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Teleconsultation is a type of medical practice similar to face-to-face consultations, and it allows a health professional to give a consultation remotely through information and communication technologies. In the context of the management of the coronavirus epidemic, the use of teleconsultation practices can facilitate healthcare access and limit the risk of avoidable propagation in medical cabinets. This paper presents the monitoring of international teleconsultation referrals in the era of Covid-19 to facilitate and prevent the suspension of access to care, the most common architecture for teleconsultation, communication technologies and protocols, vital body signals, video transmission, and the conduct of teleconsultation. The aim is to develop a teleconsultation platform to diagnose the patient in real time, transmit data from the remote location to the doctor, and provide a teleconsultation. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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AIM: There is a discussion about COVID-19 vaccination rates among healthcare workers (HCW), especially nurses. The primary question for this review was: "What are the attitudes of nurses, compared to other HCW, towards COVID-19 vaccination?" The secondary questions included the proportion of nurses with intention to get vaccinated, what prevents the nurses from accepting the vaccine and what enables them to accept the vaccine. METHODS: The PRISMA-ScR format for scoping reviews was chosen to respect the novelty of COVID-19 vaccines. Database search (PubMed/MEDLINE, PROquest and EBSCO) was performed for original studies in English language, from all geographies, with most recent search on March 20, 2022. Vaccination acceptance rates were charted for nurses and nursing students in one category, and HCW other than nurses in the other category. The evolution in time of the nurses attitude to vaccine acceptance relative to that of HCW other than nurses was charted post hoc. The factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination intention according to the WHO categories (contextual influences, individual/ group influences, and vaccine/vaccination specific issues) were reviewed as narrative summary. RESULTS: Total 58 eligible studies were selected, all with cross-sectional study design, including 95418 healthcare workers of whom 33130 were nurses and 7391 were nursing students, from 44 countries in Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia. Trust in science, in doctors, in experts and in governments were the main contextual factors increasing vaccination acceptance mentioned in the studies, while altruism and collective protection, or protecting a person at risk at home was mentioned only few times. The nurses were less likely to accept vaccination compared to doctors and other HCWs at the onset, eg. before vaccine rollout, and this difference decreased with time (p = 0.022). Being older (n = 25 studies), being male (n = 23), having higher degree of education (n = 7), and having more years of clinical practice (n = 4) were associated with higher vaccination acceptance. Percieved individual risk of having severe COVID-19 (n = 14) or working in a COVID-19 dedicated units (n = 5) was mentioned in a minority of studies. The main vaccine-releated factors associated with higher vaccination intention were trust in the vaccine and its efficacy and safety, general vaccinatoin acceptance and specifically having had influenza vaccination in previous years (n = 21 studies). A significant factor associated with higher vaccine acceptance was high "vaccine knowledge", "vaccine literacy", "understanding the vaccine" or "understanding benefits and barriers of vaccination" (n = 17 studies). CONCLUSIONS: Nurses have been more hesitant to accept COVID-19 vaccination than other healthcare professions at the beginning, but with time this difference disappeared. This general nurse attitude of wait-and-see reported in the studies corresponds with real-life data from practicing healthcare workers as reported by the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics on vaccination against COVID-19. Trust in scientific structures and vaccine makers increases the vaccine acceptance. The acceptance increases also with higher age, increasing level of education, longer clinical experience, and also with being a male. Vaccine literacy and having participated in previous vaccination programmes, especially influenza vaccine, were identified as independent modifiable factors increasing vaccination acceptance.
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The pandemic crisis compelled organizations to adopt telework to continue their activity. This study seeks to determine the perception of individuals regarding teleworking, and also the role of Information Systems in the paradigm shift along the pandemic period, in the Portuguese health sector. An online questionnaire was applied to health professionals working in Portugal, obtaining a sample of 264 professionals. The perceptions identified in relation to telework can be especially useful when considering the progressive incorporation of non-face-to-face activities in the health sector. Participants identify advantages in teleworking, namely in reducing travel costs, but also identify work overload as a disadvantage. Despite the difficulties, Information Systems are identified as facilitators in this process of change. Most participants express availability to work in a mixed regime, in the post-pandemic period. © 2022 Associacao Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informacao. All rights reserved.
