Training for virtual care: What do the experts think?

Introduction: Virtual care has expanded during COVID-19 and enabled continued access to healthcare services. As with the introduction of any new technology in healthcare delivery, the preparation of healthcare providers for adopting and using such systems is imperative. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore experts' ascribed opinions on healthcare providers' continuing professional development (CPD) needs in virtual care. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of key informants representing Canadian provincial and national organizations with expertise in virtual care delivery. Results: Three main areas of knowledge, skills, and abilities that would be most helpful for healthcare providers in preparing to adopt and use virtual care were identified. The use of technology necessitates knowledge of how to integrate technology and virtual care in the practice workflow. This includes knowing how to use the technology and the privacy and security of the technology. Providers need to be able to adapt their clinical skills to virtual care and build rapport through good communication with patients. Virtual care is not appropriate for all visits, therefore providers need to understand when an in-person visit is necessary with respect to the nature of the appointment, as well as contextual factors for individual patients. Finally, providers need to adapt their examination skills to virtual care. Discussion: Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual care will have a continuing role in enhancing continuity of care through access that is more convenient. Key informants identified barriers and challenges in adopting and using virtual care effectively, fundamental knowledge, skills and/or abilities required, and important topics and/or educational experiences to guide CPD program development on virtual care for healthcare providers.

Socio-Labor Insertion: The Role of Families from the Socio-Educational Agents' Perception. A Qualitative Study

The family environment is the place where vital projects begin, accompanying people in the transit that life itself entails. One of these transitions is labor insertion, and families play a key role in this process. This study is part of a broader research developed around Social Education and COVID-19 in Ibero-America: social and labor exclusion after the pandemic and good practices for inclusion. This is an exploratory study, with a qualitative methodology, with data collected through group interviews (focus groups), with semi-structured questions. The data analysis has been carried out through the qualitative software ATLAS.ti (v.22). The focus groups consist of professionals implied in socio-educational intervention with families, who participate in services and programs aimed at socio-labor insertion after the pandemic. These key informants come from four countries of the Ibero-American context: Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Mexico, and through the data they have provided, it is intended to know the situations of social exclusion, the populations that are most affected, as well as the proposals for intervention and insertion indicators on which they are based. Results of this research are interpreted within the framework of the two main categories that have guided the study. These categories derived from the focus groups information: a) Young people and family support during and after the pandemic;b) Gender and care (support linked to gender roles);The professionals participating in this study show agreement regarding the assessment of the proactive role of fathers, mothers and caregivers in promoting the personal and family autonomy of the members. Likewise, the intervention of socio-educational agents (entities of the 3rd sector) it is considered pertinent to guide, accompany and identify the main social and labor skills, and consequently, facilitators of social and labor insertion. Copyright © 2015 SIPS. Licencia Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (by-nc) Spain 3.0.

Responding to everyday problems and crises: Measuring community resilience.

Resilience is of the upmost importance to deal with everyday problems faced by communities. The concept of community resilience is gaining prominence in disaster management policy and practice, and it has been shown to be an important factor during pandemic recovery such as during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. We present an instrument for community resilience assessment adapted for disasters like the pandemics. The instrument was based on the theory-based and evidence-informed Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) Assessment Survey, adapted for the first time to Portuguese. Another strong feature of this study relates to the targeted participants, namely human service workers (598). They are key informants for their close involvement with communities. This version of the CART was reliable. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good relationship between the observed variables and their underlying latent constructs. Moreover, tests for measurement invariance across participants showed that differences in factor variances and covariances were not attributable to age-based differences in the properties of the scales themselves. Our findings support the fundamental idea that it is worthwhile to have an instrument to measure community resilience. Thus, our study adds to the evaluation of the CART, supporting its value as a robust instrument to measure resilience at the community level in different countries.

Revolution in abortion care? Perspectives of key informants on the importance of abortion method choice in the era of telemedicine.

