Effectiveness of Preparedness Training Delivered to Pre-final and Final Year Nursing Undergraduates to Combat COVID-19: A Need-based Initiative.

A major concern during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the shortage of manpower for patient care. The recommendation of various authorised bodies encouraged the training of students from medical, nursing, and allied fields to manage COVID-19 cases by tele-consultation and monitoring of mild cases under the supervision of faculty. Anticipating a further shortage of human resources, leading to dire consequences, preparedness training for the final year and pre-final nursing undergraduates was initiated. The current study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of and feedback on COVID-19 preparedness training delivered to final-and pre-final-year undergraduate nursing students. A 3-day training was given to pre-final and final year nursing undergraduates on ECG, COVID-19 management protocols, personal protective equipment "donning and doffing", "hand hygiene", "biomedical waste management", "contact tracing" and cleaning and disinfection and simulation-based skills. Scores before and after training were conducted and mean scores were compared using a paired t-test. In total, 154 nursing students participated in the training program. Mean pre-test and post-test scores included: general instructions (21.69±2.5 and 25.09±3.29); skill procedures (5.4±1.21 and 6.3±1.2) and COVID management (22.84±3.26 and 26.48±2.06). There was a statistically significant improvement in knowledge and skills in all training sessions (p=0.0001). The mean post-test scores obtained at the OSCE stations for cardiac monitoring, prone positioning, compression-only CPR, airway, ECG and ABG ranged from 97.0% to 100.0% and all participants scored >70.0%. About 92.8% of the students felt that hands-on training enhanced their learning experiences. A need-based initiative of training final-and pre-final-year nursing students in COVID-19 support care effectively and efficiently created a skilled workforce.

Use of a human patient simulator for apnea studies: a preliminary in vitro trial.

BACKGROUND: Modern human patient simulators (HPSs) could be used for researching critical scenarios such as apnea oxygenation. We aimed to study the use of a high-fidelity HPS to assess prolonged apnea using various oxygenation strategies with a simple high-flow nasal cannula (15 L/min). METHODS: An experimental simulation study using an HPS (CAE Healthcare™) was conducted after obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board. The HPS responded according to real-time physiologically modeled responses to external gases, such as oxygen (O2). Apnea experiments were performed with different physiological settings, such as shunt fraction (5%) and O2 consumption (250, 500, and 750 ml/min). The following four apnea experiments were conducted: no oxygenation (NO), apnea oxygenation alone (AO), preoxygenation alone (PO), and para-oxygenation (PAO). The time to 92%, 75%, and 50% saturation was recorded. Alveolar and arterial gas levels were recorded till 50% saturation. RESULTS: At 250 ml/min, PO (1121 s) and PAO (1274.5 s) had a significantly longer time to 50% saturation (400% increase) compared to NO (222.5 s) and AO (239 s). A similar trend was observed for the time to 92% and 75% saturation. At higher O2 consumption rates, a shorter time to desaturation was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Apnea trends in the HPS correlated with similar prior human experiments. AO without preoxygenation was found to provide no additional benefit. Preoxygenation with high-flow O2 via nasal cannula prolonged the time to desaturation in the PAO more than PO scenario. Therefore, HPSs can be used in future studies where patient safety is a concern.

Assessment of the efficacy of a video-based hybrid teaching module of oxygen therapy and critical care area troubleshooting in nursing professionals managing COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND: Video-based teaching has become rapidly popular during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The current study aimed to assess the efficacy of a hybrid video-based teaching module of oxygen therapy and critical care troubleshooting in nursing professionals managing COVID-19 patients in our institute. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analytical study (pretest and posttest design) was conducted in our medical education department in March 2022 using the data from a workshop conducted on oxygen therapy and critical care area troubleshooting during COVID-19 patient management for 296 nursing professionals. A hybrid video-based teaching module was used. Pretest and posttest data were compared along with subgroup analysis. P value <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Posttest scores were significantly higher than the baseline scores in the overall group as well as in all subgroups (P < 0.001). Subgroup comparisons revealed no significant difference in mean baseline pretest and posttest scores in male versus female participants. Baseline pretest scores (P = 0.02) and posttest scores (P = 0.08) were lower in the nurses of the noncritical areas compared to critical area nurses. Mean improvement in posttest score compared to baseline score was similar between all groups. CONCLUSION: Hybrid technique involving both video aspects and in-person teacher presence for demonstration or troubleshooting improves perceived knowledge in nursing professionals with some prior formal training and may be superior to the conventional only didactic/lecture-based demonstrations, especially in the context of imparting rapid training during pandemics or similar urgent situations.