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The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the move to virtual and remote consultations in clinical practice with digital technologies widely implemented. eHealth interventions and use of applications in a variety of conditions means that patients and their families, as well as healthcare professionals, can access and interpret data in real-time, as well as providing trends in various clinical parameters including blood pressure for instance. Despite the aim of digital transformation in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, this has not been fully realised and there is no consensus on the skills and competencies required for allied health professionals (AHPs). This qualitative study undertook two focus groups with twelve AHPs to evaluate the AHP Digital Competency Framework in the UK. The participants recognised the importance of a digital technology in their clinical practice and perceived digital literacy as essential for AHPs. In relation to the AHP framework, participants agreed that competencies in digital technology were clinically relevant, and assessment of these competencies should be performed regularly in practice. However, the majority were unaware of the AHP digital competency framework and suggested improvements to optimise its use in practice and identified areas for improvement. Overall, the AHP Digital Competency Framework has the potential, with better dissemination and further refinement of the wording, to become a useful tool to support the enhancement of digital competency in AHPs and improve the delivery of patient care.
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Purpose: As public health professionals strive to promote vaccines for inoculation efforts, fervent anti-vaccination movements are marshaling against it. This study is motived by a need to better understand the online discussion around vaccination. The authors identified the sentiments, emotions and topics of pro- and anti-vaxxers' tweets, investigated their change since the pandemic started and further examined the associations between these content features and audiences' engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Utilizing a snowball sampling method, data were collected from the Twitter accounts of 100 pro-vaxxers (266,680 tweets) and 100 anti-vaxxers (248,425 tweets). The authors are adopting a zero-shot machine learning algorithm with a pre-trained transformer-based model for sentiment analysis and structural topic modeling to extract the topics. And the authors use the hurdle negative binomial model to test the relationships among sentiment/emotion, topics and engagement. Findings: In general, pro-vaxxers used more positive tones and more emotions of joy in their tweets, while anti-vaxxers utilized more negative terms. The cues of sadness predominantly encourage retweets across the pro- and anti-vaccine corpus, while tweets amplifying the emotion of surprise are more attention-grabbing and getting more likes. Topic modeling of tweets yields the top 15 topics for pro- and anti-vaxxers separately. Among the pro-vaxxers' tweets, the topics of "Child protection” and "COVID-19 situation” are positively predicting audiences' engagement. For anti-vaxxers, the topics of "Supporting Trump,” "Injured children,” "COVID-19 situation,” "Media propaganda” and "Community building” are more appealing to audiences. Originality/value: This study utilizes social media data and a state-of-art machine learning algorithm to generate insights into the development of emotionally appealing content and effective vaccine promotion strategies while combating coronavirus disease 2019 and moving toward a global recovery. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2022-0186 © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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AIM: There is a discussion about COVID-19 vaccination rates among healthcare workers (HCW), especially nurses. The primary question for this review was: "What are the attitudes of nurses, compared to other HCW, towards COVID-19 vaccination?" The secondary questions included the proportion of nurses with intention to get vaccinated, what prevents the nurses from accepting the vaccine and what enables them to accept the vaccine. METHODS: The PRISMA-ScR format for scoping reviews was chosen to respect the novelty of COVID-19 vaccines. Database search (PubMed/MEDLINE, PROquest and EBSCO) was performed for original studies in English language, from all geographies, with most recent search on March 20, 2022. Vaccination acceptance rates were charted for nurses and nursing students in one category, and HCW other than nurses in the other category. The evolution in time of the nurses attitude to vaccine acceptance relative to that of HCW other than nurses was charted post hoc. The factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination intention according to the WHO categories (contextual influences, individual/ group influences, and vaccine/vaccination specific issues) were reviewed as narrative summary. RESULTS: Total 58 eligible studies were selected, all with cross-sectional study design, including 95418 healthcare workers of whom 33130 were nurses and 7391 were nursing students, from 44 countries in Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia. Trust in