Caring and Working during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspective of Portuguese Residential Care Facility Workers

Listen to the voices of nurses: the role of community chief nurses and registered nurses in the provision of care for older people in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic - a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

During the pandemic in Sweden, the aim was to protect older people, especially those among them who were sick, frail and vulnerable in residential care facilities. A ban was put on visits at all residential care facilities in March 2020 to prevent the spread of infection among the older people. This study aims to describe the experiences of Community Chief Nurses and Registered Nurses who provided medical and nursing care for older people in residential care facilities and home care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine factors associated with the quality of care.

METHODS

The study has a mixed method cross-sectional design (STROBE). Data were collected using a web-based survey that comprised two questionnaires, for Community Chief Nurses and Registered Nurses developed for the study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models, as well as qualitative content analyses.

RESULTS

The majority of Community Chief Nurses reported adequate opportunities to work with management to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. The Registered Nurses reported that the quality of care, as well as the person's safety, was negatively affected during the pandemic. Factors associated with good care were as follows: information-sharing; ability to comply with hygiene practices; competence in how to care for older persons with COVID-19; a physician at bedside assessing their health; and support from frontline managers.

CONCLUSION

The study highlights crucial facets that care organizations must address to enhance their readiness for future pandemics or disasters, ensuring the security and well-being of the older people.

Social Networks, New Technologies, and Wellbeing-An Interview Study on Factors Influencing Older Adults' Successful Ageing

Many factors are considered vital in supporting successful ageing and older adults' wellbeing. Whilst evidence exists around facilitating and hindering factors in the general use of various forms of institutional and family support and personal development-oriented education and/or new technologies, evidence is limited with regards to older people's motivations, expectations, and experiences surrounding ageing. Hence, in this study, the author used a qualitative explanatory method to interpret the factors influencing seniors' successful ageing. The author's focus was on how seniors experience ageing. The second issue was how they have been organizing life in old age. The third point concerned their expectations towards ageing now and in the future. Thirteen older adults (60+) were interviewed nationwide using a semi-structured scenario tool. Their objective was to give rich descriptions of their experiences of ageing. The interviews revealed the older adults' own experiences and enabled an understanding of their motivations, perceptions, moderators, and expectations around successful ageing. Based on the analysis of the qualitative data, the author developed three main themes, each with its own sub-themes: 1. Life satisfaction (transitioning to retirement, using coping strategies in adaptation to negative changes, reaching personal goals, leading a meaningful life); 2. Supportive environments (being independent but using temporary assistance from relatives and/or people close to oneself, living with family members (e.g., husband or wife, children, grandchildren), having access to health care system); 3. Social integration (social relations, social engagement, independence in using technological advancements). The main categories that emerged from the three themes were social networks, new technologies, and wellbeing. To analyze these issues, the author used a sociological approach. The theoretic explorations were embedded mainly in two methods: criticism of writing and the analytical and comparative one.