Competency model for public health nurses working on tobacco control in local governments in Japan: A qualitative study

Oncology nurse competency in chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a promising therapeutic method in the field of tumor immunotherapy. An increasing number of patients are beginning to select CAR T-cell therapy in mainland China. It is characterized by a complex process, a long period of treatment, high individualization, quick disease status changes and unique side effects. Oncology nurses play a crucial role in the provision of CAR T-cell therapy.

OBJECTIVE

To explore oncology nurses' competency in CAR T-cell therapy with guidance from the iceberg model.

DESIGN

A descriptive qualitative study.

SETTINGS

This study was conducted with nurses on lymphoma wards in three tertiary hospitals in China.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 13 nurses and 2 nursing managers were approached, and all of them took part in this study.

METHODS

Data were collected face-to-face or via online video using a semistructured interview guide between November 2022 and February 2023 by the first author. The study was performed and reported following the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Nursing competency in CAR T-cell therapy was identified as including four main categories encompassing 12 subcategories and 40 codes. The main categories were theoretical knowledge, operation skills, personality traits and motives. The subcategories were basic knowledge of chemotherapy, professional knowledge of CAR T-cell therapy, basic skills, professional skills, relevant discipline skills, communication/coordination ability, critical thinking, basic traits, professional personality, enthusiasm for the nursing profession, empathy with patients and motivation to promote professional development.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical staff can develop a competency-based nurse training program to improve the professional competencies of oncology nurses in CAR T-cell therapy and meet patients' supportive needs for optimal care. Additionally, the findings may be helpful for building measurement standards to assess oncology nurses' performance.

Common domains of nurses' competencies in public health emergencies: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

A public health emergency can cause large numbers of deaths in a short period, with devastating social, economic and health consequences. Nurses are the main healthcare providers during such emergencies, and their competencies affect the control and outcomes of the situation. Studies on nurses' competencies in public health emergencies vary between countries and healthcare systems. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review to identify the common domains of nurses' competencies in public health emergencies worldwide.

METHODS

We searched the PubMed, CINHAL, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Embase, Cochrane Library, WanFang and ECRI databases from their inception to 2023. All published articles on nurses' competencies in public health emergencies that were published in English and Chinese were included. We mainly analyzed and synthesized nurses' competencies, assessment instruments and the training described in the included studies.

RESULTS

A total of 27 competency domains were identified following an analysis and summary. The most frequently cited domains were communication skills, self-protection skills, basic knowledge of a public health emergency, laws and ethics and the capacity for organizational collaboration. The Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool and the Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire were the most commonly used tools for assessing competencies. Most training was conducted online and the content that was covered varied by country.

CONCLUSIONS

Given the significant roles and responsibilities of nurses in public health emergencies, knowing the domains of their competencies is essential to evaluating, developing, and conducting clinical training.

Smoking cessation interventions and implementations across multiple settings in Japan: a scoping review and supplemental survey

BACKGROUND

Smoking is the leading risk factor for death worldwide. In Japan, although several evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for smoking cessation have been disseminated or adopted, there is a gap between scientific evidence and the actual implementation. This scoping review aimed to describe the knowledge gaps in local-level smoking cessation interventions in Japan, their implementation outcomes, implementation barriers and facilitators, and the use of implementation strategies.

METHODS

This study comprised two approaches: (1) a comprehensive scoping review of primary and grey literature, and (2) a supplemental survey of organizations in the grey literature. For the scoping review, we included original studies or reports on smoking cessation interventions targeting adults aged 18 years and older, or providers of cessation support at various settings (community, workplace, school, and clinical settings) in Japan. The extracted data included basic characteristics, intervention categories, implementation outcomes, factors influencing implementation, and implementation strategies for each intervention. Responses to the supplemental survey were extracted same used for the scoping review. To gain a deeper understanding, semi-structured interviews were conducted with some of the organizations in the survey.