science, in doctors, in experts and in governments were the main contextual factors increasing vaccination acceptance mentioned in the studies, while altruism and collective protection, or protecting a person at risk at home was mentioned only few times. The nurses were less likely to accept vaccination compared to doctors and other HCWs at the onset, eg. before vaccine rollout, and this difference decreased with time (p = 0.022). Being older (n = 25 studies), being male (n = 23), having higher degree of education (n = 7), and having more years of clinical practice (n = 4) were associated with higher vaccination acceptance. Percieved individual risk of having severe COVID-19 (n = 14) or working in a COVID-19 dedicated units (n = 5) was mentioned in a minority of studies. The main vaccine-releated factors associated with higher vaccination intention were trust in the vaccine and its efficacy and safety, general vaccinatoin acceptance and specifically having had influenza vaccination in previous years (n = 21 studies). A significant factor associated with higher vaccine acceptance was high "vaccine knowledge", "vaccine literacy", "understanding the vaccine" or "understanding benefits and barriers of vaccination" (n = 17 studies). CONCLUSIONS: Nurses have been more hesitant to accept COVID-19 vaccination than other healthcare professions at the beginning, but with time this difference disappeared. This general nurse attitude of wait-and-see reported in the studies corresponds with real-life data from practicing healthcare workers as reported by the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics on vaccination against COVID-19. Trust in scientific structures and vaccine makers increases the vaccine acceptance. The acceptance increases also with higher age, increasing level of education, longer clinical experience, and also with being a male. Vaccine literacy and having participated in previous vaccination programmes, especially influenza vaccine, were identified as independent modifiable factors increasing vaccination acceptance.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , Male , Humans , Female , COVID-19/prevention & control , Cross-Sectional Studies , Vaccination , Health PersonnelABSTRACT
Background: The development and maintenance of a high-quality medical education workforce depend on continuing medical education (CME). Traditionally, CME is delivered face-to-face, but due to COVID-19 and geographical distances, it is challenging to conduct professional development activities for several days. Using a webinar on advancement in medical education in the context of the eastern Mediterranean, we aimed to assess the participants' perspectives towards the professional development activity using a synchronous learning approach. Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey-based study design. We invited faculty members from King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) and United Arab Emirates University for Health Sciences (UAEU). We assessed their perspectives on the relevance of the content and effectiveness of the activity on their knowledge and skills after the two days' webinar series. A self-designed questionnaire was administered post-webinar immediately. Open-ended responses were analyzed thematically. Results: One hundred thirty-six registered healthcare professionals attended day 1, and 97 registered participants joined on the second day of the webinar. Most participants appreciated the diversity of the contents, the quality of the presentations, and the expertise of the facilitators. They reported that the content optimized their knowledge and understanding of new concepts such as assessment in simulation teaching, programmatic assessment, insight into the implementation of IPE and EPAs in CBME, and so on. The e-learning platform's user accessibility, online tutor interaction, and the addition of more scenario-based case studies were all recommended for improvement. Conclusion: Overall the two days webinar series presentations were informative and highlighted the transformation in medical practices. Suggestions to improve the quality of the webinars and content were discussed.
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Technology-enhanced hospital-at-home (H@H), commonly referred to as hybrid H@H, became more widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted focus group interviews with Mayo Clinic staff members (n = 14) delivering hybrid H@H in three separate locations-a rural community health system (Northwest Wisconsin), the nation's largest city by area (Jacksonville, FL), and a desert metropolitan area (Scottsdale, AZ)-to understand staff experiences with implementing a new care delivery model and using new technology to monitor patients at home during the pandemic. Using a grounded theory lens, transcripts were analyzed to identify themes. Staff reported that hybrid H@H is a complex care coordination and communication initiative, that hybrid H@H faces site-specific challenges modulated by population density and state policies, and that many patients are receiving uniquely high-quality care through hybrid H@H, partly enabled by advances in technology. Participant responses amplify the need for additional qualitative research with hybrid H@H staff to identify areas for improvement in the deployment of new models of care enabled by modern technology.
