ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic requires an urgent action to transform health-care delivery and to promote research and capacity-building nursing programs. Specifically, many countries at the global level have described nursing informatics as an essential competence for nurse professionals. In Peru, nursing personnel represents the largest health workforce group and nursing informatics is still emerging, but the field appear to hold much promise. In this sense, the Peruvian Ministry of Health (MoH) defined in 2020 the core nursing competences, which included a technology and innovation domain. The competence established to apply scientifically based technology and innovation to improve the processes or health service resources. The minimum competencies established by the MoH were as follows: to carry out innovations in processes or resources in their different professional performance areas, to creatively adapt technology in different areas of professional performance, to make rational and ethical use of health technologies with focus on new developments that will be evaluated and applied critically, and to manage information and communication technologies, and health information systems, with emphasis on telehealth (i.e. telemedicine, telecare management, tele-education, and tele-training). Besides the nursing competences defined by the MoH is a good starting point, this special contribution discusses the urgent need to strengthen nursing informatics competencies in Peru.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/epidemiology , Evidence-Based Nursing/organization & administration , Nursing Informatics/organization & administration , Professional Competence/standards , COVID-19/nursing , Humans , Medical Informatics/organization & administration , PeruABSTRACT
This article describes the implementation of an evidence-based mentoring program for new registered nurses (RNs) hired into medical-surgical units in a small community-based hospital during the unfolding of the SARS-Cov2 (COVID-19) pandemic. The hospital's nursing leadership supported the program implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a broader support system to new RNs to improve nurse retention. During a response to the pandemic, the medical-surgical units faced numerous process changes in a short time, which further reinforced the urgency of an additional support system for the newly hired RNs.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/nursing , Leadership , Mentoring/organization & administration , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Evidence-Based Nursing/organization & administration , Hospitals, Community/organization & administration , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Nursing Staff, Hospital/education , Pandemics , Program Development/methods , Quality Improvement , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Proning intubated intensive care unit patients for the management of acute respiratory distress syndrome is an accepted standard of practice. We examined the nursing climate in 4 units and its impact on implementing a novel self-proning protocol to treat COVID-19 patients outside the intensive care unit. LOCAL PROBLEM: Nursing units previously designated for medical/surgical populations had to adjust quickly to provide evidence-based care for COVID-19 patients attempting self-proning. METHODS: Nurses from 4 nursing units were surveyed about the implementation process on the self-proning protocol. Their perception of unit implementation was assessed via the Implementation Climate Scale. INTERVENTIONS: A new self-proning nursing protocol was implemented outside the intensive care unit. RESULTS: Consistent education on the protocol, belief in the effectiveness of the intervention, and a strong unit-based climate of evidence-based practice contributed to greater implementation of the protocol. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a new nursing protocol is possible with strong unit-based support, even during a pandemic.