Students and faculty experiences, perceptions and knowledge on distress during the COVID-19 pandemic: A descriptive cross-sectional study

Background and Objective@#The University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) subcommittee on students in distress was convened during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop “plans, programs and mechanisms” to deal with students experiencing distress and mental health concerns. This study was conducted as one of the activities of the Subcommittee to inform policy to address the following research objective: to describe the experiences, perceptions, and knowledge of both students and faculty members of UP Manila regarding distress.@*Methods@#An online survey tool was created using the results from seven online focus group discussions among 20 faculty of UP Manila. The survey was conducted for one month among faculty and students sampled from the seven colleges of UP Manila and the three extension campuses of the Schools of Health Sciences. The different categories which were consistently perceived as important by both faculty and students as well as those with disparity in the perceptions between faculty and students were described and discussed.@*Results@#A total of 136 faculty (F) and 290 students (S) participated in the study, representing 39% vs 98% (F vs S) of the target sample, respectively. Results showed that among the effects of stressors for students, avoidance of schoolwork (F79 vs S70.3%) and sleep disturbance (F79.4 vs S72.4%), were perceived by both faculty and students as the most frequently perceived response of students to stress.Among the causes of stress, unclear boundaries between school and home (F73.5 vs S63.1%), family duties (F76.5 vs S50.7%), lack of socialization (F89 vs S57.6%), limited recreational activity (F76.5 vs S64.8%), adapting to new ways of socialization (F67.6 vs S53.8%), and internet signal (F99.3 vs S88.3%) were perceived by both faculty and students as the most frequently perceived causes of stress. Among the coping mechanisms, connecting with friends online (F86.8 vs S69.7%), listening to music (F72.8 vs S78.3%), browsing social media (F82.4 vs S81%), viewing movies (F84.6 vs S74.5%), and sleeping or resting (F67.6 vs S84.1%) were perceived by both faculty and students as the most employed by students to cope with stress.Results also show that there were marked disparities in the perceptions of faculty and students. Among the effects of stressors, the largest disparities were in non-performance in academics (F86 vs S51.7%) and academic failure (F76.5 vs S53.8%). Of the causative factors, the largest disparities were in the areas of death (F94.1 vs S14.5%) or sickness in the family (F66.9 vs S0%), family issues (F82.4 vs S24.5%), financial concerns (F89 vs S36.9%), absence of physical connectedness and interaction, (F94.9 vs S23.8%) lack of socialization (F89 vs S57.6%), owning a gadget (F73.5 vs S22.1%), and lack of funds for the internet (F79.4 vs S22.4%).Among the support systems available in the university (psychosocial, academic and wellness activities of the colleges), 70% of the faculty perceived that the students were aware of the support process offered by the university. In contrast, 28% of students were aware of the support services offered to them. @*Conclusion@#This study shows that UP Manila faculty and students perceived stress due to the effects of COVID-19 on teaching, learning, and everyday living. Distress among student respondents was commonly perceived to be caused by family concerns, environmental restrictions, connectivity issues, and experiencing a sense of lack. While support services and mental health programs have been in place within the university, only 28% of students perceive that students in distress were aware of the process in receiving support.

Spiritual well-being of Filipino patients with cancer

@#Cancer is a serious disease that leads to physical, psychosocial, and spiritual difficulties. Filipinos' high reverence to God can affect their health-related behaviors and responses to illnesses like cancer. Though studies have shown the association of spirituality and quality of life, very few have been conducted in Filipino cancer patients. This study aimed to describe their spiritual well-being in terms of the personal, communal, environmental, and transcendental domains; and compare spiritual well-being across different patient characteristics (i.e. type of cancer, stage of cancer, type of treatment, and the period since first symptoms are felt) as input to determining patients at risk for spiritual distress. A descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized with 87 conveniently sampled respondents. A researcher-developed questionnaire and the Spiritual Health and Well-being Measure© (SHALOM) instrument were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kruskal Wallis H Test. Majority of the respondents were below 50 years old, female, married or with a common-law partner, had at least a high school education, unemployed, did not have enough income to support basic needs, Catholic, and an active member in the church. Most of them had colorectal cancer, were in Stage III, first felt symptoms 6 months to 1 year prior to the conduct of the study, and received a combination of treatments. In terms of personal state, the patients had the highest spiritual well-being in the Transcendental Domain which describes one’s relationship with God. The second-highest spiritual well-being level was found to be the communal domain followed by personal, and environmental domains. Significant differences were found in the spiritual well-being scores in the 4 domains across the types of cancer, with the lowest scores among those with head and neck cancer. Filipino patients in the study had high spiritual well-being despite the presence of cancer. Patient characteristics, especially their illness profile, should be considered in developing nursing interventions that may improve their spiritual well-being.