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PURPOSE: There must be a perfect balance between Food and Dietary supplements (DS) to ensure optimal well-being. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a webinar on the change in knowledge and attitude about the role of vitamins, minerals and DS among medical and nursing undergraduates so that they could bring about a positive change in popular practices, as well-informed Health Care Professionals (HCPs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional analytical study comprising 12 knowledge and 11 attitude questions administered to medical and nursing undergraduates with the help of semi-structured and pre-validated google form both before and after a webinar explaining the role of key nutrients and also the evidence and recommendations surrounding DS. Data were analyzed using STATA.12 to assess the impact of the webinar. RESULTS: There were 415 participants, with 265 medical and 150 nursing students. There was a significant improvement both in the knowledge (4.95 (±1.45), 7.76 (±1.69) and attitude scores (pre-webinar mean score 31.8 (±5.57) post-webinar mean score 27.7 (±4.90))of the participants after the webinar. An overall positive correlation before the webinar changed to a more significant negative correlation, indicating a positive impact of the webinar (0.0054-0.0701). CONCLUSION: The study suggests that continuing education informing various HCPs and undergraduate students about the absolute necessity of a diet rich in nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics is the need of the hour. Additionally, the efficacy and safety concerns, appropriate indications and dosages of various DS should be adequately stressed so that informed decisions can be made. Such training programs might have a far-reaching impact on the nutrition choices of the population at large.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Vitamins , Humans , Cross-Sectional Studies , Tertiary Healthcare , Dietary Supplements , Minerals , Students , Vitamin A , Vitamin K , Hospitals, TeachingABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the lack of a government contingency plan for an effective response to an unexpected health crisis. This study uses a phenomenological approach to explore the experience of healthcare professionals during the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in a public health hospital in the Valencia region, Spain. It assesses the impact on their health, coping strategies, institutional support, organizational changes, quality of care, and lessons learned. Methods: We carried out a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews with doctors and nurses from the Preventive Medicine, Emergency, and Internal Medicine Services and the Intensive Care Unit, using the Colaizzi's 7-step data analysis method. Results: During the first wave, lack of information and leadership led to feelings of uncertainty, fear of infection, and transmission to family members. Continuous organizational changes and lack of material and human resources brought limited results. The lack of space to accommodate patients, along with insufficient training in treating critical patients, and the frequent moving around of healthcare workers, reduced the quality of care. Despite the high levels of emotional stress reported, no sick leave was taken; the high levels of commitment and professional vocation helped in adapting to the intense work rhythms. Healthcare professionals in the medical services and support units reported higher levels of stress, and a greater sense of neglect by their institution than their colleagues in managerial roles. Family, social support, and camaraderie at work were effective coping strategies. Health professionals showed a strong collective spirit and sense of solidarity. This helped them cope with the additional stress and workload that accompanied the pandemic. Conclusion: In the wake of this experience, they highlight the need for a contingency plan adapted to each organizational context. Such a plan should include psychological counseling and continuous training in critical patient care. Above all, it needs to take advantage of the hard-won knowledge born of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics/prevention & control , Spain/epidemiology , Health Personnel/psychology , Hospitals, PublicABSTRACT
Background: Persistently increased workload and stress occurred in health professionals (HPs) during the past 3 years as the COVID-19 pandemic continued. The current study seeks to explore the prevalence of and correlators of HPs' burnout during different stages of the pandemic. Methods: Three repeated online studies were conducted in different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: wave 1: after the first peak of the pandemic, wave 2: the early period of the zero-COVID policy, and wave 3: the second peak of the pandemic in China. Two dimensions of burnout, emotional exhaustion (EE) and declined personal accomplishment (DPA), were assessed using Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel (MBI-HSMP), a 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and a 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) to assess mental health conditions. An unconditional logistic regression model was employed to discern the correlators. Results: There was an overall prevalence of depression (34.9%), anxiety (22.5%), EE (44.6%), and DPA (36.5%) in the participants; the highest prevalence of EE and DPA was discovered in the first wave (47.4% and 36.5%, respectively), then the second wave (44.9% and 34.0%), and the third wave had the lowest prevalence of 42.3% and 32.2%. Depressive symptoms and anxiety were persistently correlated with a higher prevalence risk of both EE and DPA. Workplace violence led to a higher prevalence risk of EE (wave 1: OR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.16-1.63), and women (wave 1: OR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.00-1.42; wave 3: OR =1.20, 95% CI:1.01-1.44) and those living in a central area (wave 2: OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.20-2.31) or west area (wave 2: OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.26-1.87) also had a higher prevalence risk of EE. In contrast, those over 50 years of age (wave 1: OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.39-0.96; wave 3: OR = 0.60, 95% CI: 0.38-0.95) and who provided care to patients with COVID-19 (wave 2: OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57-0.92) had a lower risk of EE. Working in the psychiatry section (wave 1: OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.01-1.89) and being minorities (wave 2: OR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.04-1.58) had a higher risk of DPA, while those over 50 years of age had a lower risk of DPA (wave 3: OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.36-0.88). Conclusion: This three-wave cross-sectional study revealed that the prevalence of burnout among health professionals was at a high level persistently during the different stages of the pandemic. The results suggest that functional impairment prevention resources and programs may be inadequate and, as such, continuous monitoring of these variables could provide evidence for developing optimal strategies for saving human resources in the coming post-pandemic era.
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Psychosocial risks are highly relevant to healthcare professionals, with the covid-19 pandemic exacerbating risk factors and associated impacts. To analyse the risk factors and related impacts of psychosocial risks on healthcare professionals, in particular during the Covid-19 pandemic. systematic literature review based on analysing 17 articles selected from the B-On database. Most health professionals deal with stress and Burnout, which affects not only their mental health and quality of life but also the quality of health services and the quality of care provided. The pandemic has significantly increased psychosocial risks, particularly for professionals working in emergency and urgent care services and female professionals. Health professionals in general.
