Nursing students' and faculty members' experiences of online education during COVID-19 across Southeast Asia: A Photovoice study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused extraordinary disruptions to education systems globally, forcing a rapid switch from conventional to online education. Although some qualitative studies have been carried out exploring the online education experiences of nursing students and faculty members during the COVID-19 pandemic, to our knowledge, no study has used the Photovoice approach. OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences of nursing students and faculty members as related to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A descriptive qualitative design using Photovoice was adopted. SETTING: The study took place across five countries and one city in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong). PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-two nursing students and twenty-eight nursing faculty members who participated in online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Each participant submitted one photo substantiated with written reflections. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Ethical approval was obtained from institution-specific ethics boards. RESULTS: Three themes and eleven sub-themes emerged from the data. The three main themes were: 1) Psychological roadblocks to online education; 2) Developing resilience despite adversities; and 3) Online education: What worked and what did not. CONCLUSION: Through Photovoice, the reflections revealed that nursing students and faculty members were generally overwhelmed with the online education experience. At the same time, participants were satisfied with the flexibility and convenience, opportunities for professional and personal development and safety afforded by online education. However, concerns over academic integrity, practical skills and clinical competencies, engagement and participation, the duality of technology and social isolation out-shadowed the advantages. It is worthwhile to explore the concerns raised to enhance online education across the nursing curriculum.

ZnO nanowires-C microfiber hybrid nanosensor for liquefied petroleum gas detection.

Zinc oxide nanowires are integrated onto carbon microfibers using a two-step approach which includes electrochemical deposition of zinc and its thermal oxidation. Such nano-on-micro hybrid architecture is then used as resistive gas sensor. Some properties like mechanical flexibility, low cost and large-area fabrication make this design appealing for different applications. The huge surface-to-volume ratio of such structure comes from being structured at both microscale and nanoscale (ZnO nanowires and C microfiber) and leads to a strong and rapid response/recovery times when it is used as a gas sensor. The fabrication process of the ZnO-microC device is very simple and doesn't involve any expensive lithographic step. The sensors show excellent liquefied petroleum gas sensing properties, with very fast response on gas exposure (about 3 s) and very good reversibility (less than 2%). In addition, the carbon microfiber substrate allows the use of the ZnO-microC sensor also in applications where flexibility is required (for example integrated in fabric).

Husbands' involvement in abortion in Vietnam.

This study analyzes the involvement of men in abortion in Vietnam, where induced abortion is legal and abortion rates are among the highest in the world. Twenty men were interviewed in 1996 about the role they played in their wives' abortions and about their feelings and ethical views concerning the procedure. The results showed that both husbands and wives considered the husband to be the main decisionmaker regarding family size, which included the decision to have an abortion, but that, in fact, some women had undergone an abortion without consulting their husbands in advance. Parents and in-laws were usually not consulted; the couples thought they might object to the decision on moral grounds. Respondents' ethical perspectives on abortion are discussed. When faced with an unwanted pregnancy, the husbands adopted an ethics of care and responsibility toward family and children, although some felt that abortion was immoral. The study highlights the importance of understanding husbands' perspectives on their responsibilities and rights in reproductive decisionmaking and their ethical and other concerns related to abortion.

PIP: This study explored men's attitudes and ethical views about abortion and their decision-making role in their wives' abortion in Viet Nam. Data were obtained from a 1996 survey conducted in the province of Quang Ninh and the towns of Uong Bi and La Hong. The total fertility rate in the study area was 2.3 children/woman. The total induced abortion rate was 2.5/woman, which is the highest in Viet Nam. The sample included 20 women drawn from a random sample of 300 women from 2 public abortion clinics. Findings indicate that the mean age of the 20 husbands was 37 years. Most came from large families with 6 children. No one was illiterate. The mean age at marriage was 26 years. The mean interval to first birth was 2 years. All had at least 1 child. The 20 women averaged 2.4 abortions/woman: 2.7 in La Hong and 1.9 in Uong Bi. Three case histories--an old man's, a middle-aged man's, and a young man's--are reported. The old man, who lived through the war years, had 2 sons and a daughter. His wife, after the last birth, had 1 miscarriage and 3 abortions. She removed the IUD due to side effects. The old man desired no more children. The middle-aged man viewed too many children as self-defeating. The young man thought life was too hard to support a large family. Reasons for abortion were mainly economic ones, protection of women's health, and adherence to the two-child policy. About 50% made the abortion decision together. Ethical views ranged from disapproval and deep moral concern to a neutral modern view. The concern for living children and family welfare took precedence.

Patients', relatives', and nurses' experience of stroke in northern Vietnam.

Transcriptions were made of interviews held in Vietnam with five nurses, five people affected by stroke (aged 28-60), and with one relative each. Their stories were analysed as texts by means of a phenomenological hermeneutic method. The role of the nurses in Vietnam appeared to differ from that usually ascribed to nurses in Western institutionalized care. In the former a relative was expected to carry out basic care during the acute stage and to assist socioeconomically thereafter. The interviewees spoke of family bonds in the past, present, and future tenses when narrating their experiences of stroke as nurses, patients, and relatives. This was interpreted as an indication of a consciousness of an essential relatedness. Nurses were aware of playing a temporary and secondary role mainly as assistants: firstly to the doctor by carrying out orders and reporting, secondly to the stroke patient and his or her family by carrying out advanced nursing procedures and giving support. The advantages and disadvantages of involving the family in nursing care can be revealed by obtaining views from a different culture, which can provide a contrast against which constructive criticism of the Western nursing tradition can be made.