ABSTRACT
Background: pre-hospital emergency is a community-oriented system that responds to the medical needs of the injured or patients with acute and emergency illnesses outside of health care facilities until they are transferred to a medical center. This study aimed to explore pre-hospital emergency challenges in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods: This study was conducted as a qualitative content analysis in Iran. Using the purposive sampling method, data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 28 prehospital paramedic personnel from November 2020 to November 2021. Graneheim and Lundman's conventional content analysis methods were used to analyze the data and for the trustworthiness of the data, this study used Lincoln and Guba's recommendations. Results: After multiple rounds of analyzing and summarizing the data and taking into consideration similarities and differences, four main categories and 10 subcategories were created based on the results of the data analysis and including (1) Culture and Community. (2) Service delivery (3) Human resources; (4) Medical supplies and equipment. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study emergency medical system employees are suffering from a range of psychiatric problems as a result of a lack of equipment and job overload, which has a detrimental impact on the quality of pre-hospital emergency care. Therefore, emergency care senior management should develop comprehensive guidelines, provide more equipment and minimize professional challenges to improve the quality and safety of pre-hospital emergency care services.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , COVID-19/epidemiology , Hospitals , Humans , Iran/epidemiology , Pandemics , Qualitative ResearchABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic poses a major threat to global public health. As a result, to prepare healthcare systems for this unprecedented threat, a coordinated worldwide response is required. This study aimed to explore the hospitals challenges related to covid-19 pandemic management from the iranian nurses perspective. METHODS: This study was conducted as a qualitative content analysis in Iran. Using the purposive sampling method, data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 35 nurse personnel. Graneheim and Lundman's conventional content analysis methods were used to analyze the data and for the trustworthiness of the data, this study used Lincoln and Guba's recommendations. RESULTS: After multiple rounds of analyzing and summarizing the data and taking into consideration similarities and differences, 5 main categories and 14 subcategories created based on the results of data analysis and including1) Leadership and management 2) Service delivery management 3) Human resources management 4) Equipment and Supplies Management and 5) Economic resources management. CONCLUSION: Identifying the most important challenges of nursing can play an important role in improving the management of COVID-19pandemic. The analysis of the challenges by managers at local, provincial and national levels can lead to the presentation of effective solutions to address these challenges and improve the pandemic management process in the country.
ABSTRACT
Infectious diseases caused by new or unknown bacteria and viruses, such as anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis and even COVID-19, are a major threat to humanity. Thus, the development of new synthetic compounds with efficient antimicrobial activity is a necessity. Herein, rationally designed novel multifunctional cationic alternating copolymers were directly synthesized through a step-growth polymerization reaction using a bivalent electrophilic cross-linker containing disulfide bonds and a diamine heterocyclic ring. To optimize the activity of these alternating copolymers, several different diamines and cross-linkers were explored to find the highest antibacterial effects. The synthesized nanopolymers not only displayed good to excellent antibacterial activity as judged by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli, but also reduced the number of biofilm cells even at low concentrations, without killing mammalian cells. Furthermore, in vivo experiments using infected burn wounds in mice demonstrated good antibacterial activity and stimulated wound healing, without causing systemic inflammation. These findings suggest that the multifunctional cationic nanopolymers have potential as a novel antibacterial agent for eradication of multidrug resistant bacterial infections.