Perceived social support and professional identity in nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic era: the mediating effects of self-efficacy and the moderating role of anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Health professionals, including nurses, experienced heavy workloads and significant physical and mental health challenges during the coronavirus disease (COVID) 19 pandemic, which may affect career choices for those considering nursing and for nursing students. The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a period of risk, but also an occasion to redeploy the professional identity (PI) of nursing students. However, the relationship between perceived social support (PSS), self-efficacy (SE), PI and anxiety remains unclear under the background of COVID-19. This study aims to explore whether PSS has an indirect effect on PI through mediation of SE and whether the anxiety can moderate the relationship between PSS and SE in nursing students during their internship period. METHODS: An observational, national cross-sectional study was conducted following the STROBE guidelines. An online questionnaire was completed by 2,457 nursing students from 24 provinces in China during their internship during September to October 2021. Measures included Chinese translations of the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students, the Perceived Social Support Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety disorder scale. RESULTS: Both PSS (r = 0.46, p < 0.001) and SE (r = 0.51, p < 0.001) were positively correlated with PI. The indirect effect of PSS on PI through SE was positive (ß = 0.348, p < 0.001), with an effect of 72.7%. The results of the moderating effect analysis showed that anxiety attenuated the effect of PSS on SE. Moderation models indicated that anxiety has a weak negative moderating effect on the effect of PSS on SE (ß =-0.0308, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A better PSS and higher scores in SE were associated with PI in nursing students, and a better PSS had an indirect effect on the PI of nursing students through SE. Anxiety played a negative moderating role in the relationship between PSS and SE.

Perceived social support and professional identity in nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic era: The mediating effects of self-efficacy and the moderating role of anxiety (preprint)

Background Health professionals, including nurses, experienced heavy workloads and significant physical and mental health challenges during the coronavirus disease (COVID) 19 pandemic, which may affect career choices for those considering nursing and for nursing students. The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a period of risk, but also an occasion to redeploy the PI of nursing students. However, the relationship between PSS, SE, PI and anxiety remains unclear. This study aims to explore whether perceived social support (PSS) has an indirect effect on professional identity (PI) through mediation of self-efficacy (SE) and whether the anxiety can moderate the relationship between perceived social support and self-efficacy in nursing students during their internship period.Methods An observational, national cross-sectional study was conducted following the STROBE guidelines. An online questionnaire was completed by 2,457 nursing students from 24 provinces in China during their internship during September to October 2021. Measures included Chinese translations of the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students, the Perceived Social Support Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety disorder scale.Results Both PSS (r = 0.46, p < 0.001) and SE (r = 0.51, p < 0.001) were positively correlated with PI. The indirect effect of PSS on PI through SE was positive (β = 0.348, p < 0.001), with an effect of 72.7%. The results of the moderating effect analysis showed that anxiety attenuated the effect of PSS on SE. Moderation models indicated that anxiety has a weak negative moderating effect on the effect of PSS on SE (β = − 0.0308, p < 0.05).Conclusions A better PSS and higher scores in SE were associated with PI in nursing students, and a better PSS had an indirect effect on the PI of nursing students through SE. Anxiety played a negative moderating role in the relationship between PSS and SE.

Guest Editorial Special Issue on Challenges and Responses of Automation Science and Engineering to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only posed a significant threat to health, life, economy, and the whole society but also led to numerous new theoretical and practical challenges for automation science and engineering. The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together researchers and practitioners into a forum to show the state-of-the-art research and applications in responding to the challenges and opportunities of automation science and engineering to the pandemic, by presenting efficient scientific and engineering solutions, addressing the needs and difficulties for integration of new automation methodologies and technologies, and providing visions for future research and development. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of IEEE Transactions on Automation Science & Engineering is the property of IEEE and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Investigating the cognitive capacity constraints of an ICU care team using a systems engineering approach.

BACKGROUND: ICU operational conditions may contribute to cognitive overload and negatively impact on clinical decision making. We aimed to develop a quantitative model to investigate the association between the operational conditions and the quantity of medication orders as a measurable indicator of the multidisciplinary care team's cognitive capacity. METHODS: The temporal data of patients at one medical ICU (MICU) of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN between February 2016 to March 2018 was used. This dataset includes a total of 4822 unique patients admitted to the MICU and a total of 6240 MICU admissions. Guided by the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model, quantifiable measures attainable from electronic medical records were identified and a conceptual framework of distributed cognition in ICU was developed. Univariate piecewise Poisson regression models were built to investigate the relationship between system-level workload indicators, including patient census and patient characteristics (severity of illness, new admission, and mortality risk) and the quantity of medication orders, as the output of the care team's decision making. RESULTS: Comparing the coefficients of different line segments obtained from the regression models using a generalized F-test, we identified that, when the ICU was more than 50% occupied (patient census > 18), the number of medication orders per patient per hour was significantly reduced (average = 0.74; standard deviation (SD) = 0.56 vs. average = 0.65; SD = 0.48; p < 0.001). The reduction was more pronounced (average = 0.81; SD = 0.59 vs. average = 0.63; SD = 0.47; p < 0.001), and the breakpoint shifted to a lower patient census (16 patients) when at a higher presence of severely-ill patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation during their stay, which might be encountered in an ICU treating patients with COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Our model suggests that ICU operational factors, such as admission rates and patient severity of illness may impact the critical care team's cognitive function and result in changes in the production of medication orders. The results of this analysis heighten the importance of increasing situational awareness of the care team to detect and react to changing circumstances in the ICU that may contribute to cognitive overload.