Nursing and Maternity in the Pandemic: A Qualitative Study from Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to examine the experiences and perceived challenges of nurses who are also mothers having a child during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: A descriptive phenomenological design. The study was conducted with 18 nurse mothers working at COVID-19 clinics in Turkey. RESULTS: Nurse mothers missed their children and are worried about infecting their children. Based on content analysis, the themes of the study were determined as follows: (1) Nursing Care Process, (2) Disruption of Family Processes, (3) Nurse Mother's Perspective: Being a Child in a Pandemic, and (4) Coping with Challenges-"Searching for a solution." CONCLUSIONS: Necessary conditions should be provided for nurses with children or family members in need of care and protocols should be made with relevant institutions.

What is already known on the subject? Nurses working in COVID-19 units wear protective equipment and work for a long time under difficult conditions. In addition, nurses who have children are separated from their children because of the fear of transmitting COVID-19.What does this study add? Therefore, nurses caring for COVID-19 patients should alternately be replaced by nurses working in other services. They should be given the opportunity to rest and spend time with their loved ones if they are not carriers of COVID-19.

Being a Nurse During a Worldwide Pandemic: A Qualitative Study Exploring Nurses' Perceived Challenges and Expectations During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: Determining the health-care experiences, problems, and difficulties of nurses during a pandemic is important to shape the measures of nursing care management. This study aimed to better understand clinical nurses' challenges and expectations surrounding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted. The study sampling comprised of 48 clinical nurses who have worked in pandemic hospitals. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and evaluated based on the content analysis method. RESULTS: In this study, 6 main themes were determined as intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional/organizational, community, policies and system challenges, and expectations. Based on the results, nurses' perceived challenges were psychological distress, dilemma, safety and security issues, workload increased, disruption in family and social relationships, stigmatization encountered, and not making their voices heard enough due to the lack of nurses in the scientific advisory board. Nurses' expectations were determined as improvement of their personal rights and institutional psychosocial support. DISCUSSION: The results of this study can be used as a guide for action plans to support nurses, develop health-care protocols for safe patient care, and create family and pandemic support systems.

A cross-sectional study examining self-reported anthropometric measurements with adolescents' nutrition attitudes, obesity awareness and diet quality indices during the pandemic.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between adolescents' nutritional attitudes, obesity awareness, and diet quality with their self-reported anthropometric measurements taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN AND METHODS: This cross-sectional type of study was conducted in a district in the south of Turkey. The research was carried out online with 907 adolescents who agreed to participate voluntarily. RESULTS: Among the adolescents, 28.5% considered themselves overweight, and 32.1% were currently trying to lose weight. According to BMI, 16.1% were affected by overweight/obesity. Adolescents' nutritional attitudes and obesity awareness levels were moderate, while their KIDMED nutritional habits were also moderate. In this study, a negative relationship was found between the adolescents' ASHN mean scores and their body weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, neck circumference, waist/hip ratio and waist/height ratio measurements; and between their OAS mean scores and their body weight, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio and waist/height ratio measurements; and between their KIDMED index scores and their waist/height ratio measurements (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The rate of adolescents who perceive themselves as overweight is higher than the results obtained from the measurement values. BMI levels and other anthropometric measurement values of adolescents with positive nutrition attitudes and physical activity behaviours are also positively affected. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study may have a significant impact on the formulation and implementation of interventions to prevent obesity and increase physical activity for school health nurses. Since the pandemic is still continuing, healthcare providers must stress the risk of obesity in adolescence.

Social Media Addiction in High School Students: A Cross-Sectional Study Examining Its Relationship with Sleep Quality and Psychological Problems.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of social media addiction with sleep quality and psychological problems in high school students. The study is a cross-sectional, correlational type. The study was conducted with 1,274 students receiving education in a district located in the western region of Turkey. For the collection of the data, a Descriptive Information Form, the Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents (SMASA), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Sleep Quality Scale (SQS) and the Sleep Variables Questionnaire (SVQ) were used. Among the high school students who participated in the research, 49.3% stated that they had been using social media for 1-3 years, 53.9% reported that they spent 1-3 h per day on social media, and 42.8% stated that they placed their telephone under their pillow or beside their bed while sleeping. Students' mean scores were 16.59 ± 6.79 (range: 9-45) for the SMASA, 16.54 ± 4.27 (range: 0-40) for total difficulties, and 14.18 ± 1.56 (range: 7-21) for the SQS, while their sleep efficiency value was 97.9%. According to the research model, difficulties experienced by high school students increase their social media addiction, while they decrease prosocial behaviours. Social media addiction in high school students decreases students' sleep efficiency (p < 0.05). It is considered important to conduct further public health studies for children and adolescents related to the risks caused by the excessive use of technology, the consequences of social media addiction, measures to protect psychological health, sleep programmes and the importance of sleep quality.