Management-supportive measures for managers of healthcare organizations during the COVID-19 epidemic

COVID-19 Pandemic: From Population Need to Professional Nursing Competence

Nursing has proven to be an essential healthcare profession, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. In this chapter, it shows the essential aspects of the discipline of care and its application in the face of the pandemic from an Informatics Nursing approach. The conceptual bases include the conception of care and its historical evolution. Thus, the Personal Care Knowledge Model, the clinical care sequence and its standardized languages allow Taxonomic Triangulation to be developed. Taxonomic Triangulation is a technique created by nurses that allows managing information and that served to extract knowledge from documents and clinical experiences. The application of this vision of care and its knowledge management models have been tested in different situations: from the identification of care diagnoses in a World Health Organization clinical guide to the design of a care plan manual in a hospital. On the other hand, a secondary result is the resilience shown by the nurses. A resilience based on theoretical models centered on the person and on a language that can represent life from care. In addition, nursing includes a comprehensive perspective that addresses the emotional and spiritual area. In conclusion, nurses and their specialization with skills in knowledge management allow giving visibility to care. A professional care whose purpose is to improve health systems through solutions based on care so that people can achieve their best health situation.

Active and Healthy Confinement: Care Recommendations on Activity, Sleep and Relationships

Persons that lived through periods of confinement suffered an impact on their physical and mental health. The adaptation of the lifestyle in relation to activity, sleep and social relationships is key to facing these periods of confinement. The aim is to validate a series of care recommendations aimed at being able to maintain an active and healthy confinement, which serves to prepare the population for future health crises. This study is part of a general strategy based on a care recommendation guide for COVID-19. The validation was carried out by a group of experts using the Delphi technique through a questionnaire that uses the Content Validity Index (CVI) and considers high validation those with a score >0.80. A total of 75 care recommendations are proposed: 30 on activity-exercise (CVI = 0.82), 14 on sleep-rest (CVI = 0.83) and 31 on roles-relationships (CVI = 0.83). Additionally, 49 recommendations achieve high validation. The care recommendations integrate a person-centred model, which addresses individual characteristics (age, health status, professional role). An active and healthy confinement requires respecting social distance measures, maintaining a balance between physical activity and sleep, and using technologies to promote social contact, which promote well-being and avoid depression and anxiety.

Working conditions for hospital-based maternity and neonatal health care workers during extraordinary situations - A pre-/post COVID-19 pandemic analysis and lessons learned

Objective

The aim of this study was to investigate how the changed work routines during the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the working environment for hospital-based maternity and neonatal health care workers, and to identify preventive measures to be used in future situations when health care organizations are under pressure.

Methods

All maternity and neonatal health care workers in a Swedish university hospital were surveyed during October 2019 and September 2020. The data was analyzed by document analysis of implemented changes in working routines, a quantitative analysis of the overall effects on the working conditions, and a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses.

Results

A total of 660 maternity and neonatal health care workers completed the pre-COVID-19 survey (74% response rate) and 382 the COVID-19 survey (35% response rate). Lack of personal protective equipment, worry about becoming infected, uncertainty whether implemented changes were enough, and challenges in communicating updated routines had negative effects on maternity and neonatal health care workers’ working conditions. Team spirit and feeling valued by peers had a positive effect.

Conclusions

Results suggest that negative effects on maternity and neonatal health care workers’ health can partly be prevented in future critical situations by creating a work climate that acknowledges the employees’ worry about being infected, securing adequate pre-conditions for managers, creating a strong psychosocial safety climate and systematically improving the working conditions for the maternity and neonatal health care workers, as well as maintaining the positive perceived effects of increased team spirit and feeling valued by peers.

A pre/post analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial work environment and recovery among healthcare workers in a large university hospital in Sweden

BACKGROUND

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workload, mental health, and well-being of healthcare workers, and particularly those on the front-line, has received considerable attention.

DESIGN AND METHODS

We surveyed hospital employees about their working environment during the pandemic and identified departments which were negatively affected in comparison to the pre-pandemic situation, as well as factors contributing to this. Setting and participants We surveyed all hospital employees at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden in September 2020 and compared results across departments and to the results of a large employee survey from October 2019.

