To systematically synthesize undergraduate student nurses' experience of online, blended or distance learning during Covid-19 pandemic.
A qualitative evidence synthesis (QES).
A QES. Themes were organized using the ‘best fit’ framework approach. Methodological limitations and confidence in the review findings were informed by GRADE-CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research).
Qualitative literature from five databases including CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson) and ERIC were searched from March 2020 to November 2021.
Nine qualitative and two mixed method studies were included in this ‘best fit’ framework using Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Importance of the social presence of the teacher through effective communication and interpersonal relationships is highlighted. Clinical placement and in-person practical skills training are needed for effective nursing education.
This review highlighted that online content can be developed into efficient and high-quality learner-centred education within blended undergraduate nursing programmes incorporating essential face-to-face and practical components. Various supporting measures are required for both students and faculty. We suggest an adaptation of a ‘Blending with Purpose: The Multimodal Model’ with key considerations for undergraduate nursing programmes where pedagogical objectives and activities drive the approaches to achieve intended learning outcomes and student satisfaction.
Well-designed online programmes using digital tools that support interaction and teamwork are required for undergraduate nursing education.
Blended learning approaches offer more flexibility than online learning alone which leads to improved student engagement. Clinical placement and in-person practical skills training are needed for effective nursing education.
‘Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research’ (ENTREQ) for QES.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
To explore the lived experiences of caregivers of people living in long-term care (LTC) homes during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and potential supports and resources needed to improve caregivers' quality of life.
Carers (or care partners) of adults in LTC contribute substantially to the health and well-being of their loved ones by providing physical care, emotional support and companionship. Despite their critical role, little is known about how caregivers have been impacted by the pandemic.
An interpretive descriptive approach that incorporated the photovoice method was used.
Using a purposive sampling strategy, six family carers in Ontario, Canada were recruited between September and December 2021. Over a 4-week period, caregivers took pictures depicting their experience of the pandemic that were shared in a virtual focus group. Visual and text data were analysed using thematic analysis with an inductive approach.
Caregivers expressed feelings of frustration, confusion and joy. Emerging themes included: (i) feeling like a ‘criminal’ amidst visitor restrictions and rules; (ii) experiencing uncertainty and disappointment in the quality of care of long-term care homes; (iii) going through burnout; and (iv) focusing on small joys and cherished memories.
The combination of visual and textual methods provided unique insight into the mental distress, isolation and intense emotional burdens experienced by caregivers during the pandemic.
Our findings underscore the need for LTC organizations to work in unison with caregivers to optimize the care of residents and support the mental health of caregivers.
This work adhered to the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist.
The caregivers included in the study were involved in the co-creative process as active contributors informing the design and validation of the codes and themes.
To explore if and how nurses' perceived organizational support affects their ability to handle and resolve ethical value conflicts.
A mixed methods design with a longitudinal questionnaire survey and focus group interviews.
A questionnaire survey in six hospitals in two Swedish regions provided data from 711 nurses responding twice (November–January 2019/2020 and November–January 2020/2021). A cross-lagged path model tested the mutual prospective influence between the organizational climate of perceived organizational support, frequency of ethical value conflicts, and resulting moral distress. Four focus group interviews were conducted with 21 strategically selected nurses (April–October 2021). Qualitative data collection and analysis were inspired by Grounded Theory.
A climate of perceived organizational support was empowering, contributing to role security. It prospectively decreased the frequency of ethical value conflicts but not the moral distress when conflicts did occur.
It is important to facilitate the development of perceived organizational support among nurses, but also to reduce the occurrence of ethical value conflicts that the nurses cannot resolve.
By ensuring a shared care ideology, good inter-professional relations within the entire care organization, providing clear and supportive organizational structures, and utilizing competence adequately, healthcare managers can facilitate and support the development of perceived organizational support among nurses. Nurses who are empowered by perceived organizational support are stimulated by and take pride in their work and experience the work as meaningful and joyful.
The study addressed the question of whether healthcare organizations could support nurses to resolving ethical value conflicts, and thus reduce moral distress. Perceived organizational support is related to factors such as ideological caring alignment and supportive organizational preconditions. This study contributes specific knowledge about how healthcare organizations can empower nurses to effectively resolve ethical value conflicts and thereby reduce their moral distress.
