The effect of personal protective equipment use on nurses' tendencies to make medical errors and types of their medical errors: a cross-sectional study.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of nurses' use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during their care practices on their tendency to make medical errors and the types of medical errors. The study was conducted with 505 nurses in Turkey between May 2021 and June 2021. Descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis H test, Spearman's correlation test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses often used PPE on different levels. A significant relationship was determined between the type of PPE used by the nurses and falls, hospital infections and patient monitoring/material safety (p < 0.05). The conclusions in this study reveal the necessity of increasing the usability, safety and effectiveness of PPE used by nurses in health institutions.

Fear of COVID-19 and its influence on palliative care patients.

BACKGROUND: Fear of COVID-19 may have adverse psychological effects on palliative patients; it may also reduce their quality of life, increase physical symptoms and lead to the postponement of treatment. AIM: This study aimed to determine how the fear of COVID-19 influences factors (personal and disease-related characteristics) in palliative care patients. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional design study was conducted on 110 patients. A patient information form, the 'Fear of COVID-19 scale' and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status were used for data collection. FINDINGS: The mean score obtained from the COVID-19 scale was 20.44±5.78. There was a statistical significance between the stage of disease and the fear of COVID-19 score. The fear of COVID-19 was higher for participants who had received polymerase chain reaction testing. CONCLUSION: There was a positive and statistically significant relationship between the oxygen flow rate and fear of COVID-19 score, as well as a statistically significant relationship between the stage of disease and fear of COVID-19 score. It was determined that the COVID-19 pandemic process affected the mental health of palliative care patients.

Intensive and Critical Care Nursing of a COVID-19 Patient in Turkey: A Case Study.

BACKGROUND: A multidisciplinary approach is required to provide holistic care and treatment in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Being in the center of the multidisciplinary approach, nurses provide therapeutic, primary, and psychosocial care for the patients. OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to diagnose according to the North American Nursing Diagnosis Associations by determining the care needs of a case who was diagnosed with COVID-19, planning interventions, and observing the results. METHODS: This descriptive case study included a patient who applied to a university hospital located in Istanbul/Turkey between March and April 2020 because of COVID-19. As the inclusion criteria, only a positive result from a polymerase chain reaction test was accepted. The details of the patient presented in the study were obtained through face-to-face interviews and electronic medical records. DISCUSSION: Specified care plans enable defining problems in practice for all needs of the individual and developing solution recommendations. It was observed that there were improvements and a decrease in symptom severity after the interventions were applied for the symptoms developing in the case. The execution of the treatment and care practices under quality and effective nursing care such as giving proper ventilatory support at the right time, giving prone position for a long time, and providing sufficient fluid resuscitation and an early and balanced diet contributed to the patient's discharge from the intensive care unit successfully without having any organ dysfunction. This presentation is expected to be a source for collaborative nursing care for other cases diagnosed with COVID-19 and intensive care indications. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing care interventions were applied for gas exchange, risk of decreased tissue perfusion, excess fluid volume, and constipation nursing diagnosis. It was observed that there were improvements and a decrease in symptom severity after the interventions were applied for the symptoms developing in the case. This presentation is expected to be a source for collaborative nursing care for other cases diagnosed with COVID-19 and intensive care indications.

Professional values and ethical sensitivities of nurses in COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Nurses are facing several ethical problems like the safety of the nurses, patients, co-workers, and families, allocation of scarce resources, and the changing nature of the relationships of nurses with patients and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These have caused nurses to have feelings such as stigmatization, fear, anger, anxiety, uncertainty, work-related strain, and burnout. Identifying nurses' ethical sensitivities and professional values are highly important to ensure that nurses are placed in the right decision-making position. This descriptive correlational study was carried out to evaluate the professional values and ethical sensitivities of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A quantitative descriptive and correlational study was performed with 245 nurses in Turkey. The "personal information form," the "nurses professional values scale-revised (NPVS-R)," and the "moral sensitivity questionnaire (MSQ)" were employed for data collection. RESULTS: The nurses' 52.7% reported facing an ethical dilemma. Also, 40.3% of the nurses who had an ethical dilemma during the pandemic failed to solve it. The mean NPVS-R scores of the nurses had statistically significant negative correlations with mean scores of the overall MSQ and its autonomy, benefit, integrative approach, and orientation subscales (p < .05). The nursing staff had high levels of professional values and moral sensitivities. CONCLUSION: Professional value perceptions were enhanced, and moral sensitivities were improved. Age and professional experience were identified as factors that affected the professional value perceptions and moral sensitivities of the nurses. The results will form the basis for future studies and contribute to the resolution of ethical dilemmas experienced by nurses.

The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Breathing and Music Therapy Practice on Nurses' Stress, Work-Related Strain, and Psychological Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Infectious diseases cause psychological problems for health care workers and especially nurses. Nurses who provided coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients with care experience negative feelings such as stress, work-related strain, discomfort, and helplessness related to their high-intensity work. The aims of this study are to investigate the effect of the mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy practice on stress, work-related strain, and psychological well-being levels of nurses who provided COVID-19 patients with care. This randomized controlled trial was conducted in a COVID-19 department at a university hospital in Turkey. Nurses who care for patients infected with COVID-19 were randomly divided into an intervention group (n = 52) and a no-treatment control group (n = 52). The intervention group received mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy. In data collection, the Personal Information Form, State Anxiety Inventory, Work-Related Strain Scale, and Psychological Well-Being Scale were used. The data from the study showed that mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy decreased stress and work-related strain (P < .05) and increased psychological well-being (P < .05). The control group showed no statistically significant changes on these measures (P > .05). The mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy practice reduced nurses' stress and work-related strain and increased psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evaluation of the caregiving roles and attitudes of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Nurses play a critical role in providing care to patients, in particular, they work in the frontlines in caring for patients with complicated COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. Evaluation of the caregiving roles and attitudes of nurses is critical in the current crisis. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the caregiving roles and attitudes of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A quantitative descriptive study was performed with 130 nurses in Turkey. The attitude scale for the caregiving roles of nurses (ASCRNs) was used to collect data. We conducted an online survey between May and November 2020. RESULTS: The mean total score of the participants on the ASCRN was 62.20 ± 18.42. All nurses stated that they were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ASCRN scores of nurses who received training about the COVID-19 pandemic and who thought that the personal protective equipment they used was sufficient had statistically higher scores on the ASCRN (p < .05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on the caregiving roles and attitudes of the nurses.

Immunization in health employees: Relationship of confidence and attitude.

This is a cross-sectional online survey study performed to identify whether the health employees' confidence in the vaccine besides their confidence in the administrators about the vaccine had any effect on their attitudes toward the vaccine. The study was carried out on February 2021 with the participation of 402 health employees working in the pandemic hospitals. Approximately 33% of the participant health employees stated that they did not think of being vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Insufficient testing for the vaccines that are developed to fight against pandemics, having fear about their side effects, and finding them unreliable give rise to vaccine hesitancy in health employees. Besides, it was identified that the health employees' confidence in the vaccines and their confidence in the administrators about the vaccines affected their attitudes toward vaccination.