Nurse workforce scheduling: A qualitative study of Indonesian nurse managers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: The increase in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has resulted in changes in the hospital workflow, including the staffing process and scheduling, especially in the isolation units. Nurse managers are working hard in the scheduling system to ensure high-quality care is provided with the best human resources. Objective: This study aimed to explore the experiences of nurse managers in managing staff nurses’ work schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used in this study. Eleven nurse managers from three COVID-19 referral hospitals were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected using online semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis, and data were presented using a thematic tree. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used as a reporting guideline of the study. Results: Four themes were developed: (i) Nurse shortage, (ii) Strategically looking for ways to fulfill the workforce, (iii) Change of shift schedule, and (iv) Expecting guidance from superiors and compliance from staff. Conclusion: The lack of nurse staff is a problem during a pandemic. Thus, managing personnel effectively, mobilizing and rotating, and recruiting volunteers are strategies to fulfill the workforce during the pandemic. Using a sedentary shift pattern and sufficient holidays could prevent nurses from falling ill and increase compliance with scheduling. In addition, a staffing calculation formula is needed, and top nursing managers are suggested to provide guidance or direction to the head nurses to reduce confusion in managing the work schedule during the pandemic.

student-run free clinic project: lessons in compassion, community, and courage

For 25 years, UC San Diego Student-Run Free Clinic Project has provided free high-quality care to underserved communities, while inspiring the next generation of health professionals. Free thorough ongoing care is provided in community settings to people who have nowhere to turn and do not qualify for access to care. The clinic philosophy has four tenets: empowerment - creating environments where patients take charge of their lives and achieve wellbeing, a humanistic approach - embodying Rogerian principles of empathy, respect, and self-awareness, a transdisciplinary model, one where the patient and community are the teacher. This philosophy permeates the life of the clinic. These values are taught, modeled, expected, and observed in curricular components throughout the four years of medical school. 250 medical, 75 pharmacy, and 100 predental students are involved each year as well as students in law, social work, and acupuncture. Students learn to be healers, artists, teachers as they become health professionals. At each clinic session student leaders gather the team in a large circle, and lead a sharing of recent stories and experiences reflecting the core tenets. All work is directly supervised by licensed clinicians, many of whom were once free clinic students. During the era of COVID, care became virtual. Promotors helped patients learn to use Zoom to receive care. Visit attendance increased to 100%. Our Spanish language empowerment group met online. The clinic already provided healthy food bags to patients at medical visits. Students and volunteers organized to deliver food and medication to people’s homes.

Professional Values in Guiding Professional Behavior of Nurses: A Phenomenological Study

Introduction: Nurses must have knowledge and awareness concerning professional values as standards to provide safe and high-quality care. Objective: The study aimed to explore the professional’s value in directing nurses’ behavior. Method: A qualitative study design with a phenomenology approach was applied in this study. We involved ten nurses with ten years of working experience and acting as role models in nurse managers. The data analysis used the Colaizzi method. We found the professional nursing values among nurses, including human dignity, integrity, professional practice, altruism, and compassion. Dimensions that underlying the professional values are knowledge, skill, and attitude. Results: The following four themes reflected how to apply nurses value: 1) Competence in facing challenges; 2 Nurses provided services based on knowledge and skills, a sense of help and compassion for love as a form of worship and commitment to the profession; 3) feeling satisfied in undergoing the nurse profession; 4) expectations of professional development. Professional nurses have a positive attitude and a hope for professional development. Conclusion: The hospital could improve nursing education and research by providing evidence-based practices for self-development. Recommendation: Nurse managers also can provide services based on science, skills, and attitudes as a form of worship and commitment to the profession, becoming a role model for the nurse-led

Does de-implementation of low-value care impact the patient-clinician relationship? A mixed methods study

Background The importance of reducing low-value care (LVC) is increasingly recognized, but the impact of de-implementation on the patient-clinician relationship is not well understood. This mixed-methods study explored the impact of LVC de-implementation on the patient-clinician relationship. Methods Adult primary care patients from a large Virginia health system volunteered to participate in a survey (n = 232) or interview (n = 24). Participants completed the Patient-Doctor Relationship Questionnaire (PDRQ-9) after reading a vignette about a clinician declining to provide a low-value service: antibiotics for acute sinusitis (LVC-antibiotics); screening EKG (LVC-EKG); screening vitamin D test (LVC-vitamin D); or an alternate vignette about a high-value service, and imagining that their own primary care clinician had acted in the same manner. A different sample of participants was asked to imagine that their own primary care clinician did not order LVC-antibiotics or LVC-EKG and then respond to semi-structured interview questions. Outcomes data included participant demographics, PDRQ-9 scores (higher score = greater relationship integrity), and content analysis of transcribed interviews. Differences in PDRQ-9 scores were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Data were integrated for analysis and interpretation. Results Although participants generally agreed with the vignette narrative (not providing LVC), many demonstrated difficulty comprehending the broad concept of LVC and potential harms. The topic triggered memories of negative experiences with healthcare (typically poor-quality care, not necessarily LVC). The most common recommendation for reducing LVC was for patients to take greater responsibility for their own health. Most participants believed that their relationship with their clinician would not be negatively impacted by denial of LVC because they trusted their clinician’s guidance. Participants emphasized that trusted clinicians are those who listen to them, spend time with them, and offer understandable advice. Some felt that not providing LVC would actually increase their trust in their clinician. Similar PDRQ-9 scores were observed for LVC-antibiotics (38.9), LVC-EKG (37.5), and the alternate vignette (36.4), but LVC-vitamin D was associated with a significantly lower score (31.2) (p < 0.05). Conclusions In this vignette-based study, we observed minimal impact of LVC de-implementation on the patient-clinician relationship, although service-specific differences surfaced. Further situation-based research is needed to confirm study findings.

