The COVID-19 Lived Experience Through the Eyes of Nursing and Social Work Students.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of nursing and social work students who were taking courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus group discussions gave students a chance to express the pandemic's effects on their education and life. Methods: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach using Van Manen's Four Lifeworld Existentials guided this study. Using an open-ended format, interviews were conducted in 6 small groups ranging from 2 to 9 individuals, in person or via Zoom. The study was conducted from May to August 2022 in a university setting with 23 participants. Results: Ten existential themes emerged: Being Behind, Groundhog Day, Trying to Keep Up, Loss of Community, Fear of COVID, Being Alone, What is Self-Care?, Is This Career Right for Me?, What is Healthy?, and Access to Counseling. Conclusions: Participants indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted educational delivery, limiting learning opportunities and increasing feelings of isolation, stress, and anxiety. Implications for Education and the Future Workforce: Projected health-care workforce shortages may be exacerbated by students departing from the health-care professions as a result of increased burnout. Resilience training while in school is necessary to help promote coping, self-care strategies, and retention in the health-care professions.

Introducing nursing students to pediatric end-of-life issues using simulation.

This article describes the first pediatric death experienced by a 20-year-old nurse. This was a disturbing experience that led to the development of strategies as a faculty member to use when teaching nursing students about pediatric end-of-life issues using simulation. This article describes those strategies.

Alleviating perinatal depressive symptoms and stress: a nurse-community health worker randomized trial.

To determine whether a Nurse-Community Health Worker (CHW) home visiting team, in the context of a Medicaid enhanced prenatal/postnatal services (EPS), would demonstrate greater reduction of depressive symptoms and stress and improvement of psychosocial resources (mastery, self-esteem, social support) when compared with usual Community Care (CC) that includes Medicaid EPS delivered by professionals. Greatest program benefits were expected for women who reported low psychosocial resources, high stress, or both at the time of enrollment. Medicaid eligible pregnant women (N = 613) were randomly assigned to either usual CC or the Nurse-CHW team. Mixed effects regression was used to analyze up to five prenatal and postnatal psychosocial assessments. Compared to usual CC, assignment to the Nurse-CHW team resulted in significantly fewer depressive symptoms, and as hypothesized, reductions in depressive symptoms were most pronounced for women with low psychosocial resources, high stress, or both high stress and low resources. Outcomes for mastery and stress approached statistical significance, with the women in the Nurse-CHW group reporting less stress and greater mastery. Women in the Nurse-CHW group with low psychosocial resources reported significantly less perceived stress than women in usual CC. No differences between the groups were found for self-esteem and social support. A Nurse-CHW team approach to EPS demonstrated advantage for alleviating depressive symptoms in Medicaid eligible women compared to CC, especially for women at higher risk.

Addressing mental health and stress in Medicaid-insured pregnant women using a nurse-community health worker home visiting team.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the conceptual framework and program features of a nurse-community health worker (CHW) team home visiting intervention, the trial design to test the program, and the results of a comparative evaluation of prenatal program participation. DESIGN: In the context of a community-based, randomized trial, we compared participation in a nurse-CHW team intervention with the standard community care that included a state Medicaid program (enhanced prenatal services) with nurse home visiting. SAMPLE: Medicaid-eligible pregnant women (n=530), who maintained their pregnancies, had a live birth, retained custody of the child, completed more than an enrollment assessment, did not move out of the county, and were not lost to follow-up. MEASUREMENTS: Provider reports of face-to-face prenatal contacts and demographic and psychosocial risk assessments obtained at study enrollment. RESULTS: Significant differences in the number of women with prenatal program contact and the total amount of contact were found, favoring the nurse-CHW team approach. More women with risk characteristics were reached in the nurse-CHW team group, with the exception of women with alcohol and drug use risks. CONCLUSIONS: A nurse-CHW team approach demonstrated advantage in reaching women who had barriers to participation and delivering more intensive services.