The relationship between professional self-concept and work-related quality of life of nurses working in the wards of patients with COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Nurses are at the forefront of providing health care services and their performance is largely determinant of the quality of health care. This study aims to investigate associations between professional self-concept (PSC) and WRQoL among nurses from selected hospitals in Bushehr and Shiraz cities (south of Iran), during the period of COVD-19 pandemic. METHOD: This study is designed as a cross-sectional study. Available sampling was performed among active nurses in the care wards of patients with Covid-19 in public hospitals in Bushehr and Shiraz. Data were collected using demographic information form, along with the work-related quality of life and professional self-concept questionnaires. SPSS software and univariate and multivariate linear regression statistical methods with a significance level of 0.05 were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The mean scores of the PSC and the WRQoL Scale in nurses were respectively 202.32 ± 38.19 and 68.81 ± 19.12. There was also a significant direct relationship between PSC and WRQoL. PSC together with work location and working experience could thus explain 34.6% of the variance in WRQoL, which was 26.5% for PSC. CONCLUSION: Considering the confirmation of the predictive role of nurses' PSC in their WRQoL in terms of planning and designing interventions to boost their WRQoL, attention to internal factors such as PSC is of utmost importance.

Definitions and Psychological Impacts of Quarantine and Strategies to Reduce It: A Review Paper

Context: Worldwide outbreak of coronavirus has been declared by the World Health Organization as a global emergency. Quarantine, as one of the first important health measures to control and spread epidemic diseases, is the focus of health authorities and policymakers in most societies. This study was designed to obtain the psychological impact of quarantine and strategies to reduce it. Evidence Acquisition: This is a "narrative review" study done through advanced search with the keywords Quarantine, Homeisolation, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Mental Health, Psychological effect in the Scopus, Pumped, Clinical Key, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Web of Science databases from 2019-2020. The articles were included in the study according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Systematic searching and screening of the titles resulted in 68 initial titles that decreased to 46 after reviewing the abstracts, and 19 articles were included in the final review. Results: Quarantine can lead to psychosocial problems from feeling lonely to depression and anxiety disorders. Certain counseling, as well as educational and supportive interventions, can make this situation tolerable. Conclusions: For acceptance and adherence to quarantine conditions, clear and transparent information about the disease and its prevalence and meeting the needs of people such as psychological, informational, and financial needs in each country are essential to reduce fear and anxiety.

How the first cases of COVID-19 in 10 countries become infected? a case series.

Recently, a new respiratory infectious disease called COVID-19 has emerged and created a global emergency. It was initially linked to the animal-to-human transmission. However, it is now thought that COVID-19 is spreading through human-to-human transmission mainly via droplets. As there is no definite antiviral therapy for the treatment of cases with COVID-19 the best option for slowing down the pandemic and reducing mortality rates is protection against the virus of interest. To achieve this goal obtaining information about how first cases infected with COVID-19 is crucial. Hence, this study aims to review the studies published in peer-reviewed journals to report the first confirmed cases with COVID-19. Herein, we review the origin, symptoms, diagnostic tests, and progress of the disease and possible actions of authorities which would be effective in similar pandemics in the future. This study reviewed 13 cases (5 females and 8 males; 25-61 years old) from 10 countries. All cases have recovered from COVID-19. The results of this review suggested that timely reports of the confirmed cases, notifying World Health Organization and providing information to the general population about the methods of spreading the virus would have decreased the number of infected cases and mortality rates. In addition, the travel history of the first confirmed cases in various countries suggested that prompt actions in restricting travels and closing borders could be an efficient strategy in preventing the transmission of the disease outside of the affected sites. Efforts should be taken by health authorities for preparing the world for future epidemic/pandemic in terms of developing advanced screening strategies in the borders and diagnostic strategies for early identification of infected cases.