Promising Best Practices Implemented in Long-Term Care Facilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Address Social Isolation and Loneliness: A Scoping Review

Context: Throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic, tremendous effort has been made to implement innovative practices to address social isolation and loneliness (SIL) in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), disproportionally affected by COVID-19. These interventions have not yet been synthesized. This review intended to gather the current promising best practices (PBPs) implemented in LTCFs to alleviate SIL in older persons during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as during the SARS and H1N1 pandemics, using an intersectional lens. Methods: An extensive search was done in nine electronic databases. Arksey and O'Malley's framework was used to format the scoping review. Two independent reviewers screened citations for inclusion, blindly. The selection of articles was conducted blindly by two coauthors. Finally, 16 studies were analyzed out of 9,077 records. Results: Two main themes of findings arose from this review. They comprised proximal PBPs directly addressing SIL in LTCF residents such as pseudo-contact interventions (e.g., chat from balcony or behind transparent barriers/glasses), remote communication tools (e.g., phone or video chat, voice mail/text messaging), and humanoid robots. Distal PBPs included measures implemented to prevent or mitigate the development of COVID-19, including COVID-19 screening approaches, outbreak preparedness, quarantining approaches for both residents and staff. Conclusion: This scoping review found varied PBP implemented during the multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as evidence supporting their effectiveness. The contribution of this study is significant as most of the PBP investigated should be prioritized by public policymakers or institutions to provide more satisfactory services to the elderly and their families. © 2022 The Author(s).

Linking High School Students’ Achievement Goal Orientations With Their Competence Beliefs and Their Perception of Teachers’ Emotional Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents have experienced limitations in their everyday activities. Consequently, their mental health has become an area of concern. However, there has been much less of a focus on the factors and mechanisms contributing to how they have approached their various academic activities during the pandemic. The current study fills this gap by investigating associations between adolescents’ competence beliefs and perception of teachers’ emotional support and their achievement goals (mastery, performance, and work avoidance) at the onset of the second wave of this pandemic in Canada. Participants were 90 Canadian high school adolescents in grades 9 and 10 and they were surveyed in November of 2020. Data were analyzed using multiple regression and mediation analyses. Among the most salient results, competence beliefs were found to predict achievement goals, above and beyond teachers’ emotional support, and these beliefs were significantly and positively associated with mastery and performance orientation, and marginally and negatively associated with work avoidance orientation. Results also showed that competence beliefs mediated the association between teachers’ emotional support and the mastery goal orientation. These findings are discussed in light of relevant pre-pandemic evidence about the role of competence beliefs and teachers’ emotional support on achievement goal orientations. Copyright © 2022 Smith, Nadeau, Archambault, Guimond, St-Amand, Fitzpatrick and Gagnon.

Who Deserves Health Care in a Global Pandemic?

The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for reflection on universal health coverage. We look at the case of the province of Ontario, Canada, which expanded health care entitlement during the pandemic to people not normally eligible for coverage, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. We use the concept of health-related deservingness to examine why certain groups of people are deemed undeserving and are excluded in ordinary times but included in extraordinary times. We argue that tying health-related deservingness to citizenship or immigration status creates problematic inequities in health care access and outcomes and that entitlement to health care should be based instead on a person's right to health. A right to health approach could make health care systems truly universal and comprehensive. We recommend that expanded entitlement to care should be sustained, both in Ontario and elsewhere, beyond the COVID-19 crisis.

Kidney transplantation in times of COVID-19-decision analysis in the canadian context

Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic significantly impacted the field of transplantation across Canada. In this study, we outline the implications of COVID-19 related interruptions in kidney transplant activities to Canadian end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Methods: We used an adapted Markov microsimulation model with a 10-year horizon and an ESRD patient perspective to study the effectiveness (patient survival in months) of living (LD) or deceased donor (DD) transplantation vs. halting transplantation for the course of the pandemic. We conducted base case, scenario, and sensitivity analyses to illustrate the impact of patient and donor characteristics as well as SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and pandemic length on the preferred strategy. Results: The base case analysis suggested that LD offered greater effectiveness (99.18 months, 95% CI 98.32-100.04) in comparison to delaying LD and remaining on dialysis for the duration of the pandemic (95.7 months (95% CI 94.80-96.6)). In contrast, DD offered effectiveness of 95.4 months (95% CI 94.50-96.30) in comparison to 94.3 months (95% CI 93.38-95.22) when experiencing interruptions in DD transplant activities for the duration of the pandemic. Infection incidence greater than 1.4% over 5-months, shorter periods of interruptions in transplant activities, younger candidates, delayed pre-emptive transplants and transplantation of donors with higher Kidney Donor Risk Index scores made the DD strategy comparable to delaying transplant activities. Conclusions: Cessation of transplant activity during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be detrimental to long-term survival of ESRD patients, contributes to organ discard, and worsens the everlasting gap between organ supply and demand. (Table Presented).