RESULTS

The overall impact of the pandemic on perceived working conditions and possibility for recovery differed among departments. During the pandemic, healthcare workers working with COVID-19 patients reported poorer working environments than other employees. Factors significantly related to perception of work environment and recovery during the pandemic included worries of being infected, departmental transfer, and having insufficient access to personal protective equipment. Men reported better working conditions than women in all, but one item and higher age was related to better perceived working environment.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that the pandemic differentially affects hospital departments and underscores the multifactorial nature of this topic. Contributing factors to poor perceived working environment could be addressed at times of high workload, such as during the pandemic, including providing appropriate support to managers, ensuring possibility for recovery during working hours, and acknowledging worries about infection. Young healthcare workers and staff who are relocated due to the pandemic warrant special attention.

Mental health among healthcare personnel during COVID-19 in Asia: A systematic review

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with an insidious wave of psychological stress among healthcare personnel (HCP) in Asia. Mental exhaustion, burnout, fear, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and psychological stress among HCPs have intensified a daunting challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences of such stress may negatively impact patient and HCP safety. This review article reports the associations of mental health status attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic among HCP and their impact on patient safety, and infection prevention and control practices during pandemics.

A cross-sectional study of mental health status and self-psychological adjustment in nurses who supported Wuhan for fighting against the COVID-19

Aims and objectives

To evaluate the mental health status, stressors and self‐adjustment of nurses in isolation wards at different periods in Wuhan, China.

Background

Mental health issues easily occurred among the frontline medical workers of a major epidemic. However, the stressors and psychological adjustments experienced by nurses have not been well described. This is crucial to improving clinical quality and nursing safety and ensuring nurses’ physical and psychological health.

Methods

We performed a cross‐sectional prospective study using the Self Reporting Questionnaire‐20, stressor and self‐adjustment questionnaire administered to frontline nurses in Wuhan at two time points: after they had worked in isolation wards for 7–10 days (T₁) and 2 months (T₂). This paper complies with the STROBE reporting guideline for cross‐sectional studies.

Results

T₁ has 92 respondents, and T₂ has 86. The positive rates of mental health problems were 26.09% and 9.30%, respectively, showing significantly different in the two periods. The main factors influenced mental health were self‐perceived stress and only child status. The most common stressors were as follows: a large infected population, high infectivity; concerned about family's health status; high mortality if not treated in time (T₁); and long duration of the epidemic, separate from family for a long time (T₂). In terms of self‐adjustment, 97.83%(T₁)/88.04%(T₂) of nurses thought it was necessary, but 9(T₁) /5(T₂) chose to avoid addressing it, and 8(T₁) /5(T₂) utilised a professional psychological counselling hotline.

Conclusions

Mental health problems among frontline nurses fighting COVID‐19 need special attention, so administrators should offer timely counselling and strengthen effective psychosocial support to improve their mental resilience.

Relevance to clinical practice

This study surveyed the mental problems and self‐adjustment status among nurses working Wuhan during the outbreak of COVID‐19, to provide administrators with a scientific basis to effectively intervene.

Nursing Diagnoses for Coronavirus Disease, COVID-19: Identification by Taxonomic Triangulation

PURPOSE

To identify the nursing care problems related to the clinical process of disease by COVID-19.

METHOD

The study applied the taxonomic triangulation technique on a clinical management guide to coronavirus disease, COVID-19, from the World Health Organization. The technique is divided into the phases: extraction of knowledge in natural language about assessment, planning and intervention, translation into standard language NOC and NIC, linking to NANDA-I diagnoses, triangulation looking for diagnostic matches in the three sets, and, finally, validation by a panel of experts from a hospital and a university.

FINDINGS

The extraction identified 159 terms in natural language that were translated into 173 variables: 34 NOC for assessment, 19 NOC for planning, and 120 NIC for intervention. The relationships to NANDA-I diagnoses recorded 2,182 links and the triangulation returned 109 diagnoses, 54 of them for a critical situation. The panel of experts unanimously validated the 29 diagnoses with the highest number of links.

CONCLUSION

Coronavirus disease, COVID-19, involves a complex situation with multiple associated care problems that can be identified using the taxonomic triangulation technique.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE

The links between taxonomies and the taxonomic triangulation technique are an important tool for generating knowledge. The results of this study may guide the diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus disease, COVID-19, as well as similar processes that occur with acute respiratory distress syndrome.