RESULTS

A total of 600 interventions with 691 intervention components, based on EBIs in the 2020 US Surgeon General Report, from 498 articles were included in the data extraction; 32 of the 88 organizations responded to the survey. Regarding the overall knowledge about smoking cessation intervention components, behavioral counseling, and cessation medication in clinical settings were mostly reported (34.7%). Implementation outcomes were measured in 18 articles (3.0%) and penetration was mostly reported. Regarding influential factors, "available resources," and "knowledge and beliefs about the intervention" for barriers, and "relative priority" for facilitators were mostly reported. Implementation strategies were measured in 29 articles (4.8%), and "Train and educate stakeholders" was mostly reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Most EBIs reported in the Japanese literature included smoking cessation treatments in clinical settings. While a few articles focused on the implementation indicators in Japan, significant knowledge and experience were extracted from the grey literature, especially in the workplace and community settings. Future research should focus more on implementation to reduce the knowledge gap regarding smoking cessation interventions.

Sustainable career and employability of student leaders in China

Research has shown that most employers prefer employing graduates with student leadership experience in colleges and most of the student leaders have sustainable development in their careers in China. Compared with students without leadership experience, student leaders are easier to get promotion and development opportunities in the workplace. To discuss this question, researchers chose employers, student leaders, and teachers as research participants in an effort to answer the question of why employers prefer graduates with experience being student leaders. This study focuses on what key competencies student leaders possess and how their competencies can match the capability requirement of employers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 outstanding student leaders, 4 class teachers, 2 student affairs administrators, and 8 human resource managers from two vocational colleges in Beijing. We find that student leaders have strong social competence, emotional competence, action competence, responsibility, and resilience which employers value and these competencies are essential to career development in the workplace. These competencies are considered to be helpful to support student leaders to adapt to the real work environment quickly and achieve career success.

Development of a prenatal smoking cessation counseling scale for public health nurses in Japan

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to develop a scale to measure prenatal smoking cessation counseling for Japanese public health nurses (PHNs).

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted via an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire. The sample included 1933 PHNs working in 424 municipal health centers nationwide, which were randomly selected. We created the draft scale based on semi-structured interviews, previous studies, and preliminary survey. Additionally, we conducted back translation for English version of the draft scale to be applicable in English countries. The analytic strategy consisted of item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and differentiation by 'known groups'.

RESULTS

A total of 550 responses (28.5%) were included in the analysis. Most of the respondents were female (98.2%) and the mean age was 37.5±9.37 years. In the exploratory factor analysis, two factors were extracted and the factor loadings for all items were greater than 0.40. The first factor with eleven items was named as 'basic counseling' and the second factor with seven items was named as 'advanced counseling'. The Cronbach's alpha of the scale was 0.918, and the cumulative contribution was 44.908%. Multiple comparisons by experience years working as a PHN revealed significant differences in the scale and two factors.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we initially developed the prenatal smoking cessation counseling scale for Japanese PHNs, and the reliability and validity of the scale were considered to be acceptable.

Breastfeeding competency scale (BCS); development and validation of an evaluation instrument on breastfeeding competency in third trimester pregnancy

Background

Breastfeeding plays an important role in the early stages of humans and throughout the development process. Breastfeeding competency is a self-assessment of pregnant women’s overall competency to breastfeeding which could predict the breastfeeding behaviours of pregnant women. However, a valid and reliable scale for assessing breastfeeding competency has not yet been developed and validated. This study was conducted to develop and validate an assessment scale designed to assess pregnant women’s breastfeeding competency in the third trimester: the Breastfeeding Competency Scale (BCS).

Methods

The BCS was developed and validated over three phases between September 2018 and September 2019, and these phases included item statistical analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), content validation, internal consistency assessment, split-half reliability assessment and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Results

The item statistical analysis and EFA resulted in 38 items and 4 factors that explained 66.489% of the total variance. The Cronbach’s α coefficients for the total scale and the 4 factors were 0.970, 0.960, 0.940, 0.822 and 0.931. The split-half reliability of the BCS was 0.894 and 0.890. CFA model showed that the 4-factor model fits the data well.

Conclusions

The BCS is a new valid and reliable instrument for assessing the breastfeeding competency of pregnant women in the third trimester.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-021-03664-1.