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Background. The Covid-19 pandemic has had considerable public health and socio-economic impact. Infront of this outbreak, fear of the infection risk, anxiety or more generalized psychological disorders such as symptoms of post-traumatic stress among primary health professionals. Objectives. Evaluate the psychological impact of the Covid-19 pandemic after the first French lockdown on primary health professionals in primary care and assess the evolution of their psychological state. Methods. Regional prospective observational study concerning primary care health professionals (general practitioners, community pharmacists, nurses) working in Lower Normandy (departments of Calvados, Manche and Orne) agreeing to participate in the study. Psychological assessment will be realized by the Perceived Stressed Scale, the Post-Traumatic Stress Scores (Impact of Event Scale-Revised), the burnout scores (Maslach Burnout Inventory) and the sense of feeling. personal efficiency (Generalized Self Efficacy Scale) at 1 month, 6 months and 1 year of the first national confinement (03/17/2020). Expected results. This study will assess the Covid-19 outbreak psychological impact in primary care with a longitudinal design. It also provides information likely to lead to the creation of a longer-term longitudinal cohort follow-up of primary care health professionals in Lower Normandy.
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Schools are an ideal setting to base mental health literacy programs as the learning environment is already established. Mental health literacy represents how to obtain and maintain good mental health and should be incorporated into the school curriculum. Collaboration with key stakeholders in youth mental health, such as school staff and allied health professionals, is critical in ensuring needs are addressed, and programs are sustainable. This study aimed to understand the perspectives of school staff and allied health professionals towards mental health literacy within Australian schools. An exploratory qualitative and quantitative survey was completed by 88 participants across Australia. Results indicated that school staff feel less competent to deliver mental health literacy content and perceive their training did not address mental health education compared to allied health professionals. Most mental health programs reported to be implemented within schools were social and emotional learning programs. School staff viewed mental health programs to strengthen academic performance less than allied health professionals. Thematic analysis of qualitative data identified that participants viewed mental health knowledge, where and how to seek help, and coping skills as vital content to cover in a school-based mental health literacy program. This study reveals that school staff need sufficient training and resources to address youth mental health literacy. Though mental health literacy is lacking in the Australian school system, the perspectives of school staff and allied health professionals in this study provide key ideas and considerations for the future development of school-based mental health literacy programs for youth. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10648-023-09725-5.
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In this study, a type-2 fuzzy logic-based decision support system comprising clinical examination and blood test results that health professionals can use in addition to existing methods in the diagnosis of COVID-19 has been developed. The developed system consists of three fuzzy units. The first fuzzy unit produces COVID-19 positivity as a percentage according to the respiratory rate, loss of smell, and body temperature values, and the second fuzzy unit according to the C-reactive protein, lymphocyte, and D-dimer values obtained as a result of the blood tests. In the third fuzzy unit, the COVID-19 positivity risks according to the clinical examination and blood analysis results, which are the outputs of the first and second fuzzy units, are evaluated together and the result is obtained. As a result of the evaluation of the trials with 60 different scenarios by physicians, it has been revealed that the system can detect COVID-19 risk with 86.6% accuracy. © 2023 TÜBÍTAK.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused additional strain and disruption to an already strained mental health workforce. Life disruption, compassion fatigue, and traumatic stress are contributing to record levels of burnout. Efforts are needed to improve retention and the well-being of mental health providers, yet little is known about the personal traits that contribute to compassion satisfaction during difficult times. Professional grit is an emerging concept that has broad applicability and makes a potentially unique contribution to the experiences of professionals in the context of COVID-19. Our paper describes perceptions of professional grit and its association with compassion fatigue and traumatic stress. A small exploratory study was used to analyze results from an online survey of mental health workers (N = 31). Measures included compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and grit, along with open-ended questions to explore perceived contributors to grit. Results confirmed the added stress mental health professionals are working under and 29% met the cut-off for significant traumatic stress symptoms. Participants' responses were coded and a primary theme and contributor to professional grit is coping, inclusive of adaptation, self-care, perseverance, and professional and personal support. Further, participants identifying the coping skills of self-care, adaptation, and perseverance scored higher on a measure of professional grit. Our study also suggests that grit and suffering are not mutually exclusive, such that many of our participants reported components of professional grit and also reported posttraumatic stress and compassion fatigue symptoms. More extensive studies on the function of professional grit and services to improve coping skills are needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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Youth who experience premature death of a parent are positioned to experience an increase of concerning vulnerabilities than non-bereaved counterparts and the rate of parentally bereaved children has been elevated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative strength-and U.S.