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.

Association between spiritual care competency and perceived professional benefit among nurses: A cross-sectional study.

AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the status quo of nurses' spiritual care competency and their relationship with perceived professional benefit. BACKGROUND: Spiritual care has always been considered a vitally important part of holistic nursing. Understanding the spiritual care competency of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic can help nursing managers understand the weak links in spiritual care practice and improve the quality of nursing service. As a positive emotional experience and cognitive evaluation of the profession, perceived professional benefit can serve to adjust work pressure, relieve job burnout and promote an individual's overall growth. However, the relationship between perceived professional benefit among nurses and spiritual care competency remains unclear. METHODS: A total of 372 nurses were recruited from 15 separate Chinese hospitals. An online questionnaire was used to assess nurses' sociodemographic, spiritual care competency and perceived professional benefit. Statistical analyses were performed using Pearson's correlation analysis, t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple stepwise linear regression analysis. RESULTS: The total mean score of spiritual care competency (99.43 ± 21.10) among nurses was found to be moderate. Nurses' spiritual care competency was positively correlated with perceived professional benefit (P < .01). The multiple stepwise linear regression model (n = 372) had an explained variance (R2 = 0.218) and showed that perceived professional benefit and the manner of receiving spiritual training were the main influencing factors of nurses' spiritual care competency (P < .001). CONCLUSION: The study findings indicated that nurses need to improve their spiritual care competency by improving their perceived professional benefit. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGERS: Our study evaluated the spiritual care competency of nurses and explored the correlation between perceived professional benefit and spiritual care competency among nurses. The results of this study can help nursing managers to carry out relevant interventions, thus improving nurses' spiritual care competency and optimizing the quality of nursing.

Integrating CRISPR/Cas within isothermal amplification for point-of-Care Assay of nucleic acid.

Nucleic acid detection technology is now widely used in scientific research and clinical testing, such as infectious and genetic diseases screening, molecular diagnosis of tumors and pharmacogenomic research, which is also an important part of in vitro diagnostics (IVD). However, with the increasing requirements of diagnosis and treatment, existing nucleic acid detection technologies are facing challenges in dealing with the current problems (especially since the outbreak of coronavirus disease in 2019 (Covid-19)). Recently, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas)-based diagnostics have become a hot spot of attention. CRISPR/Cas has been developed as a molecular detection tool besides scientific research in biology and medicine fields, and some CRISPR-based products have already been translated. It is known as the "next-generation molecular diagnostic technology" because of its advantages such as easy design and accurate identification. CRISPR/Cas relies on pre-amplification of target sequences and subsequent detection of Cas proteins. Combining the CRISPR/Cas system with various isothermal nucleic acid amplification strategies can generate amplified detection signals, enrich low abundance molecular targets, improve the specificity and sensitivity of analysis, and develop point-of-care (POC) diagnostic techniques. In this review, we analyze the current status of CRISPR/Cas systems and isothermal amplification, report the advantages of combining the two and summarize the recent progress with the integration of both technologies with POC sensors in the nucleic acid field. In addition, the challenges and future prospects of CRISPR technology combined with isothermal amplification strategies in biosensing and clinical applications are discussed.

ACE2 expression in rat brain: Implications for COVID-19 associated neurological manifestations.

We examined cell type-specific expression and distribution of rat brain angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the receptor for SARS-CoV-2, in the rodent brain. ACE2 is ubiquitously present in brain vasculature, with the highest density of ACE2 expressing capillaries found in the olfactory bulb, the hypothalamic paraventricular, supraoptic, and mammillary nuclei, the midbrain substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area, and the hindbrain pontine nucleus, the pre-Bötzinger complex, and nucleus of tractus solitarius. ACE2 was expressed in astrocytes and astrocytic foot processes, pericytes and endothelial cells, key components of the blood-brain barrier. We found discrete neuronal groups immunopositive for ACE2 in brainstem respiratory rhythm generating centers, including the pontine nucleus, the parafascicular/retrotrapezoid nucleus, the parabrachial nucleus, the Bötzinger, and pre-Bötzinger complexes and the nucleus of tractus solitarius; in the arousal-related pontine reticular nucleus and gigantocellular reticular nuclei; in brainstem aminergic nuclei, including substantia nigra, ventral tegmental area, dorsal raphe, and locus coeruleus; in the epithalamic habenula, hypothalamic paraventricular and supramammillary nuclei; and in the hippocampus. Identification of ACE2-expressing neurons in rat brain within well-established functional circuits facilitates prediction of possible neurological manifestations of brain ACE2 dysregulation during and after COVID-19 infection.

ACE2 in the second act of COVID-19 syndrome: Peptide dysregulation and possible correction with oestrogen.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the most critical pandemic of the 21st Century and the most severe since the 1918 influenza pandemic. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infects the host by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The role of ACE2 in the pathophysiology of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a topic of debate, with clinical and experimental evidence indicating a multifaceted relationship between ACE2 activity and disease severity. Here, we review the mechanisms by which the peptidergic substrates and products of ACE and ACE2 contribute to physiological and pathophysiological processes and hypothesise how down-regulation of ACE2 by SARS-CoV-2 cellular entry disrupts homeostasis. A better understanding of the endocrinology of the disease, in particular the neuroendocrinology of ACE2 during COVID-19, may contribute to the timely design of new therapeutic strategies, including the regulation of ACE2 itself by steroid hormones, to ameliorate the severity of COVID-19.