Patient choice of medical or surgical abortion is a standard of quality abortion care, but the choice of surgical abortion is constrained in England and Wales, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic and introduction of telemedicine. This qualitative study explored the perspectives of abortion service providers, managers, and funders on the need to offer a choice of methods within early gestation abortion services in England and Wales. Twenty-seven key informant interviews were conducted between August and November 2021, and framework analysis methods were used. Participants presented arguments both for and against offering method choice. Most participants felt that it was important to maintain choice, although they recognised that medical abortion suits most patients, that both methods are very safe and acceptable, and that the priority for abortion services is to maintain timely access to respectful care. Their arguments related to practicalities around patient needs, the risk of reinforcing inequalities in access to patient-centred care, potential impacts on patients and providers, comparisons to other services, costs, and moral issues. Participants argued that constraining choice has a greater impact on those who are less able to advocate for themselves and there were concerns that patients may feel stigmatised or isolated when unable to choose their preferred method. In conclusion, although medical abortion suits most patients, this study highlights arguments for maintaining the option of surgical abortion in the era of telemedicine. More nuanced discussion of the potential benefits and impacts of self-management of medical abortion is needed.

Guidelines for Home Design in the New Normal Era in Thailand

This research aims to study home design guidelines in this new era in Thailand. The data were collected by conducting a semi-structured interview with three groups of key informants, including five participants – academics and real estate experts, five participants – residential project developers listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), and home builders, the members of the Association of Home Builders of Thailand, and five participants – architects of a design company using design thinking, which is a creative human-centered problem-solving approach to better meet the needs of residents. Moreover, they are housing designers and developers in Thailand. The data were analyzed using content analysis. The research results revealed that the home design principle consistent with Thai residents' new normal era behavior is a house with feel-good qualities, including flexibility, good hygiene, security, privacy, environmental friendliness, and convenience. In the new-normal era, homes should have private spaces to work or study from home, multi-purpose areas, an enlarged kitchen and increased functionality, a designated parcel receiving area, and/or a storage area. The building assembly system installation that enhances good health and comfort in living is also recommended. These valuable, novelty results might also lead to Thailand's real estate business development trends. Not only for housing residential designers and developers but also for other related business suppliers associated with new product development for home innovative inventions and technologies in the future. © 2022 Hunan University. All rights reserved.

Interviews about pandemics and protective measures: studying key informants' representation to develop a web-application for fostering children and adolescents' resilience.

COVID-19 pandemic can be defined as a biological disaster whose impact is particularly evident for children and adolescents, vulnerable populations because of their level of cognitive and affective development. For this reason, it is of paramount relevance to develop actions focused on disaster-related prevention and preparedness, including psycho-education. In this study, we aimed at exploring key informants' representation of the pandemic, also to identify the contents for the first two levels of a psycho-educational web-application for children and adolescents, i.e., PandHEMOT® (Pandemics - Helmet for EMOTions). We involved 25 experts with different professional roles through semi-structured interviews about a variety of aspects related to the pandemic. We coded each proposition according to four categories (i.e., Basic knowledge, Procedural knowledge, Safety behaviors, and Consequences). First, a generalized linear mixed model revealed that Safety behaviors was the most frequent category, followed by Consequences, and in turn by Procedural and Basic knowledge. Second, through a cluster analysis we identified three clusters corresponding to different response patterns and pandemic representations. Third, we conducted a thematic analysis to select the items to be inserted in the first and second level of PandHEMOT®, focused on the nature of pandemics and pandemic-related protective measures. Notwithstanding the limitations related to the small sample, this research permitted to explore the representation of different experts concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, these findings enabled to identify the contents for the initial levels of a web-application designed for increasing children and adolescents' knowledge on pandemics, emotions, and coping strategies. This initiative can be an example of a psycho-educational tool to enhance young people's disaster-related resilience.

Key Stakeholder Perspectives of Community Engagement Efforts and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected historically marginalized populations and their access to resources and healthcare. In times of crisis, authentic community engagement is more important than ever. This study was Phase 1 of a larger 3-phase study to conduct timely community-engaged research with community members to understand the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on historically underserved communities. The objective of this work was to conduct key informant (KI) interviews (1) to understand community organizations perspectives about the role that large academic health centers play as they interface with community organizations to support their work, (2) to leverage KI's expertise to identify needs and assets within the community, and (3) to inform both Phase 2 (focus group qualitative research) and Phase 3 (survey) of the broader study. METHODS: A total of 24 key informants were identified through purposeful sampling and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted across 4 states using video conferencing. RESULTS: Barriers to access and lack of transparency were highlighted as major issues requiring reform-in particular, aggressive billing practices and insurance barriers exacerbated local distrust of medical institutions. KIs recognized the health institution's support for testing and vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic, but noted other significant gaps in care, especially regarding mental health support. Although communication with the health institution was consistent for some KIs, others experienced unsustained communication efforts that hindered cooperation and relationship building. CONCLUSIONS: Leaders in the community as key stakeholders can provide unique insights into the challenges and potential solutions required to promote health equity, and foster understanding between local communities and healthcare institutions.

