Out of Chaos Leaders Emerged.

COVID-19 had a major influence on nursing with the pandemic resulting in changes in the work environment while experiencing physical and emotional challenges such as moral distress, fear for self and family and dealing with the unknown. However, during this period, nurses demonstrated extraordinary resilience, crafted innovations in clinical practice, communication and support, providing leadership in the health service and in the nursing profession.

Public perceptions on Twitter of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The use of social media platforms to convey public opinions and attitudes has exponentially increased over the last decade on topics related to health. In all these social media postings related to the pandemic, specific attention has been focused on healthcare professionals, specifically nurses. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore how the keyword 'nurse' is located in COVID-19 pandemic-related tweets during a selected period of the pandemic in order to assess public perception. METHODS: Tweets related to COVID-19 were downloaded from Twitter for the period January 1st, 2020, to November 11th, 2021. Sentiment analysis was used to identify opinions, emotions, and approaches expressed in tweet which included 'nurse', 'COVID-19', and 'pandemic' as either keyword or hashtags. RESULTS: A total of 2,440,696 most used unique words in the downloaded 582,399 tweets were included and the sentiment analysis indicated that 24.4% (n = 595,530) of the tweets demonstrated positive sentiment while 14.1% (n = 343,433) of the tweets demonstrated negative sentiment during COVID-19. Within these results, 17% (n = 416,366) of the tweets included positive basic emotion words of trust and 4.9% (n = 120,654) of joy. In terms of negative basic emotion words, 9.9% (n = 241,758) of the tweets included the word fear, 8.3% (n = 202,179) anticipation, 7.9% (n = 193,145) sadness, 5.7% (n = 139,791) anger, 4.2% (n = 103,936) disgust, and 3.6% (n = 88,338) of the tweets included the word surprised. CONCLUSIONS: It is encouraging to note that with the advent of major health crises, public perceptions on social media, appears to portray an image of nurses which reflects the professionalism and values of the profession.

Evaluation of a digital programme for final year nursing students during COVID-19.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate a digital programme aimed to address COVID-19 related anxiety of final year undergraduate nursing students on returning to the clinical practice during the pandemic in South Africa. Background: In South Africa, concern about the physical and psychological safety of nursing students resulted in the planning of a psychological first aid program to facilitate nursing students return to clinical practice. Design: A survey was conducted in September 2020 following the August 2020 return of final year nursing students to clinical facilities. Methods: All final year nursing students were invited to participate in the study (N = 196). An online survey was circulated via WhatsApp asking respondents to rate their anxiety and fear of COVID-19 before and after return to practice following an intervention (eCOVID). Related pair analysis was done on the main outcome measures of anxiety, COVID-19 fears and concerns using Related Samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests. Results: After the programme, the respondents reported a significant reduction in anxiety (W = 2.92, p =.004) and COVID fear (W=0.3.1, p =.001), specifically related to infecting family, being exposed to COVID-19 at work, propagating infection at work and lacking access to COVID-19 information and communication. Conclusion: The implementation of a dedicated digital programme, underpinned by a sound theory base of psychological first aid, may have decreased anxiety and fear in nursing students during clinical practice in the pandemic.Contribution: The study contributes to evidence on psychological first aid support of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stress and coping - Perceptions of final year nursing students returning to clinical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa.

BACKGROUND: The novel nature of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic places challenges on nursing students as they try to complete the clinical requirement of their training. Nursing faculties need to understand these challenges to support and equip nursing students to enter the workforce. AIM: To explore and describe the anticipated and subsequent perceptions of final year Bachelor of Nursing students returning to clinical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. SETTING: The study was conducted at two universities in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Both universities offer 4-year Bachelor of Nursing programmes accredited by the South African Nursing Council and were in 'hot spot areas' for SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: A qualitative study with focus groups discussions of final year undergraduate nursing students from both universities were conducted. Data were analysed through content analysis using Lazarus and Folkman's Stress Appraisal Coping Model. RESULTS: Five focus groups discussions with a total of 25 participants were conducted. Three themes with eight sub-themes emerged, the key themes being: primary appraisal and anticipation of returning to clinical practice; contextual influence on primary appraisal and reappraisal to facilitate positive return to clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Primary perceptions of returning to clinical practice revolved around uncertainty and stress. However, through preparation and the process of reappraisal, participants were able to adapt and cope with the challenges in returning to clinical practice during the pandemic. CONTRIBUTION: It is important to recognise the role of faculty in supporting nursing students' transition into situations of uncertainty such as the pandemic.