Nurses' perceptions about management practices of nurse managers during pandemics: a descriptive and cross-sectional study

Introduction: Hospitals may not be able to manage the chaotic environment during pandemics through classical management principles. Management can only be achieved with the help of effective leadership, appropriate flow of crisis management systems, teamwork, and collaboration. Nurse managers should have effective management skills. Objective: To evaluate the perception of the nurse managers' practices by nurses such as resource management, organization, communication, psychosocial, care-training, and decision-making practices in the management of the pandemic based on the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional method was used, and a web-based online questionnaire was applied to collect data. This study included 182 nurses working in a public and private hospital in Istanbul. Result: The nurses perceived the management practices of their managers at a moderate level. The leaders' resource management practices as low (16.5%), and medium (78.6%) perceive. There was a statistically significant difference (p<0.01) between the communication and team relations (p<0.05), resource management (p<0.01), care-training (p<0.05), and decision-making scores (p<0.01) of the nurses working in the private hospitals compared to those working in the public hospital. Conclusion: To effectively manage a complex and chaotic environment, nurse managers should trust their team, have speed and adaptation skills, be based on human factor principles, and provide a safe working environment. Education should be emphasized so that nurses can work in specialized areas and nurse managers can improve their management skills.

Determination of anxiety levels of turkish university students and affecting factors in COVID-19 pandemic: sample of a private university

INTRODUCTION: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its consequences have created anxiety in various segments of society. In particular, the transition to online education brought by this process has made the education process of university students difficult. Therefore, in the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to examine the anxiety levels of university students and their relationship with somatic symptoms. OBJECTIVE: To examine the level of generalised anxiety disorder and to reveal the relationship between somatic symptoms and the generalised anxiety disorder level of Turkish university students. METHODS: Empirical research. Participants in the research constituted a total of 605 students studying at a private university in Istanbul. The Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) was used to collect data. Data were analysed using the chi-square test and Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: It was found that, among the participants, 193 (31.90%) of the students had mild anxiety, 149 (24.63%) had moderate anxiety and 121 (20.00%) had severe anxiety. The study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between the number of somatic symptoms and generalised anxiety disorder scores of university students. CONCLUSION: Most of the university students are affected by anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and this effect is correlated with the frequency of somatic symptoms. In this context, it would be beneficial for universities to plan for acute and long-term psychological services and to cooperate with the government to provide timely crisis-oriented psychological services.