-based investigations that examine present day parentally bereaved children are scarce and no identified studies consider professional insights of mental health clinicians that work with parentally bereaved youth in the country. In this study a qualitative phenomenological research design was used to obtain participant's experiences and insights on resiliency and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Licensed mental health professionals participated in semi-structured interviews and had three to 12 years of experience working with children bereaved by parental death. A deductive approach using predetermined resiliency and PTG theory-based categories was used to analyze the data. Five positive themes of resiliency, five hindering influences on resiliency, and three themes of PTG were concluded. Clinical implications support current research on resiliency and childhood grief. Major implications include grief literacy among the child's system and the role of the family. Implications of PTG include the five domains used to measure PTG, connection to peers and adults, grief education, and acknowledgement of the death. Additional implications suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic yields both positive and hindering influences on parentally bereaved child. Future research should consider the preliminary notions that arose from this study. These include research on disenfranchised grief and caregiver bereaved youth during the current health pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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Coronavirus 2019 is considered the health disaster of the century and has caused a wave of global panic. Healthcare professionals were at the forefront of this pandemic to provide quality care respecting the safety of patients and the environment. The objective of this study is to determine the preventive measures applied by healthcare professionals towards patients and the environment to combat Covid19. The study was realized during April and May 2020 at the public hospital dedicated to the care of Covid patients in central Morocco in Meknes. Convenience sampling was used to collect the data. 104 people participated in the study, including 61 (58.7%) nurses and 12 (11.5%) doctors. Also, 73 (70.2%) of the healthcare professionals were men and 35 (33.7%) contracted the Coronavirus during their healthcare activity. According to the participants, the causes of this infection lie mainly in their interaction with their professional environment (71.4%). The main preventive measures applied by healthcare professionals were regular hand washing and wearing 104 masks (100%), of which 88 (84.6%) used the FFP2 mask and wore personal protective equipment. However, healthcare professionals were found to adopt other environmental practices, including surface disinfection 95 (91.3%), ventilation and sterilization of premises 46 (44.2%), maintenance and sterilization of equipment 78 (75%), and effective management of hospital waste 75 (72.1%). The study concluded that the preventive measures applied by the professionals were sufficient and complied with global recommendations to minimize the risk of contamination and maintain a healthy healthcare environment for themselves and their patients. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) placed healthcare professionals (HCPs) at a higher risk for stress-related conditions. Implementing a brief online mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) was hypothesised to transform the HCPs' ability to cope with stress by enhancing their self-care. Aim: This study aimed to explore the impact of an online MBI on HCPs' self-care practices and determine if personality traits were a moderating variable. Setting: An online MBI was implemented for HCPs working in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Methods: A quantitative study design included a pre-assessment and post-assessment component, which allowed paired comparison and regression analysis to confer correlations. Data were collected via two validated instruments: the Mindful Self-Care scale-2018 and the Big Five Personality test. Results: Forty-nine HCPs participated in the study. Significant improvements were found in all the major self-care subscales post-intervention (p < 0.05). No significant associations were found between the personality traits and self-care except for neuroticism, which appeared to be an essential moderating variable. Conclusion: An online MBI significantly impacted health professionals' ability to care for themselves, despite their personality styles. Contribution: The impact of an online MBI on HCPs' self-care during the most intense time of stress and with a cohort of people known to be the most vulnerable to stress, namely those with neuroticism to date, has not been commented on.
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COVID-19 has affected the global community as it has severely raised population mortality and morbidity rates. Vaccination was seen as a mechanism against the spread of the pandemic. Yet, there are still several reservations about its adoption. Professionals in the field of health care have a crucial frontline role. The present study uses a qualitative research approach to examine Greek health professionals' views on vaccination acceptance. According to the key findings, health professionals largely accept vaccination. The main reasons cited were scientific knowledge, a sense of obligation to society, and protection from disease. However, there are still numerous restrictions to adhering to it. This is due to the lack of knowledge of certain scientific disciplines or to misinformation, as well as to religious or political convictions. The issue of trust is central to the acceptance of vaccinations. According to our research, the most adequate strategy to enhance immunization and ensure that it is widely accepted is to promote health educational interventions for professionals working in primary care settings.