Debriefing Among Hospice Professionals During a Pandemic.

Although the hospice industry cannot afford to lose professionals to compassion fatigue and burnout, work challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic potentially place hospice professionals at an increased risk. Reflective debriefing has been recommended to provide emotional support to battle job dissatisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout. The purpose of this study was to provide reflective debriefing sessions to hospice professionals and identify common themes reported about their professional and personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative descriptive design using focus groups set up as reflective debriefing sessions based on the Gibbs' Reflective Cycle was used. Debriefing sessions were recorded and transcribed for coding, followed by identification of themes. A total of 26 themes emerged from the data collected from the debriefing sessions. A postsurvey found that 96.0% of participants found the debriefing session helpful. Furthermore, 92.3% of participants answered they would like to regularly debrief at their workplace. During the pandemic, hospice professionals are at an increased risk of compassion fatigue and burnout from changes in the work, patient, and person environments caused by the pandemic. To address the unprecedented challenges hospice professionals are facing, it is imperative that employers provide them with emotional support.

Antimicrobial Stewardship in College and University Health Settings: A Public Health Opportunity.

Antimicrobial resistance poses a significant threat to public health and safety across the globe. Many factors contribute to antibiotic resistance, most especially are the concerns of excessive prescribing and misuse of antibiotics. Because patient expectations for antibiotics may contribute to prescriber pressures, experts recommend targeting antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) education efforts towards prescribers as well as patients in outpatient settings. Undergraduate university students are a unique and promising target population for AMS efforts because they are in a transformative life stage of social, cognitive, and physical development in which they are learning to independently care for themselves without the presence or influence of parents. By introducing AMS education during this transition, university students may adopt positive antibiotic use behaviors that they will carry throughout their lives. Not only will their personal health be improved, but widespread adoption of AMS in university settings may have a broader effect on public health of present and future generations. Despite public health opportunities, minimal research has examined AMS in university health settings. This article explores current evidence on knowledge, attitudes, and use of antibiotics among university students and discusses opportunities for AMS initiatives in college and university health settings.

Is There an Ethical Mandate to Practice Without Proper Personal Protective Equipment?

In the spring of 2020, a novel virus known as COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) was introduced to the human population, and the world faced a global pandemic with far-reaching consequences. One of the most difficult challenges that nurses faced in the midst of the crisis was the lack of proper personal protective equipment (PPE). The lack of PPE left health care professionals with a complicated ethical dilemma: Is there an ethical duty to care for patients in the absence of proper PPE? This article seeks to help the individual nurse (a) understand the ethical dilemma and the tensions that it brings, (b) look to the literature for guidance, and (c) understand how individuals can apply these ethical principles. After careful analysis, the recommendation is for the individual nurse to make a thorough assessment of their personal situation. This will include consideration for their family, community, financial responsibilities, legal protections, organizational policies, and personal health risk. Finally, this article serves as a call to organizations and professional leaders to increase their support of frontline health care workers and provide the individual nurse with the information they need in order to make sound decisions.