Telesante en contexte de pandemie et de deconfinement : pratiques infirmieres innovantes et partenariats pour des communautes equitables, securitaires et durables

La telesante connait un essor fulgurant en ce contexte de pandemie. Or, en cette periode d'insecurite mondiale, la sante preventive reprend ses droits. En periode de deconfinement, la discipline et la cohesion sociale peuvent se relacher. Cette enquete sociale vise a decrire un programme d'intervention a distance, realise en partenariat avec des locataires de logement communautaire, des infirmieres et des etudiantes pour soutenir la litteratie en sante au temps de la COVID-19. Le Programme de deconfinement en toute securite vise a renforcer les mesures preventives et de soutien avec des groupes en contexte de vulnerabilites economiques et sociales a l'aide de la telesante. Les infirmieres ont developpe des pratiques cliniques et psychosociales et renforce la litteratie en sante, soutenant les mesures de sante publique post-COVID-19, surveillant l'eclosion de nouveaux foyers et apaisant les souffrances issues du confinement. A l'aide de cibles de performance des systemes de sante et d'une perspective de justice sociale, nous avons documente les defis, les leviers et les menaces a l'usage des pratiques a distance en prevention. Vecteur d'une approche integree, la telesante preventive peut cibler simultanement, la lutte contre les maladies non transmissibles et transmissibles et les inegalites. La pandemie de COVID-19 renvoie a un nouvel equilibre des enjeux qui exige un accompagnement et des pratiques de sante communautaire engagees et critiques.

Télésanté en contexte de pandémie et de déconfinement : Pratiques infirmières innovantes et partenariats pour des communautés équitables, sécuritaires et durables

La télésanté connait un essor fulgurant en ce contexte de pandémie. Or, en cette période d'insécurité mondiale, la santé préventive reprend ses droits. En période de déconfinement, la discipline et la cohésion sociale peuvent se relâcher. Cette enquête sociale vise à décrire un programme d'intervention à distance, réalisé en partenariat avec des locataires de logement communautaire, des infirmières et des étudiantes pour soutenir la littératie en santé au temps de la COVID-19. Le Programme de déconfinement en toute sécurité vise à renforcer les mesures préventives et de soutien avec des groupes en contexte de vulnérabilités économiques et sociales à l'aide de la télésanté. Les infirmières ont développé des pratiques cliniques et psychosociales et renforcé la littératie en santé, soutenant les mesures de santé publique post-COVID-19, surveillant l'éclosion de nouveaux foyers et apaisant les souffrances issues du confinement. À l'aide de cibles de performance des systèmes de santé et d'une perspective de justice sociale, nous avons documenté les défis, les leviers et les menaces à l'usage des pratiques à distance en prévention. Vecteur d'une approche intégrée, la télésanté préventive peut cibler simultanément, la lutte contre les maladies non transmissibles et transmissibles et les inégalités. La pandémie de COVID-19 renvoie à un nouvel équilibre des enjeux qui exige un accompagnement et des pratiques de santé communautaire engagées et critiques.

Changes in Students' Achievement Motivation in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Function of Extraversion/Introversion?

Students' mental health has been an increased concern since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, academic outcomes have received very little attention. In this study, changes in students' achievement motivation are investigated using an expectancy-value framework. Participants (n = 90) were high school students (grades 9 and 10) who reported on their expectancy and value perceptions in regard to learning before and during the pandemic (i.e., January and November 2020). Changes over time and as a function of extraversion/introversion were analyzed using repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs). Most perceptions were found to be stable with the exception of interest in learning, which increased as a function of extraversion. Results are discussed in light of relevant pre-pandemic evidence.