Attitude of the Staff Nurses toward COVID Care and Work Challenges Faced by Them

Background: At the beginning of pandemic, many of the nurses were scared of contracting COVID infection by themselves. The work of nurses during the pandemic was highly appreciated by the society though they worked with severe challenges. Hence, it was utmost necessary to explore the attitude of the nurses toward COVID care and what challenges they faced during caring for the COVID patients. Objectives: The main objectives of the study were to assess the attitude of the nurses toward working in COVID units, to identify the challenges faced by the nurses, and to find out the relationship between the nurses attitude and challenges. Methods: The study was carried out adopting descriptive survey design with 190 conveniently selected staff nurses working in the selected COVID care units of Kolkata and Bankura. Two self‑developed rating scales were administered using self‑reporting method to measure the attitude and challenges of the nurses. Results: All the staff nurses expressed their favorable (positive) attitude. Maximum (64.21%) of the staff nurses had a high level of challenges. A very weak positive correlation found between attitude of the staff nurses toward COVID care and challenges they faced (ρ = 0.197, P = 0.006). Computation of Chi‑square test revealed that neither attitude nor challenges was influenced by any of the personal characteristics of the nurses. Conclusion: In spite of working with a high level of challenges, the majority of the nurses demonstrated favorable attitude toward taking care of COVID patients.

Thymomatous myasthenia gravis.

Ten cases of thymoma associated myasthenia were seen in the last 7 years. They constitute 17.2% of all cases of Myasthenia gravis seen during the same period. Five of these patients presented in the third decade, all of them presenting with acute generalised Myasthenia (Osserman stage-III). Two patients presented with tumour related symptoms of chest pain, cough and dyspnea both of them having large, invasive and partially resectable tumours. Five patients underwent complete thymectomy and 3 patients underwent partial resection of tumour. Two patients underwent radiotherapy subsequently. Histologically, mixed lymphoepithelial tumours were common (70%). Tumour recurrence was seen in one patient. Two patients died, one in the post operative period. The surviving 8 patients followed up over 1-8 years remained in partial remission, on maintenance dose of steroids. The special problems related to thymomatous MG and practical approach to management are highlighted.

Computerised tomography in Tolosa-Hunt syndrome.

Twelve patients who satisfied the clinical criteria of Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (THS), underwent axial computerised tomography (CT) scan of the head. Two patients had abnormalities detected in the cavernous sinus on the affected side which supported the clinical diagnosis. This coupled with steroid responsiveness and long-term asymptomatic follow-up firmly established the diagnosis of THS. We discuss the computerised tomographic findings seen in THS and the relevance of using accurate imaging techniques as the first line of investigation in these cases.