ABSTRACT
Moral injury, known from military medicine, is getting more attention also in the context of healthcare provision related to COVID-19 pandemic. Moral injury represents an intense cognitive and emotional response to events that jeopardize one's moral or ethical beliefs. Healthcare professionals had to quickly learn how to provide care to an enormous amount of patients, making compromising decision, often giving up their professionals standards and preferring what had to be done instead of what should be done. The aim of this review is to map out the psychological impact of potentially morally injurious events in the context of current pandemic, describe specific risks related to ethical distress and to suggest effective strategies to mitigate the impact of moral injury on healthcare professionals' mental health.
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 has caused an ongoing pandemic crisis and it has a great impact on health care worldwide. The situation in the Czech Republic was well controlled at the first wave of COVID-19 because of strict restrictions but it got worse during the second wave. Aim: The goal of this study was to compare the impact of the pandemic of COVID-19 on end-of-life care during the first and the second wave. Methods: This study was an online questionnaire survey to assess experiences of end-of-life care during the pandemic among health care professionals providing care for dying patients either during the first wave (March 2020 - May 2020) and the second wave (October 2020 - February 2021). Data were collected online using snowball and convenience sampling using dissemination through relevant professional organisations and personal contact. The questionnaire was an abbreviated version of the international Care Of the Dying Evaluation (iCODE) questionnaire with additional questions about the impact of COVID-19. The differences in 2 waves were compared using Cramer's V. Results: 136 health care professionals completed the survey at the first wave and 116 at the second wave, most of them were nurses (58 % and 84 %). Experience from both surveys did not differ regarding nursing care which was considered sufficient (88 % vs 89 %). In both samples, only 10 % of professionals thought that end-of-life care had to be limited because of the pandemic. In the second wave, there was a significant decrease in the reported level of comfort provided for patients (p= 0.01), in the level of emotional support for family carers (p= 0.005) and significantly fewer professionals thought that their patients died at the right place (64 % vs 47 %). Conclusion: This study shows that although the medical aspect of endof- life care might have not been affected during the pandemic, psychosocial care has been affected and it might have a long-lasting impact on relatives, as well as on professionals.
ABSTRACT
Influenza is a viral disease of the respiratory tract which affects a relatively large number of people in Slovakia and around the world every year. The patient groups most at risk are the elderly and immunocompromised patients in whom the disease can have serious outcomes including death. Therefore, early diagnosis of influenza and subsequent epidemiological management is very important. Point-of-care testing (POCT) seems to be very useful for rapid molecular diagnosis of influenza A and B viruses in patient samples. In today's coronavirus
ABSTRACT
Influenza is a viral disease of the respiratory tract, which affects a relatively large number of people in Slovakia and even around the world every year. The most risk patient groups are the elderly and immunocompromised patients with serious outcomes and increased mortality. Therefore early diagnosis of influenza and subsequent epidemiological management is very important. For this purpose POCT („point-of-care tests“ or „bedside tests“) seems to be very useful for rapid molecular genetic detection of influenza A and B viruses in samples of the patients. Today rapid diagnostic tests for influenza and coronavirus available at emergency departments in all Slovak hospitals are promising way how to be more effective in patient triage and they can minimise number of nosocomial infections due to respiratory virus infections. © 2020 UKSS and NASS