Journal of Caring Sciences
Volume:11 Issue: 2, May 2022

The period of transition from nursing student to professional nurse is demanding. Most often the challenges among the novice nurses are attributed to the number of patients with complex illness and co-morbidities, inaccessible mentors, performance anxiety, communication difficulties, and blame/complaint culture. Transitional challenges could result in work dissatisfaction forcing novice nursing graduates to quit their jobs that result in a high turnover rate. The study aimed to identify the transitional challenges among new nursing graduates and the role of preceptor in various transitional challenges.

The study adopted descriptive correlational design. The data were collected from 314 participants working in six different tertiary level public hospitals situated in six states of India. Casey-Fink graduate nurse experience survey-revised was used to collect the data and methods of this study were in line with the guidelines of Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE). Descriptive and Inferential statistics were calculated using SPSS software version 16.

The study found that new nursing graduates are uncomfortable in performing numerous procedures independently and in accordance with them increased support would help them feel more supported or integrated into the unit. The study also found positive relationship between preceptor support and organizing and prioritizing, communication/leadership, professional satisfaction, and job satisfaction.

New nursing graduates experience various challenges during their transition period in the areas of role expectation, confidence, workload, orientation, and fears. The preceptors and the nursing administrators needs to bring forth significant strategies to address these challenges.

Women’s physical and mental health and their mortality at reproductive age depend on fertility behaviors, delivery, and its complications. Unintended pregnancy is a risk to the life of women at reproductive age. The present study aimed to compare maternal and neonatal attachment in intended and unintended pregnancies after the mother and baby skin-to-skin contact immediately after delivery (first hour) and 24 hours after that.

This analytical case-control study was performed on 140 women who gave birth in the hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The subjects were categorized into groups of intended and unintended pregnancy. Skin-to-skin contact of the mother and baby was done for 15 minutes in the recovery room at the first hour and 24 hours after birth. Then, the Avant’s questionnaire of mother-infant attachment behaviors was completed. Data were analyzed using SPSS ver.13.

The mean (SD) attachment score in the first hours in intended pregnancy was 84.22 (12.59), which was higher than that in unintended pregnancy 74.28 (15.81), indicating a significant difference. However, after 24 hours of delivery, there was no significant difference between the two groups. During the first hours after delivery, there was a significant difference in the total score of the emotional behaviors and care between the two groups.

Maternal and infant skin contact during lactation increased attachment after 24 hours in unintended pregnancy, while in the first hours after delivery, attachment decreased in these pregnancies.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a prevalent condition among older adults’ hospitalizations leading to psychological complications. Nursing care is the longest intervention the patient receives. This study evaluated the relationship between nursing care quality and anxiety and depression among old patients with CVD.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional correlational study that included 250 old patients with CVD admitted to an ‘age-friendly hospital’. Using the convenience sampling method. The data collection tools included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Quality Patient Care Scale (QUALPACS). Data were collected through conducting interviews and analyzed in SPSS ver.13 via statistical tests such as correlation coefficients, independent t-test, and ANOVA.

Overall, 229 (91.6%) of patients received the desired nursing care quality. The mean (SD) scores for anxiety were 1.52 (1.14) and depression 2.18 (1.51), indicating a less than average hospital anxiety and depression. There was an inverse correlation between anxiety and nursing care quality.

A combination of high-quality nursing care and clinical governance criteria in an age-friendly hospital can reduce anxiety in old patients.

Given that children in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) are more vulnerable to safety risks, health care officials are required to identify the weaknesses and strengths of care and ensure the safety of these children. In this study, the safety status in PICUs of selected educational children’s hospitals in Tehran, Iran, was examined and compared with standards proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In this descriptive study, the performance of nurses with a bachelor’s degree or higher and minimum work experience of six months in the PICU was examined. The study environment included four selected educational hospitals located in Tehran, Iran. Data collection tools were eight safety observation checklists based on the safety standards of WHO. Data collection took five months and the nurses’ performance was categorized into three groups of undesirable, relatively desirable, and desirable. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 13, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis.

Consistency of nursing care for the safety of hospitalized children was found undesirable in hand hygiene in accordance with the WHO standards. Nurses’ performance was relatively desirable in the fields of being more cautious about drugs with similar names or spelling to avoid medication errors, communication during patient hand-over, and performance of correct procedure at correct body site. Regarding other fields, the consistency was at a desirable level.

Children’s safety in the PICUs is not desirable in terms of observing health codes and there is a long way to go to meet the international standards.

Praxis is a process of applying knowledge in nursing practice to advance emancipatory goals in society and in the world and to eliminate any injustice and discrimination in care. Praxis requires the coherent application of patterns of knowing in nursing practice; however, understanding nursing knowledge is complex and using experiential knowledge alone cannot help us achieve it. The aim of this study was to determine the factors involved in praxis in nursing practice.

