Perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Ghana: A cross-sectional study

Experiences of male irregular migrants during their migration process and reception in Spain: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Background

The causes behind migration movements are complex. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how several countries failed to respond to the virus adequately, while simultaneously infringing on people's rights. Male irregular migrants fled their countries of origin and embarked on a perilous migration journey to Spain. The highly restrictive COVID-19 measures and border closures affected the mobility of male irregular migrants, whose reception in the host country posed a challenge. It led to the establishment of emergency facilities to accommodate male irregular migrants affected by COVID-19, which had repercussions on their mental health. The aim of this study was to describe and understand the experiences of male irregular migrants throughout their migration process and reception in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Qualitative descriptive study. Sixteen male irregular migrants participated in this study. Data were collected between January and March 2023 through 16 one-on-one in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data using ATLAS.ti computer software.

Results

Three main themes emerged: (1) How the COVID-19 pandemic drove male irregular migrants to leave their countries of origin, (2) How COVID-19 lockdown policies affected the migration journey, and (3) Receiving male irregular migrants in a pandemic: a housing labyrinth marked by isolation and loneliness.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the social, employment and health inequalities experienced by male irregular migrants. Border closures exacerbated the migration journey and the social stigmatization of this group, who were seen as carriers of the virus in both transit and host countries. Strict control measures in emergency and reception facilities had a significant psychological impact on the male irregular migrants due to the social isolation they experienced. Health institutions should develop programs to guarantee the care needs of irregular migrants.

The effect of sleepiness in situation awareness: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Situational awareness is the acquisition of information from elements present in the work environment, the perception of the meaning of this information, and the prediction of future working conditions. Sleepiness and fatigue can influence an individual's ability to reach situation awareness, decision-making, and performance on a task.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review examines methods used to assess situational awareness, fatigue, sleepiness, and their interrelationships.

METHODS

A systematic search of online databases was conducted to identify experimental, peer-reviewed articles published in English between 2017 and 2022. A total of 29 publications were selected for analysis.

RESULTS

The selected studies originated from various countries, primarily in the northern hemisphere. Health and automotive engineering were the academic categories with the highest publications. The studies employed objective and subjective methods to assess situational awareness, fatigue, and sleepiness.

CONCLUSIONS

Most studies reported a decline in situational awareness during fatigue and sleepiness conditions, although one study did not find this association. Future research should focus on employing objective methods to analyze cognitive factors, increasing sample sizes, and conducting testing in real-world situations.

Exploration of COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention Behaviors among Healthcare Workers

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the pandemic has become an important topic of global public health. To reduce the rapid spread of the pandemic, compliance with preventive behaviors has become one of the important guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO). Healthcare workers stand on the frontline for pandemic prevention, and preventive behaviors are essential measures to protect their health and safety. The purpose of this study was to propose an integrative model that explained and predicted COVID-19 preventive behaviors among healthcare workers. The study integrated workplace safety climate and the health belief model (HBM) to verify the impact of workplace safety climate and health belief factors on the safety attitude, safety compliance, and safety satisfaction of healthcare workers performing COVID-19 pandemic prevention behaviors. A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to August 2021 with a self-administered online questionnaire. The sample of the study was drawn from healthcare workers of a famous medical institution in Taipei City as research subjects. After collecting 273 valid questionnaires and verifying them through the analysis of structural equation modeling (SEM), the findings revealed that workplace safety climate had an impact on health belief factors, and then health belief factors had impacts on safety attitudes. In addition, safety attitude affected safety compliance, while safety compliance further affected safety satisfaction. The study showed that workplace safety climate can strengthen healthcare workers' health beliefs and further affect their safety attitudes, safety compliance, and safety satisfaction. The study attempted to propose a model of healthcare workers' pandemic prevention behaviors as a reference for medical facility administrators in real practice.