, proper expression of emotions and adaptive regulation that leads to an improved flow of life. Burnout is a syndrome consisting of physical and emotional fatigue that leads to a negative self-image, a negative attitude towards the profession and a feeling of lack of connection with the client when providing care. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout and quality of life in operating room nurses working in hospitals in Sanandaj.
 Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study was a descriptive correlational study. The participants included all operating room nurses in Sanandaj hospitals (100 people) who were selected by census. The Shearing Emotional Intelligence Test and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire - Short Form were used. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance using SPSS software version 21.
Results: There is a significant relationship between quality of life and burnout and emotional intelligence. (P≤0.005). Moreover, the relationship between burnout and emotional intelligence was significant (P = 0.002).
Discussion and Conclusion: Due to the direct relationship between emotional intelligence and quality of life and job burnout, more attention is needed by officials to hold classes and workshops periodically for operating room technologists to increase quality of life and reduce job burnout and consequently increase emotional intelligence.

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Introduction: The professional ethics is the integral part of all dimensions of providing health care services. In recent years, promotion of the professional ethics among medical sciences students becomes very important particularly the ones which are directly in contact with patients. This study aimed to define the relationship between clinical experiences of the operating theater students and the level of adherence to professional ethics.
Methods and Materials: The descriptive-analytical study was carried out among 87 undergraduate students of operating theater. The sampling was done by census and included all of the 4th, 6th and 8th semester undergraduate students of operating theater which met the criteria to involve in the study. The data were collected by the standard questionnaire of professional ethics and the demographic information questionnaire. Then, they were analyzed by SPSS software version 21.
Results: 87 students were participated in this descriptive-analytical study. 35 of them were men (40.2%) and 51 of them were women (58.6%). In this research, the average age was estimated as 22.51 years. The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between the semester, and as its consequence, the clinical experience of the students and professional ethics (p = 0.011). The results also showed the significant relationship between age and professional ethics (p = 0.020).There was no relationship between ethnicity, average mark, sex and professional ethics.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results of this study showed that increasing students clinical experience and their involvement with issues and problems in OR along with theoretical and practical training in the clinical environment enhance the level of professional ethics among students and later as staff in the clinical environment.

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Introduction: Health care personnel are one of the vulnerable groups in relation to the covid-19 disease. Moreover, the exposure of operating room technologists to physical and mental risk factors, especially in the conditions of the corona epidemic, can also affect their work life. be influential. This study aimed to investigate the anxiety, quality of sleep and quality of work life of operating room technologists in the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Methods and Materials: This research was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted on 80 operating room technologists of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences teaching hospitals by non-random sampling method in 1400. Data collection tools included demographic information questionnaire, Spielberger anxiety questionnaire, Pittsburgh sleep quality questionnaire and Walton work life quality questionnaire. The information was entered into SPSS software version 22 and data were analyzed after completing the questionnaires by the research units.
Results: 80 operating room technologists with an average age of 33.5 were studied in this research. 22 of them were male and 58 of them were female. The findings showed that the average anxiety of technologists in the operating room was 46.67±9.90, which is an average level, and the average score of
their sleep quality is 8.63±3.53 which is relatively low. Furthermore, the average quality of their work life was 66.30±16.47, which is in the medium level. The results showed that the quality of work life has a significant relationship with the anxiety and sleep quality of the operating room technologists (p<0.05). Thus, the quality of their work life should be improved by decreasing the anxiety level and increasing the quality of sleep.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the anxiety and sleep quality of operating room technologists can affect the quality of their work life. As a result, it is possible to improve the quality of work life of technologists, increase the productivity of the hospital, and provide appropriate services to patients by taking appropriate measures to reduce the level of anxiety and improve the quality of sleep.

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Introduction: The use of task-based learning method in operating room technology students can be very important. Due to existing limitations such as the lack of hospital operating rooms, these students do not have the possibility to pass theoretical and clinical units at the same time. This possibility can be providing with the help of the task-based learning method. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of the task-based educational method on the operating room technologist students’ speed of operation.
Methods and Materials: The current research was a semi-experimental type in which 57 4th and 6th semesters operating room students were selected by head count method and they were divided into two intervention and control groups. Then, they were trained with two learning methods based on task and routine method. The speed of the students’ action was also evaluated by determining the maximum total time of 3 minutes to complete the observation checklist. Data were analyzed using Spss statistical software version 22.
Results: The results of the present study in the implementation of training with the task-based learning method showed that the speed of the students’ performance based on the observation checklist in the case group is significantly higher than the control group. This issue is very valuable and applicable in the field of surgery. (P<0.001)
Discussion and Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, task-based learning (TBL) is an efficient method in the clinical training of operating room technologist students. Moreover, it improves clinical performance and it increases the speed of students’ work. Therefore, the use of this training method is recommended to those who are responsible for the training of operating room technologists.