The method adopted was qualitative. The researcher interviewed 19 nurses and attended eight observation sessions in different hospital departments. The findings were analyzed using conventional content analysis.

Findings from analyzing interviews and observations indicated that desirable and humanistic attributes and effective nurse-patient communication are facilitators of praxis. In contrast, prejudice, occupational barriers, negative thoughts, and discriminatory beliefs are barriers of praxis in nursing practice.

If we consider praxis as the simultaneous application of all patterns of knowing alongside efforts to create social justice, factors that drive nurse performance toward social justice, facilitate praxis, and factors that contribute to varied degrees of discrimination and injustice, inhibit praxis. By identifying these factors, nurses may identify and eliminate social justice barriers to care.

Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs have been suggested to treat preeclampsia. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the efficacy of probiotic or synbiotic supplementation on hypertensive disorders in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

The databases including Cochrane, Embase, Ovid, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed were systematically searched for collecting the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the efficacy of probiotic or synbiotic supplementation versus placebo on hypertensive disorders and pregnancy outcomes in GDM until July 2020.

Five RCTs with a total sample size of 402 women were included in the meta-analysis. There was no significant decline in systolic blood pressure (standardized mean difference [SMD]=-3.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]=-8.32 to 1.50, P=0.17), diastolic blood pressure (SMD=-5.11, 95% CI=-14.20 to -3.98, P=0.27), preeclampsia (odds ratio [OR]=1.56, 95% CI=0.61 to 3.98, P=0.35), cesarean section (OR=0.52, 95% CI=0.18 to 1.50, P=0.23), and macrosomia (OR=0.81, 95% CI=0.41 to 1.57, P=0.53). No significant increase was observed in terms of 5-minute Apgar (SMD=0.16, 95% CI=-0.06 to 0.39, P=0.15, I2=0%), birth weight (SMD=-0.18, 95% CI=-0.43 to 0.06, P=0.13, I2=0%), and gestational age (SMD=0.13, 95% CI=-0.11 to 0.37, P=0.28, I2=0%).

Probiotic or synbiotic supplements are not associated with significant effects on pregnancy outcomes in GDM. However, due to the limited number of studies in this regard and heterogeneity between studies, future high-quality RCTs are recommended.

Preconception care is defined as a set of interventions that aim to identify and modify biomedical, behavioral, and social risks to a woman’s health or pregnancy outcome through risk assessment, health promotion, and medical and psychosocial interventions. This study aimed to review the status, policies, and programs of preconception risk assessment in Iran.

We searched scientific databases including Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, Magiran, Iran Medex, SID, Iran Doc, Science Direct, and Google Scholar using key words such as "preconception care", "pre-pregnancy care", "instruction", "guideline", "risk assessment", "program", "policy", "Iran" and their combinations. No time limit was considered in searching the databases and all studies were published until February 1, 2020. Our search strategy resulted in the retrieval of 66 articles and guidelines, of which nine articles met the inclusion criteria and entered the study.

Multiple guidelines have been designed to assess the general health of women and men of childbearing age, with pay little attention to the reproductive health assessment in Iran. Assessment of reproductive health is specific to the integrated maternal health care program, which the reproductive health risk assessment from pre-pregnancy to postpartum period. The preconception care is a component of integrated maternal health care program that is faced in its content and faces challenges in implementation.

Several strategies have been developed in the field of risk assessment for general health in Iran, but risk assessment in pre-pregnancy period is only exclusive to preconception care program that is moderate in performance.

The COVID-19 outbreak is a health emergency, in which health care personnel (HCP) face psychological consequences, working as frontline workers. Therefore, we conducted this study to find out associated psychological impacts among HCP during COVID-19 pandemic.

This systematic review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guideline. The reviewed studies were searched from PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL and Google scholar electronic database using the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms.

We searched through 2676 articles, 19 of which were finally included, most of them were cross-sectional and descriptive studies with 12910 participants. HCP were found to be exposed to a variety of psychological problems; anxiety symptoms were reported in 33% (3081 of 9269), depression 28% (2681 of 9487), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 41% (2933 of 7167), sleep problems 26% (903 of 3442), stress 13% (487 of 3496) and fear 67.3% (392 of 582). The severity of impacts was often mild to moderate. The nurses were twice as likely to develop these symptoms. The factors associated with psychological impacts were fear of infection to self and family members, lack of resources and facilities at workplace, demanding work conditions, working closely with COVID-19 clients in intensive care unit and pre-existing medical and psychological problems.

Psychological impacts was mild to moderate among majority of HCP during COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome of this review is to provide some utilitarian information for making supportive policies and strategies to improve the psychological wellbeing of frontline HCP during this pandemic.