A Qualitative Evaluation of COVID-19 Preventative Response Activities in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

OBJECTIVE: In this evaluation of COVID-19 preventative response programs in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), we aimed to explore community understandings of COVID-19, assess operational successes and challenges of COVID response activities, and identify barriers to practicing COVID-19 preventative behaviors. METHODS: Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted from April to September 2021 in South Kivu, DRC, with community members (n = 16) and programmatic stakeholders (n = 15) (healthcare providers, government officials, and developmental and NGO staff engaged in COVID-19 response). FINDINGS: Most community members were aware of COVID-19 and its global burden, but few were aware of local transmission in their area. Some community members attributed COVID-19 to actions of malevolent neighbors, miasma ("bad air"), or spirits. Awareness of COVID-19 preventative measures was widespread, largely because of radio and TV health promotion programs. Community members and programmatic stakeholders both said community-level non-compliance to COVID-19 preventative measures was high despite high awareness of preventative methods. Community members expressed concern that face masks distributed as part of preventative programs contained the COVID-19 virus. Programmatic stakeholders emphasized the need for broader health system strengthening with improved coordination, provision of resources to health facilities at the provincial level, and prioritization of research. Lessons learned from addressing Ebola were leveraged for COVID-19 health promotion, rapid training of healthcare personnel, and surveillance. CONCLUSIONS: Community-informed approaches are needed for effective COVID-19 preventative response programs in South Kivu, DRC. Our study identified successes and challenges in COVID-19 response activities. Future research should assess the effectiveness of integrating preventive programs with COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Digital Ecosystem in Public Services of the Northeastern Local Administrative Organizations: Initial Findings

Due to the rapid change in technology and the epidemic of COVID-19, the private and public sectors have adjusted more readiness to use digital technology services, but public services of local government organizations are not yet concrete. Hence, this work aims to explain the current state and supporting factors of the digital ecosystem in public services of local administrative organizations, The data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and group meetings from 80 key informants directly involved in digital public services at both policy and operational levels. In this phase, the data were collected in 5 research units with 20 key informants and were analyzed using the thematic analysis method under the research framework. From the preliminary results, the organizational structure and knowledge and skills of personnel dimensions are the major factors that are the lowest availability. However, all research units report no problem with the readiness of service recipients and infrastructure in both hardware and software. The results of this research are only the initial findings, and still need to be analyzed and explained further. © 2022 IEEE.

Business Resilience as Strategy for Survival and Pandemic Recovery of Selected Engineering Construction Companies in Thailand

This study examined the business resilience practices of engineering construction companies in Thailand as their strategy for survival and pandemic recovery. It also looked into the profile of the key informants and investigated their experiences on their business resilience practices. It also looked into the support strategies of engineering associations in Thailand for their members to enable them to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was conducted in Thailand, and it applied the case study research design. Findings show that some dimensions of business resilience are being practiced by engineering firms. The Thai engineering associations revealed that their members are shifting to digitalization, and they offered them technical webinars. It can be concluded that the selected Thai engineering construction firms practice business resilience. It is recommended that the engineering construction companies in Thailand should adopt the innovative business resilience strategies proposed in this study. © ASCE.

Will neurological care change over the next 5 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Key informant consensus survey. / ¿Va a cambiar la neurología tras la pandemia de COVID-19 en los próximos 5 años? Estudio de enfoque mediante informadores clave.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic will give rise to long-term changes in neurological care, which are not easily predictable. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A key informant survey was used to enquire about the changes expected in the specialty over the next 5 years. The survey was completed by heads of neurology departments with broad knowledge of the situation, having been active during the pandemic. RESULTS: Despite a low level of consensus between participants, there was strong (85%) and moderate consensus (70%) about certain subjects, mainly the increase in precautions to be taken, the use of telemedicine and teleconsultations, the reduction of care provided in in-person consultations to avoid the presence of large numbers of people in waiting rooms, the development of remote training solutions, and the changes in monitoring visits during clinical trials. There was consensus that there would be no changes to the indication of complementary testing or neurological examination. CONCLUSION: The key informant survey identified the foreseeable changes in neurological care after the pandemic.