The Relationship between Nurses' Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual Care and Perceived Professional Benefits: A Correlation Study

Purpose. This study aimed to investigate nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care and perceived professional benefits in China and reveal the relationship between them. Design and Methods. In this study, 372 nurses (response rate: 93.47%) from a number of hospitals across China were surveyed using convenience sampling. The data were collected through online questionnaires, including a sociodemographic characteristics form, the Chinese version of the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale (C-SCGS), and the Nurses' Perceived Professional Benefits Questionnaire (NPPBQ). Findings. The total score of the NPPBQ was 136.88 ± 20.13. A statistically significant relationship was found between the total score and subscale score of the C-SCGS and the total score and subscale score of the NPPBQ (R = 0.217–0.475, P < 0.01). Practice Implications. Nursing managers and educators should pay attention to improving nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care in order to help nurses gain more perceived professional benefits.

Potential Genes Associated with COVID-19 and Comorbidity.

Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and coronary artery disease are common comorbidities and dangerous factors for infection and serious COVID-19. Polymorphisms in genes associated with comorbidities may help observe susceptibility and disease severity variation. However, specific genetic factors and the extent to which they can explain variation in susceptibility of severity are unclear. Therefore, we evaluated candidate genes associated with COVID-19 and hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and coronary artery disease. In particular, we performed searches against OMIM, NCBI, and other databases, protein-protein interaction network construction, and GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses. Results showed that the associated overlapping genes were TLR4, NLRP3, MBL2, IL6, IL1RN, IL1B, CX3CR1, CCR5, AGT, ACE, and F2. GO and KEGG analyses yielded 302 GO terms (q < 0.05) and 29 signaling pathways (q < 0.05), respectively, mainly including coronavirus disease-COVID-19 and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. IL6 and AGT were central in the PPI, with 8 and 5 connections, respectively. In this study, we identified 11 genes associated with both COVID-19 and three comorbidities that may contribute to infection and disease severity. The key genes IL6 and AGT are involved in regulating immune response, cytokine activity, and viral infection. Therefore, RAAS inhibitors, AGT antisense nucleotides, cytokine inhibitors, vitamin D, fenofibrate, and vaccines regulating non-immune and immune factors could be potential strategies to prevent and cure COVID-19. The study provides a basis for further investigation of genes and pathways with predictive value for the risk of infection and prognosis and could help guide drug and vaccine development to improve treatment efficacy and the development of personalised treatments, especially for COVID-19 individuals with common comorbidities.