Nursing institutions' professors' perception and distant education experience during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

BACKGROUND: The nursing profession represents a demanding and challenging profession with a purpose to keep up with the evolving health-care demands of the population. AIMS: The purpose of this study is to assess nursing institutions' professors' previous experience about information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their perception of distant education during the pandemic lockdown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This present is a cross-sectional study among participants n = 249 recruited from all academic staff (N = 694) of 23 higher institutes of nursing professions and health techniques in Morocco. The Chi-square test for independence (χ2) and adjusted Z scores were used as a data analysis method to assess the association between the professors' education levels and ICT experience. RESULTS: A significant association [χ2 (1, n = 249) = 19.510, P < 0.001] was revealed between professors' education level and taken training related to ICT in education; significant few professors (16; 9.3%) reported that taken training session [χ2 (1, n = 249) = 8.940, P = 0.003] belonged to the bachelor degree group. In matters of perception, a few proportion (10%) reported that using technology effectively belonged to the bachelor and low education background group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed that having previous experience in teaching remotely and training related to the ICT was significantly associated with a higher education background. Moreover, professors with higher degrees agreed that distant education could be an alternative to face-to-face course during quarantine.

Psychological Alterations in Youths with Type I Diabetes: Associations with Salivary Cortisol Concentration.

Background and Objectives: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents, and is associated with stress and other psychological alterations. This study aims to assess psychological and sleep disorders and health-related quality of life in young people with T1DM and to determine the relationship between these parameters and levels of salivary cortisol, a hormone widely associated with stress and several psychological symptoms. Materials and Methods: In our cross-sectional study performed in 60 Moroccan children and adolescents with T1DM, detailed psychological evaluations were performed to assess symptoms of anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sleep quality and diabetes-specific quality of life (using the RCMAS-2, ADHD rating scale, Pittsburgh scale and the DQoL scale, respectively), and cortisol concentration was measured from saliva samples taken mid-morning. Results: A total of 60 children and adolescents with T1DM were recruited. The mean age was 11.05 ± 0.35 (6-17). The mean salivary cortisol level in ng/mL was 4.7 ± 0.49 (0.7-20.2) and was significantly associated with an anxiety RCMAS2 score for the Worry subdomain and DQoL subdomain "Anxiety". Linear regression analysis showed that salivary cortisol was significantly higher in girls compared to boys (p = 0.004) (beta coefficient: 3.384 CI95%: 1.137-5.630) and with Hb1AC level as a continuous variable (p = 0.0001) (beta coefficient: 1.135 CI95%: 0.509-1.760). The other variables included in the model were not significant (p > 0.05). There was an association between salivary cortisol concentration with anxiety RCMAS2 score for Worry subdomain and QoL sub-domain "Anxiety". Still, a significant (p = 0.018) association emerged for anxiety RCMAS2 score Worry subdomain and QoL anxiety subdomain (p = 0.044). Conclusions: Children and adolescents with T1DM experienced significantly elevated symptoms of anxiety and sleep disturbances, particularly in girls, and frequent symptoms of ADHD, particularly in boys. Salivary cortisol concentration collected in the morning is associated with anxiety burden but not with other psychological alterations. Further studies are needed to clarify the associations between salivary cortisol concentration and anxiety in type 1 diabetes in order to propose the hormone as a biomarker for interventions aimed to reduce anxiety levels in these patients.

Dataset of Moroccan nursing students' intention to use and accept information and communication technologies and social media platforms for learning.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has redefined how we carry out our daily activities with emphasis on safety measures like social distancing, the use of face masks and proper hygiene. With nursing personnel at the forefront of combating the menace created by this pandemic, the use of ICT has remained a vital technology that must be embraced by all in order to carry out a safe nursing practice. Therefore, becoming ICT compliant is no more an option to stay relevant and alive during this COVID era. This data article presents the outcome of a survey carried out among Moroccan nursing students. This was done with a view to assess their readiness and willingness to accept and use ICT as well as social media for learning and discharging their duties during and after this COVID era. Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was adopted to structure the questionnaire items used in this survey. This was then administered to Moroccan nursing students via online Google forms. Seven hundred and two (702) respondents completed the questionnaire. After data screening and cleaning, normality assessment of the data was carried out in terms of skewness and kurtosis. Afterwards, Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to establish the statistical significance of the data in terms of the reflective indicator loadings, internal consistency reliability and convergence. This dataset includes the questionnaire used (in English and French), the responses obtained in spreadsheet format, the charts generated from the responses received, the SPSS file and the statistical analysis file. This dataset will help policy makers understand how nursing students use ICT and social media platforms and how these could be adopted as a more secure means of learning and discharging their during the COVID-19 era and beyond.