This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 nurses in hospitals of Kashan during 2012. Nurses with diplomas, associate and bachelor's degrees or higher who were working in a hospital and were willing to participate in the study were recruited.
The samples were selected through quota sampling, and based on the numbers of nursing staff in each hospital the required samples were randomly selected from the list of nurses working at each hospital. Thus, 80% of nurses from general hospitals, 10% of nurses from ear, nasal and throat (ENT) specialty hospitals and 10% of nurses from psychiatric care hospitals were recruited in the study.