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Background: Nursing workload is largely studied but poorly explored under physical, mental, and emotional dimensions. Currently, only a limited number of variables have been linked to nursing workload and work contexts. Purpose: The study aimed to investigate whether it is feasible to identify variables that consistently correlate with nursing workload and others that are specific to the context. Methods: We employed a descriptive correlational analysis and a cross-sectional design. Data were collected through a survey distributed to registered nurses working across Italy, at the conclusion of randomly assigned morning or afternoon shifts. Results: We received 456 surveys from 195 shifts, collected from nurses in four public and two private hospitals. Commonly associated variables with nursing workload dimensions included patient complexity of care, admission/discharge or transfer, informing patients/relatives, contacting physicians, and unscheduled activities. Variables categorized as setting-specific were patient isolation and specialties, nurse-to-patient ratio, adequacy of staff in the shift, peer collaboration, healthcare documentation, educating others, and medical urgency. Conclusions: In summary, certain variables consistently correlate with nursing workload across settings, while others are specific to the context of care. It is imperative for nurses and nurse managers to measure the nursing workload in various dimensions, enabling the prompt implementation of improvement actions.
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Introduction: Despite nurses representing the largest healthcare professional group, the number is not enough for global health coverage. Understanding Generation Z students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, internal and external influences, and beliefs in choosing nursing education is crucial. This knowledge empowers universities to enhance nursing program enrollment through targeted promotion and recruitment strategies. Objective: The aim was to understand why Italian students of Generation Z choose the Nursing Degree Course. Methods: In this pilot study, a cross-sectional design was used. A survey with closed and open answers analyzing demographics, opinions, and motivations among new enrolled nursing students was administered on the first day of the Bachelor of Nursing Degree course. Descriptive statistics were used. Quantitative data were analyzed with Chi-square and ANOVA tests and qualitative data underwent content analysis and coding. Correlation analysis explored relationships between qualitative and quantitative results. Results: Forty first-year students (85% female, average age 22) completed the questionnaire. The choice of the degree pathway, as the first or second option, is influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, the student's opinions, and family and social influences. Significant positive and negative associations were evidenced. Negative factors affecting choice included location and the responsibility for nursing care, while positive factors included role models, family advice, passion, curiosity for healthcare, the desire to help others, and family influences on decision-making. Conclusions: Among Italian generation Z students, the choice of the nursing degree pathway is influenced by social models, family advice, passion, the desire to help others, and curiosity. Universities should be more proactive in their recruitment and promotion efforts, transforming these events into vibrant meeting points for professionals from diverse nursing specialties. They should also implement robust information policies that highlight career possibilities spanning clinical practice, management, education, and research areas within the field.
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BACKGROUND: Competence is an essential concept for measuring nurses' performance in terms of effectiveness and quality. To this end, our analysis highlighted the process of acquiring competencies, their self-evaluation into clinical practice, and how their proficiency levels change throughout the nursing career. In detail, this research explored nurses' perceived level of competence and the factors that influence it in different contexts. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey using a structured questionnaire to assess the nursing participants' perception of their competencies in different clinical settings was accomplished. RESULTS: A descriptive and bivariate analysis was performed on 431 nurses. Most respondents assessed their level of competence to be higher than their roles required. The Kruskal-Wallis test confirmed that nursing experience was a relevant factor influencing nursing competencies. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest improving the competence of practicing nurses, using experience as a measurable effect of their development.
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Nurse managers play a vital role in healthcare organizations, wielding the ability to substantially enhance work environments, foster nurses' autonomy, and bolster retention within workplaces. In this context, this study focuses on the Nurse Manager Actions scale, aiming to evaluate its items' scalability as well as the scale's validity and reliability among nurses and nurse managers operating within the Italian healthcare context. The study protocol was not registered. To ensure linguistic and cultural alignment, an iterative and collaborative translation process was undertaken. Subsequently, a multi-center cross-sectional design was adopted. Using a web-survey approach, data were collected among 683 nurses and 188 nurse managers between August 2022 and January 2023. The Nurse Manager Actions scale was found to be a valid and reliable instrument in Italian after a Mokken Scale Analysis. For nurses (HT= 0.630, Molenaar-Sijtsma rho = 0.890), the scale included 6 items, while 11 items were confirmed for nurse managers (HT= 0.620, Molenaar-Sijtsma rho = 0.830). Nurse Manager Actions scale scores were correlated with increased satisfaction and decreased intention to leave for both nurses and nurse managers. The employed validation process enhanced the scale validity for use in Italy and provided a model for other researchers to follow when assessing similar measures in different populations. Measuring and empowering nurse manager actions in work contexts is essential to improve the general well-being and retention of nurses, especially in the current nursing shortage.