No patient or public contribution.
To systematically review and synthesize findings across qualitative primary studies about fathers' experiences of living with a child with a progressive life-limiting condition without curative treatment options (C3 conditions).
Systematic review and metasynthesis.
Sandelowski and Barosso's qualitative research methodology guided this review and metasynthesis. A modification of Ricoeur's interpretation theory, described by Lindseth and Norberg, guided the synthesis of qualitative data. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the Joanna Briggs Institute Checklist for Qualitative Research.
A systematic literature search was conducted on 6 May 2022 and updated on 19 July 2023 on MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, APA PsycInfo and Scopus. Inclusion criteria were English-written qualitative studies from the year 2000, from which we could extract data on fathers' experiences of living with a child from 0 to 18 years with a progressive life-limiting condition without curative treatment options.
Seven reports from Western countries contributed to the review. Through structural analysis, we developed the following themes: ‘Being shattered in the perception of fatherhood’, ‘Establishing a new normal’ and ‘Striving to be acknowledged as a part of the caring team’.
Fathers had to establish a new normal, and they experienced anticipatory mourning, role conflicts and feeling sidelined in healthcare settings when living with a child with a C3 condition. An important issue for further research on paediatric palliative care (PPC) should be to include fathers in the research sample and report separately on fathers' or mothers' experiences instead of parents' experiences.
The findings will be of interest to healthcare personnel and multidisciplinary teams working within PPC, as they give insight into fathers' experiences and suggest interventions to increase healthcare personnel's involvement with fathers, such as telemedicine.
Following EQUATOR guidelines, the study was reported according to the enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (ENTREQ) framework.
No patient or Public Contribution.
To psychometrically assess the Spanish version of the Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory (SC-CII-Sp) in community-dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity.
A methodological study.
A total of 1260 older adults participated in the study between May 2020 and February 2022. The data were analysed using SPSS Statistics® 26 and AMOS® 24. The items' content validity index and the Fleiss' kappa were calculated to assess the SC-CII-Sp's content validity. Convergent validity was assessed by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient between the participants' scores on the SC-CII-Sp and their scores on the Spanish Chronic Disease Self-Efficacy scale (SCD-SE). Construct validity was tested by performing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The SC-CII-Sp's reliability was tested by computing the Cronbach's alpha.
The SC-CII-Sp showed good content and convergent validity. The CFA showed that the SC-CII-Sp has three sub-scales. The 8-item Self-Care Maintenance sub-scale has good internal consistency and is comprised of two dimensions: illness-related and health-promoting behaviour. The Self-Care Monitoring sub-scale had excellent internal consistency and its five loaded items belonged to a single dimension. The 6-item Self-Care Management sub-scale has adequate internal consistency and two dimensions: autonomous and consulting behaviour.
The Spanish version of SC-CII is a valid and reliable instrument to be used in the assessment of self-care behaviours amongst Spanish-speaking, community-dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity.
Nurses need valid and reliable tools to assess self-care behaviours in Spanish-speaking community-dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity. This study provides a 19-item tool that allows for the comprehensive evaluation of self-care behaviours in healthy and ill states.
Using the SC-CII-Sp in clinical or research settings could help nurses to examine the effects of different interventions on self-care behaviours amongst Spanish-speaking, community-dwelling older adults with chronic multimorbidity.
None to be reported.
This study aimed to systematically identify, appraise and synthesize qualitative evidence which explored fathers' experiences and perspectives of their partners' postpartum psychosis.
Qualitative evidence synthesis (QES).
Seven databases (CINAHL, PsycINFO, Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, ProQuest Dissertations and Open Grey) were systematically searched for qualitative studies from each database's inception to the 17th of February 2022.
Studies that utilized a qualitative research design to explore fathers' experiences and perspectives of their partners' postpartum psychosis were included. Studies were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme to determine their methodological quality. Qualitative data were extracted and synthesized using the process of thematic synthesis to form analytical themes.
Eleven reports (seven journal articles and four theses), representing six unique qualitative studies were included in the review. Two analytical themes and eight subthemes were identified. The analytical themes were ‘a sense of loss across multiple domains of their lives’, and ‘informational and emotional support needs’.
