Education and Mentoring of Specialist Pediatric Palliative Care Medical and Nursing Trainees: The Quality of Care Collaborative Australia

Nurses' comfort and well-being: A descriptive study to find out the relationship between nurses' awareness of self-comfort and well-being at long-term care settings in the state of Kuwait

The study aims to examine out nurses' awareness of self-comfort and well-being in long-term care settings in the state of Kuwait to avoid profession burnout. Nurses are vital resource to health care institutions, the attention on nurses' comfort and well-being should be given valued concerns by top management, as poor staff well-being can pose risks among them and may result in poor performance such as less quality care that is result from less productivity and if the staff well-being ignored the institution performance might be underachieved. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was utilized. The questionnaire assessed participants' socio-demographic data, comfort, and well-being. Data were collected from 260 (86.7% response rate) nurses over the course of 3 months from long-term care facilities in 2 different organizations in Kuwait. The overall nurses' comfort level was moderate with a mean percent score of 67.55 ± 12.50. However, the overall nurses' well-being level was low with a mean percent score of 49.58 ± 6.93. As well as, a strong, positive, and significant correlation was noticed between overall nurses' comfort and its domains with the overall nurses' well-being and its domain. The regression analysis revealed that nurses' perception of their comfort may predict their well-being (P < .001) and explained 34% of the variation in nurses' well-being (R2 = 0.470, β = 0.428, F = 34.762, P < .001). This study emphasized on the importance of creating a healthy, comfortable work environment that promotes nurses' well-being, as well as eliminating discomfort and job dissatisfaction from the organizational culture among nurses as it effects on the organizational performance, productivity, and quality of care.

"A Life Slips Through Our Fingers" Experiences of Nurses Working in Pediatric Intensive Care Units About Children's Death: A Qualitative Study

Caring for a dying child can be an experience full of all kinds of negative emotions, pain and stress for the pediatric nurse. In this study, which was carried out in Turkey, we aimed to determine how nurses working in a pediatric intensive care unit remembered and made sense of their experiences regarding children's deaths. In-depth interviews were held with 13 nurses. The data were analyzed using the content analysis method. Three themes were identified. These were (1) Personal effects of death, (2) Difficulties in care, and (3) Coping with death. It was clear that the nurses were traumatised by their exposure to infant deaths. The findings showed that nurses experienced regret, fatigue and posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, it was determined that nurses should be supported to cope with child deaths, which is a complicated process involving the child and the family, especially emotionally. Moreover, providing institutional support to nurses and referring them to cognitive-behavioral therapies may make it easier for them to cope with the emotional burden they carry, as well as the burnout they experience.

Mentoring the Wellbeing of Specialist Pediatric Palliative Care Medical and Nursing Trainees: The Quality of Care Collaborative Australia

BACKGROUND

The Quality of Care Collaborative Australia (QuoCCA), working across 6 tertiary centers throughout Australia, builds capability in the generalist and specialist pediatric palliative care (PPC) workforce, by providing education in metropolitan and regional areas. As part of the education and mentoring framework, Medical Fellows and Nurse Practitioner Candidates (trainees) were funded by QuoCCA at four tertiary hospitals throughout Australia.

OBJECTIVE

This study explores the perspectives and experiences of clinicians who had occupied the QuoCCA Medical Fellow and Nurse Practitioner trainee positions in the specialised area of PPC at Queensland Children's Hospital, Brisbane, to identify the ways in which they were supported and mentored to maintain their wellbeing and facilitate sustainable practice.

METHODS

Discovery Interview methodology was used to collect detailed experiences of 11 Medical Fellows and Nurse Practitioner candidates/trainees employed by QuoCCA from 2016 to 2022.

RESULTS

The trainees were mentored by their colleagues and team leaders to overcome challenges of learning a new service, getting to know the families and building their competence and confidence in providing care and being on call. Trainees experienced mentorship and role modelling of self-care and team care that promoted wellbeing and sustainable practice. Group supervision provided dedicated time for reflection as a team and development of individual and team wellbeing strategies. The trainees also found it rewarding to support clinicians in other hospitals and regional teams that cared for palliative patients. The trainee roles provided the opportunity to learn a new service and broaden career horizons as well as establish wellbeing practices that could be transferred to other areas.

CONCLUSION

Collegial interdisciplinary mentoring, with the team learning together and caring for each other along common goals, contributed immensely to the wellbeing of the trainees as they developed effective strategies to ensure their sustainability in caring for PPC patients and families.