An Agreement Among Nurse Educators on Infection Prevention and Control Practices to Ensure Safe Clinical Training Post-COVID-19

Background

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices during nursing students' clinical training are based on standardized precautions. However, the spread of COVID-19 raised the need to revise these practices. We aimed in this study to assess nurse educators' agreement on items that represent precautionary guidelines, which enhance safety during clinical training of students. It aimed to reach an agreement among nurse educators on IPC practices to ensure safe clinical training.

Materials and Methods

This descriptive explorative, cross-sectional study included 243 Jordanian and Omani educators. The study questionnaire was based mainly on evidence reported in the literature. The study questionnaire comprised items for trainers to practice and items to supervise students. It was developed based on available evidence and recommended training practices during COVID-19 suggested by the WHO and the literature. Both the face and content validity processes were adopted to validate the study questionnaire. The final version was composed of 26 items for trainers and 20 items for students subsumed in the following themes: protecting self, protecting others, and essential training needs.

Results

All questionnaire items were rated above the midpoint indicating agreement among participants on including the new IPC practices. All suggested practices (26 items for the trainers and 20 items for the students) were supported by the study participants.

Conclusions

Clinical training is an important component of nursing students' preparation. Findings suggest the importance of adding new IPC practices to improve student IPC practices, protect themselves and others, minimize cross-infections, and enhance students' training within a safe clinical environment.

Medication Administration Error Perceptions Among Critical Care Nurses: A Cross-Sectional, Descriptive Study

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate the medication administration error perceptions among Jordanian critical care nurses.

Methods

A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used among Jordanian critical care nurses. The total number of completed questionnaires submitted for analysis was 340. Data were collected between July and August 2022 in two health sectors (governmental hospitals and educational hospital) in the middle and north region in Jordan through a self-administered questionnaire on medication administration errors which includes 65 items with three parts.

Results

Nurses showed negative perceptions toward medication administration errors. The majority of participants agreed that "The packaging of many medications is similar" (76.7%), followed by "different medications look alike" (76.2%), as the main reasons for medication error occurrence. Two thirds of participants agreed that "when med errors occur, nursing administration focuses on the individual rather than looking at the systems as a potential cause of the error" (74.1%). Similarly, 73.5% of them believed nurses were blamed if something happens to the patient as a result of the medication error was the main reason for underreporting of MAEs. The highest reported levels of medication errors were in a range between 41% and 70%, for both types intravenous (IV) medication errors and non-intravenous (non-IV) medication errors.

Conclusion

Implement interventions centered on MAEs in particular among critical care nurses, owing to the proven significance of it in foretelling their crucial role in delivering safe care to patients, which will lead to quantifiable returns on both patient outcomes and nurse health, as well as the overall efficiency and image of the organization.

Measuring the prevalence of psychological symptoms and the predictors associated with seeking counseling and psychological help among university students

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of psychological symptoms (PS) among university students and the predictors associated with seeking counseling and psychological help among students. Participants: A total of 663 students from three Jordanian universities participated in this study. Methods: A cross-sectional, correlational design was applied. Participants reported on the Attitude toward Seeking Professional Help Scale and the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-21. Results: Students reported higher mean scores on the symptom checklist and had a poor attitude toward seeking counseling with low confidence in the counseling services. PS predicted that less than 7% of students would seek counseling with no difference among all age groups, gender, or specializations. Conclusion: High prevalence and low confidence influenced students' behavior toward seeking counseling and psychological help. There is a need to incorporate topics explaining the importance of counseling into different university courses, while emphasizing that it is neither stigmatizing nor shameful to seek professional help.

Factors Influencing University Students' Acceptance to Undertake the COVID-19 Vaccine in Jordan

Vaccines are effective measures that can mitigate the high burden of diseases. However, vaccine refusal poses serious challenges for achieving coverage for population immunity. With the availability of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, limited information is available about the university students' acceptability and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines. This article reports study findings regarding factors that influence university students' decision of acceptability to the COVID-19 vaccine in Jordan. Results highlight the continued need for clear and consistent information about the vaccine by health care decision-makers and university administrations.

Reasons for delay in seeking healthcare among women with acute coronary syndrome from rural and urban areas in Jordan

We aimed to explore reasons for delay in seeking healthcare among women with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) for the first time from urban and rural areas in Jordan. A qualitative descriptive design was used through face-to-face interviews with 33 women. Themes that explained why women delayed seeking healthcare when experiencing ACS were: Knowledge deficit about coronary artery disease; the effect of disparity in healthcare services on women decision; and life priorities of women during the ACS attack. Educational needs should be addressed based on variations in both areas.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07399332.2021.1955889 .

Measuring the Quality of Life among Head-and/or-Neck Cancer Patients with Oral Mucositis Using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General in Jordan

Objective:

Quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients can be influenced by the presence of medical conditions, such as oral mucositis (OM). There is still limited knowledge about this issue among patients in Jordan, and this could be related to the absence of research instruments testing QOL among cancer patients with OM. This study measured the QOL among cancer patients using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), Arabic version.

Methods:

This was a cross-sectional study on 118 head-and/or-neck cancer patients with OM in Jordan. Data were submitted to measures of normality, reliability, and validity using exploratory factor analysis. The study also measured QOL among the study sample.

Results:

FACT-G demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and validity. Factor analysis indicated the presence of four factors explained by 24 items representing a valid FACT-G, Arabic version. Scores reflected low QOL compared to reported normative values in the literature. The values used to compare findings from this study were extracted from international literature; no similar values were present in published literature.

Conclusions:

FACT-G, Arabic version, is valid and reliable when applied to this study population. Further testing is recommended, which would include the establishment of normative values.