Postpartum psychosis is a severe mental health condition which also impacts the woman's partner. Fathers experienced an array of emotions which they attributed to a lack of knowledge and understanding of postpartum psychosis. The development of appropriate support structures is needed to better support fathers in supporting their partners.
This review adhered to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis statement and ENTREQ reporting guidelines.
There was no patient or public contribution.
Fathers play a pivotal role in supporting their partner who has postpartum psychosis, and a supportive father has a positive impact on the mental health of the mother. Several qualitative studies have explored fathers' experiences of their partners' psychosis. This QES integrated findings from these studies to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of the father's experience.
Fathers reported a significant sense of loss across multiple domains of their lives, from a perceived loss of their relationship with their partner to a loss of the future they had planned together. Fathers experienced an array of emotions, such as fear and shock which they attributed to their lack of knowledge and awareness of postpartum psychosis.
This review provides a deeper insight and understanding into the father's experiences and perspectives of their partners' postpartum psychosis. This insight can inform healthcare professionals and policymakers in the development of appropriate support structures which meet the needs of this population. The provision of appropriate support structures could have a positive impact on the father's well-being and ability to support their partner.
To create a programme theory of family engagement in paediatric acute care to explicate the relationships between contexts and mechanisms of family engagement that align with family, direct care providers and healthcare organization outcomes.
Realist review and synthesis.
PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science searches for the 2.5-year period (July 2019–December 2021) following our 2021 scoping review.
Following methods described by Pawson and Rycroft-Malone, we defined the scope of the review, searched for and appraised the evidence, extracted and synthesized study findings and developed a supporting narrative of our results.
Of 316 initial citations, 101 were included in our synthesis of the final programme theory. Contexts included family and direct care provider individualism, and the organizational care philosophy and environment. Mechanisms were family presence, family enactment of a role in the child's care, direct care providers facilitating a family role in the child's care, unit/organizational promotion of a family role, relationship building and mutually beneficial partnerships. Outcomes were largely family-focussed, with a paucity of organizational outcomes studied. We identified four context–mechanism–outcome configurations.
This realist review uncovered underlying contexts and mechanisms between patients, direct care providers and organizations in the family engagement process and key components of a mutually beneficial partnership. Given that successful family engagement requires direct care provider and organizational support, future research should expand beyond family outcomes to include direct care providers, particularly nurses and healthcare organization outcomes.
The final programme theory of family engagement in paediatric acute care provides a roadmap for clinicians to develop complex interventions to engage families and evaluate their impact. The components of our final programme theory reflect family engagement concepts that have been evolving for decades.
The team conducting this review included members from the practice setting (JT & KG). In the future, as we and others use this model in practice, we will seek input for refinement from clinicians, patients and caregivers.
To explore registered nurses' cultural orientation competence profiles for providing culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) nurses with orientation in the hospital setting, and to identify which factors are associated with cultural orientation competence profiles.
A descriptive, explorative cross-sectional study.
Data were collected from December 2020 to January 2021 using the Preceptors' Orientation Competence Instrument (POCI) and Preceptors' Cultural Orientation Competence Instrument (POCCI). A total of 844 registered nurses from one university hospital district in Finland participated, reflecting a response rate of 10%. A K-means cluster algorithm was employed to identify different cultural orientation competence profiles.
The cluster analysis identified three cultural orientation competence profiles (A, B and C). Nurses in Profile A evaluated their cultural orientation competence the highest, with members of profiles B and C demonstrating the second highest and lowest, respectively, cultural orientation competence scores. Several factors were associated with cultural orientation competence profiles, namely, orientation education and student mentoring education, support from managers and colleagues, motivation, willingness to act as a preceptor, time to provide orientation, sufficient clinical and theoretical nursing skills and current work title.
Cultural diversity and acceptance of it can be enhanced by building accepting culture towards new incomers and offering continuing education to improve the cultural competence of staff, which can further benefit patient care of CALD patients. Orientation practices can be improved by rewarding staff and building collaborative teamwork culture.
Organizations can strengthen nurses' cultural orientation competence; for example, by providing adequate orientation education and allocating more time to the orientation process.
The STROBE criteria were used to report the results of the observations critically.
No patient or public contribution.
To explore how nurses' professional discretion is operationalized in home care services that follow a purchaser–provider organization in Norway.
A qualitative descriptive study.
Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were used, and data were collected from in-depth interviews with 15 registered nurses working in home care in four Norwegian local authority areas between April and November 2020. Braun and Clark's six-step analysis was used to analyse the empirical data.
The analysis yielded two main themes, namely ‘The purchaser's instructions: facilitating and constraining care’ and ‘Professional discretion meets the purchaser–provider organisation of healthcare,’ with five associated codes.
Nurses are dependent on an organizational framework due to the complexity of health care services and the number of tasks involved. At the same time, they perform considerable compensatory work and need the ability to be flexible to enable this work and to perform actions related to the unforeseen needs of individual patients or those involving professional discretion.
The purchaser–provider model both facilitates and constrains nursing practice and professional responsibility in home nursing. Home nursing services need to be well organized because of their complexity and the wide variety of tasks they involve. In this context, the element of constraint is associated with the need for flexibility and professional discretion. Despite a strict framework, the nurses perform additional and compensatory tasks. Reforms inspired by ‘New Public Management,’ such as the purchaser–provider split, limit the workload for nurses; however, there is still a need to exercise discretion. The findings of this study may help home care managers and health policy-makers understand the interaction between management logic and health care logic, leading to a more appropriate organization of health care services where the nurses, as actors, gain more trust.
This study highlights home care nurses' opportunities to exercise discretion in an organizational framework that strives towards standardization. The nurses' ability to exercise discretion is important for individual and holistic patient care. At the same time, an organizational framework is needed because nurses cannot attend to all the needs the patients may have, as this will overload both home health services and the nurses.
To investigate how NGNs perceived and applied an intervention for preventing stress-related ill health embedded in a transition-to-practice programme when entering their professional life.
A qualitative exploratory descriptive design was selected for this study to gain insights and perspectives on the adoption and utilization of the intervention.
In this qualitative methodology process evaluation, semi-structured and audio-recorded interviews were conducted with a sample of 49 nurses. Data were collected between December 2016 and July 2017, and were sorted in NVivo 12 Plus, followed by thematic analysis.
The analysis resulted in three change processes stimulated by the intervention: (a) Building acceptance of being new; (b) Gaining insight into professional development and health and (c) Practical steps for skills development, healthy habits and better-organized work. In addition to the three themes, barriers that hindered the progression of the processes were also described. Each process influenced the development of the others by stimulating a deeper understanding, motivation to change and courage to act. Several barriers were identified, including the use of cognitively demanding intervention tools, fatigue, high work demands, inconvenient work hours and a hostile social climate on the ward.
This process evaluation showed that newly graduated nurses used knowledge from the intervention and adopted new behaviours largely in accordance with how the intervention was intended to work.
When entering a new profession, it is crucial to receive a well-thought-out, structured and targeted introduction to the new professional role, tasks and work group. Nurses stated that the intervention increased their understanding of the role as new nurses and their insight into how to develop skills that promoted better functioning and recovery. The intervention also stimulated the development of new health behaviour and some new learning strategies.
To explore the impact of structural and intermediary social determinants of health (SDoH) on Californian adults' mental health during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This cross-sectional study used data from the 2020 cycle of the California Health Interview Survey, the largest US state-level population health survey.
Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyse the data. Using a general social determinant of health framework, we operationalized different survey questions to measure structural and intermediary determinants of mental health.
Mental health during the early phase of COVID-19 among adults in California was associated with age, gender, health conditions, delayed care, employment status (loss of job or reduced income) and discrimination. People in higher social strata were more likely to have better mental health for many of these factors.
This study supports the assertion that material circumstances (such as employment status) and discrimination are associated with experiencing mental health issues among adults in California during COVID-19. Racism is a public health issue, and as nurses, addressing racism is critical. In addition, much work is needed to address SDoH to improve health outcomes, especially among marginalized populations.
This study addressed the knowledge gap concerning the social determinants of mental health among Californian adults during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who had reduced income and those who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic were 46% and 56%, respectively, more likely to report mental health problems. Those who experienced discrimination in healthcare were 304% more likely to report mental health issues. This research will increase the understanding of the social determinants of health, particularly for those with chronic illnesses and mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
No patient or public contribution, as we used an existing US state dataset. However, California Health Interview Survey is the largest state health survey in the United States and interviews more than 20,000 households each year representing the health care needs of Californians.