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Introduction: The profession-related activities of nurses and operating room staff have many ergonomic risk factors. A lack of knowledge about the correct performance of these activities can cause musculoskeletal problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the ergonomic status of working postures among nurses and operating room staff in Ilam.
Methods and Materials: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on nurses and operating room staff of three educational hospitals in Ilam in 2021. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was investigated using the Nordic questionnaire and working postures were evaluated by the REBA method. P< 0.05 was regarded as the significant level.
Results: Out of 115 studied staff with a mean age of 32.73±6.93 years, 47 cases were male (41٪). 83 subjects were nurses and 32 of them were operating room staff. In the past year, the most reported complaints were low back pain. Its prevalence in female and male nurses was 51.9٪ and 48.4٪, respectively. For operating room staff, shoulder pain was (86.7٪) in women and neck pain was (70.6٪) in men. The results showed that 43.37٪ of the nurses needed to take necessary corrective measures and 62.5٪ of the operating room staff needed immediate corrective measures.
Discussion and Conclusion: The results showed that there is not any acceptable ergonomic status among the studied occupations. There were not any high musculoskeletal complaints due to the youth of the staff at the time of the study. However, with the continuation of their profession-related activities in the current non-standard way, musculoskeletal problems will be observed for these medical staff in the near future. Evaluation of the working postures of the staff showed that some interventions such as appropriate staff training, work breaks, and exercises are necessary.

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Introduction: Productivity is recognized as an essential factor in the growth of the organization. Identifying factors that can boost productivity is consistent with the primary objectives of any organization. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the productivity of operating room specialists and their job satisfaction in educational and therapeutic hospitals affiliated with the Maragheh University of Medical Sciences.
Methods and Materials: A descriptive and analytic study was conducted on 58 operating room technologists employed by the Maragheh educational hospital in 2022. This study has been performed through census sampling method. Data were collected through three demographic profile questionnaires, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Standard Questionnaire (MS), and the Hersey and Goldsmith Productivity Standard Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential methods including Pearson’s test. SPSS software version 26 was used to analyze the gathered data. P-values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results: The average age of the participants was 33.01±7.04 in the study. Most of them were women (82.8%), and they had bachelor degree in operating room (50%). The level of job satisfaction was average and the level of productivity was low. The mean and standard deviation for productivity and job satisfaction were 71.55±15.25 and 71.77±13.54, respectively. There is a statistically significant and direct relationship between job satisfaction and the productivity of the operating room staff of Maragheh Medical University Hospitals (P<0.001, R=0.680).
Discussion and Conclusion: The importance of productivity to the success of the organization should be considered by the administration. Considering the relationship between high productivity and employee job satisfaction, particularly among operating room technologists, managers can place greater emphasis on motivating personnel to increase their job satisfaction in order to achieve high productivity in the operating room which is the heart of the hospital.

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Introduction: The clinical skills of surgical technologists, in the role of scrubs and circulars, play an essential role in the success of surgery; Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the clinical skills of orthopedic surgical technologists in the operating room of selected hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
Methods and Materials: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional analysis. 26 surgical technologists working in the orthopedic operating room, who met the inclusion criteria, were selected and included in the study through convenient sampling method. Data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist of clinical skills that included 85 items with a 4-point Likert scale (50 questions related to the circular person and 35 questions related to the scrub person).
Results: The average age and work experience of the participants in this study were 29.38 ± 4.95 and 6.42 ± 5.72, respectively. Most of the participants were female (73.1%), most of them had a bachelor’s degree (92.3%) and they were in the workforce (50%). The average clinical skill scores of operating room technologists in the role of circular (in the range of 0-150) and scrub (in the range of 0-105) were 137.27 ±11.24 and 99.69 ± 5.06, respectively. Moreover, they were at the optimal level. The results showed that th average clinical skill scores are more in women than men; however, the t-test did not show a significant difference between the two groups (P=0.56). There is also a significant negative relationship between age and work experience with circular and scrub skills(P<0.001).
Discussion and Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the orthopedic surgical technologists of selected hospitals in Isfahan have optimal clinical skills in both circular and scrub roles. In addition, there is a significant correlation between factors such as age, gender, and work history and education level with the clinical skills of the personnel. Therefore, it is suggested to plan and implement specialized training courses by respected hospital officials to improve the clinical skills of orthopedic surgical technologists in both circular and scrub roles and achieve an ideal level of skills.

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Introduction: The medical staff, who are responsible for patient care, are always at risk of injury by sharp and contaminated equipment which leads to many occupational hazards, especially blood-borne infections. This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study were performed the injuries caused by medical equipment in the operating rooms of Ilam medical centers.

Materials and Methods: In this study, a questionnaire was completed by 110 operating room staff in the second quarter of 2017. The used questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part includes demographic information and the second part included information about the frequency and cause of injuries. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to determine the analytical goals. The frequency and mean (and standard deviation) were used for the descriptive objectives according to the type of variables.

Results: Thirty-three of the participants have been injured in the last 6 months, with an average of 1 to 5 injuries (73.6%). The injuries caused by sharp objects had a score of 1.9±0.56 and the score of injuries caused by wheeled vehicles was 2.44±0.98. There was a significant relationship between the age and the occurrence of injuries in the last 6 months (p = 0.005), so that the rate of injury significantly decresed in the last 6 months with the increase in staff’s age. There was a significant relationship between the staff’s field of study and injuries caused by wheeled vehicles (p=0.025) and injuries caused by syringe needles (p=0.026). There was a significant relationship between the level of education with injuries caused by suture needles (p=0.002) and injuries caused by wheeled vehicles (p=0.023).

Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, the injuries caused by medical equipment are relatively low. However, it is necessary to hold training courses to increase the staff’s awareness and attention in dealing with the risks of blood-borne diseases.