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BACKGROUND: Standard precautions (SPs) are first-line strategies with a dual goal: to protect health care workers from occupational contamination while providing care to infected patients and to prevent/reduce health care-associated infections (HAIs). This study aimed at (1) identifying the instruments currently available for measuring healthcare professionals' compliance with standard precautions; (2) evaluating their measurement properties; and (3) providing sound evidence for instrument selection for use by researchers, teachers, staff trainers, and clinical tutors. METHODS: We carried out a systematic review to examine the psychometric properties of standard precautions self-assessment instruments in conformity with the COSMIN guidelines. The search was conducted on the databases PubMed, CINAHL, and APA PsycInfo. RESULTS: Thirteen instruments were identified. These were classified into four categories of tools assessing: compliance with universal precautions, adherence to standard precautions, compliance with hand hygiene, and adherence to transmission-based guidelines and precautions. The psychometric properties of instruments and methodological approaches of the included studies were often not satisfactory. Only four instruments were classified as high-quality measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The available instruments that measure healthcare professionals' compliance with standard precautions are of low-moderate quality. It is necessary that future research completes the validation processes undertaken for long-established and newly developed instruments, using higher-quality methods and estimating all psychometric properties.
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INTRODUCTION: Work contexts can affect nurses' work and work outcomes. Work context factors of nurses, patients, or workflow can modulate nurses' organization of work and determine increased workloads. AIM: The aim of this research was to analyze relationships between factors regarding the patient, the nurse, workflow, and nurses' work organization, to investigate whether work organization is related to physical, mental, and emotional workloads, and to explore whether one dimension of workload influences the other dimensions. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional design based on the Job Demand-Resources theory. We asked registered nurses, working in nine medical-surgical wards across three hospitals in Italy, to self-report on work organization and workloads regarding randomized shifts over three consecutive weeks. Four scales from the QEEW 2.0 questionnaire were used on an online survey for data collection. multivariable linear regressions with structural equation modelling were tested. The study was approved by the three local Ethics Committees. RESULTS: We received 334 questionnaires regarding 125 shifts worked. Patient complexity (ß = 0.347), patient specialties (ß = 0.127), adequacy of staffing (ß = -0.204), collaboration with colleagues (ß = -0.155), unscheduled activities (ß = 0.213), supply search (ß = 0.141), and documentation (ß = 0.221) significantly influenced nurses' work organization. Nurses' work organization was significantly related to physical, mental, and emotional nursing workloads. CONCLUSIONS: the patient, the nurse, and workflow aspects influence nurses' work organization and workloads. Healthcare organizations, managers, and nurses should explore work settings to identify work turbulences early and implement strategies to improve nursing work conditions and workloads.
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AIM: The aim of the study was to analyse the management of chronic wound outcomes and the experience of patients with chronic ulcers. DESIGN: Explanatory mixed method. METHODS: This study consisted in a sequential explanatory mixed method with a quantitative and a qualitative phase. In the first phase, quantitative data were collected during a longitudinal study, in a convenience sample of 44 patients presenting at a nursing outpatients' clinic. Linear regression was conducted to evaluate the associations between variables. In phase two, 14 patients from the initial sample were interviewed, and the data were analysed using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method. RESULTS: The participants, mostly males, in conditions of comorbidity and polypharmacotherapy, were mainly affected by venous leg ulcers. An association between the quality of life of patients (both physical and mental) and some socio-demographic and clinical factors has been confirmed. I Variance analysis showed a significant wound improvement across all the measurement times. The themes identified through the qualitative analysis were: "Cared by self," "Cared by Healthcare Providers" and "Quality of life".
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Varicose Ulcer , Male , Humans , Female , Longitudinal Studies , Comorbidity , Research DesignABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: the infections correlated to the assistance represent the most common adverse events and sets up a world public sanity problem. Preventative behaviour, such as proper hand hygiene, are based on the knowledge and attitudes of care staff. Valuing health workers' knowledge and attitudes becomes fundamental for the individuation of any cognitive gaps. METHODS: a cross sectional study has been conducted in a healthcare authority, during the first lockdown of Covid-19 pandemic. The knowledge's' data have been collected using the World Health Organization's Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire in its italian version and, for exploring attitudes, questions have been created on the basis of scientific literature. RESULTS: a sample of 363 healthcare workers was enrolled in this study. The 60% of respondent showed a sufficient level and 26.3% were at a good level of knowledge and all the personnel present good attitudes. There has been found an association between knowledge, gender and work area and between attitude, work area and presence of the alcoholic product in the structure. CONCLUSIONS: healthcare workers showed a knowledge level from sufficient to good, and positive attitudes towards hands hygiene. There still remains some cognitive gaps that have to be fixed with formative courses for prevent infections according to the principles of the patient safety program "Clinic Care in Safer Care" of the World Health Organization.