Understanding Long-Term Outcomes of Public Health Strategy in Palliative Care at Micro Level: Impact of Home-Based Palliative Care Services under Local Self-Government Institutions in Kerala, India

Objectives: Palliative care units under Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs) are increasing in number in the state of Kerala, India, since the announcement of the Pain and Palliative Care Policy, 2008. Whether these units are functioning with a view to materialise the long-term objectives, following the guidelines stipulated by the Government of Kerala and serve the neediest patients with quality care are a matter of debate. Hence, a microlevel study of the palliative care unit is attempted. The aims of the study were to understand the extent to which the structure and nature of functioning of the Pain and Palliative Care Unit under LSGI comply with guidelines set by the Pain and Palliative Care Policy of the Government of Kerala and to check whether the palliative care services are reaching the needy and, if so, are they provided to patients in good quality. Materials and Methods: The award winning Pain and Palliative Care Unit attached to LSGI is selected for analysis and a hybrid research design is followed. Data are collected from 25 patients and their caregivers selected randomly. Mean score of satisfaction level on the basis of Quality care questionnaire -Palliative care is used. Results: Sample unit complies with the revised guidelines of 2015, Pain and Palliative Care Policy. It serves the neediest patients and the quality of care is satisfactory. Conclusion: The study reaffirms the strength of the public health model in palliative care which can provide quality care to the neediest patients.

Nurse competence in the post-anaesthesia care unit in Sweden: a qualitative study of the nurse’s perspective

Background To enable safe and successful recovery for surgery patients, nurses working in post-anaesthesia care units need competence in postoperative care. No consensus defines what this specific competence includes, and it has not been studied from the perspective of nurses working in post-anaesthesia care units. The aim of this study is twofold: 1) To explore and describe nurses’ perception of the competence needed to work in post-anaesthesia care units. 2) To explore and describe nurses’ perception of what characterizes an expert nurse in post-anaesthesia care units. Methods This qualitative inductive study uses individual interviews. Sixteen nurses were recruited from two post-anaesthesia care units located in different parts of Sweden. Inclusion criteria were nurses employed in the post-anaesthesia care units for ≥1 years. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted; data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results The interview analysis identified six subthemes and three themes. The themes being adaptable in an ever-changing environment and creating safe care represent the overarching meaning of competence required when working as a nurse in a Swedish post-anaesthesia care unit. Nurses must possess various technical and nontechnical skills, which are core competences that are described in the sub-themes. The theme seeing the bigger picture describes the nurse’s perception of an expert nurse in the post-anaesthesia care unit. Conclusions Nurse competence in post-anaesthesia care units entails specific knowledge, acknowledging the patient, and working proactively at a fast pace with the patient and team to provide safe, high-quality care. An expert nurse in post-anaesthesia care units can see the bigger picture, helping share knowledge and develop post-anaesthesia care. The expert competence to see a bigger picture can be used in supervising novices and creating a knowledge base for postgraduate education in order to promote safe, high-quality post-anaesthesia care.

Telemedicine in neonatal care-Saving lives with technology!

Madam, neonatal mortality in Pakistan i.e. death of babies within first twenty eight days of life is 49 per 1000 live births. Moreover, Pakistan contributes to 7% of global neonatal deaths. (1) Cause of mortality may be infection, intra-partum complications, prematurity or congenital birth defects but there is one thing common in all; majority of them occur in rural population due to lack of access to health care facilities. (2) With recent advances, role of tele-medicine has proved to be a milestone in field of medicine especially in underdeveloped and rural areas. According to World Health Organization (WHO), Telemedicine is defined as affordable use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for provision of health facilities and care. (3) A study done in Karachi in early 2020 by Ashfaq A et al showed average knowledge of telemedicine among clinicians and junior doctors, but we are still hopeful that since after the global pandemic of COVID-19, not just this knowledge has improved but also perceptions regarding telemedicine should have changed (4). In another study done in china by Makkar A. et al, they demonstrated the role of tele-medicine in not just tele-rounds of NICU but also successful e-examinations of Retinopathy of prematurity, tele-echocardiography, tele-NPR guidance to healthcare providers and family support. Moreover, home based care can be efficiently provided to preterm low birth weight babies including establishment of enteral feeding. (5) With a global shortage of physicians worldwide, lack of neonatologists is a major reason of neonatal referrals from rural areas and tele-medicine can give promising results in this regard. It can not only prevent unnecessary ambulation of tiny patients but also improve survival and quality care. Though under umbrella of private NGOs, tele-medicine is being started for satellite centers in few regions of country but obviously it doesn’t cover majority of population. It is high time to realize importance of Tele-medicine in periphery care setups. Though provision of equipment, installments of high quality ICT and infrastructure might seem a barrier in establishment of Tele-medicine but it can bring revolutionary improvement in neonatal care. It cannot just help reducing over burdening to tertiary care hospitals but also in avoiding hazards and cost of patient transfer.