Experiences of new nurses dealing with death in a paediatric setting: A descriptive qualitative study.

AIMS: To explore and describe the experiences, challenges and coping strategies of new nurses dealing with paediatric death in a clinical setting. DESIGN: A descriptive qualitative study design was used. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the experiences of 12 new paediatric nurses from a tertiary public hospital in Singapore. Data were collected from September 2019-December 2019. A thematic analysis was performed for data analysis. RESULTS: Four themes were generated: (a) a spectrum of emotions; (b) the 'blame' game; (c) getting through the grief; and (d) new nurses' wish list. The new nurses tended to be emotionally affected by their first death experience. They felt anxious and personally responsible for the death but eventually controlled their emotions. Colleagues, religion and self-actualization were key in overcoming grief. CONCLUSION: The experiences nurses go through at the early stages of their profession shape future workplace attitudes. Additional training and support should be provided to new nurses to build their confidence in managing end-of-life care. Training should include cultural awareness and communication skills to equip nurses with the necessary skills. IMPACT: This research will have an impact on institutions, which develop culturally congruent training and support platforms that prepare new nurses for nursing practice. This research will drive future investigations on the long-term effects of paediatric death on new nurses.

Associations between sleep patterns, smoking, and alcohol use among older adults in Canada: Insights from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Poor sleep is associated with chronic health conditions among older adults. As substance use rates increase in this population, age-related physiological and cognitive declines may exacerbate its detrimental consequences, including sleep problems. We analyzed cross-sectional associations between sleep patterns, smoking, and alcohol use using baseline data from 30,097 community-dwelling Canadian adults aged 45-85 years from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Insomnia symptoms (difficulties falling/staying asleep), sleep duration (short:<6h; long:>8h), and sleep satisfaction(dissatisfied/neutral/satisfied) were measured. Smoking and alcohol-use frequency (past 12 months), average daily amount (past 30 days), and binge drinking (past 12 months) were self-reported, and associations were examined using modified Poisson regression. Approximately 23% of participants had insomnia symptoms, and 26% reported sleep dissatisfaction. 91% of participants were current non-smokers, whereas 7% reported smoking daily. Over 50% drank ≤ 2 drinks daily, and 3% reported binge drinking. There was a higher adjusted prevalence of insomnia among daily smokers (PR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.00-1.21) and binge drinkers (PR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.02-1.43). Odds of short sleep duration were lower among regular drinkers (COR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.56-0.90) and higher among daily smokers (COR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.01-1.40). Heavy and frequent smoking and alcohol use are associated with both insomnia symptoms and sleep dissatisfaction, but not consistently with sleep duration. Further longitudinal investigation of this relationship in aging populations is needed in clinical and public health settings to infer the extent of causality and design effective public health interventions in this vulnerable population.

Use of an Electronic Feeds Calorie Calculator in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Strategies to improve nutritional management are associated with better outcomes in pediatric intensive care units. We implemented a calorie-based protocol that integrated an electronic feeds calculator and stepwise feeds increment algorithm. METHODS: Using a pretest-posttest design, we compared the effectiveness of the calorie-based protocol with an existing fluid-based protocol in a quality improvement project. The main outcome measure was the proportion of patients prescribed with the appropriate amount of calories (defined as 90%-110% of calculated energy requirements). Nurses were surveyed on their satisfaction with the new calorie-based protocol. We compared consecutive patients enrolled in the calorie-based protocol over 21 months with retrospective data of patients in the fluid-based protocol. χ 2 and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare categorical and continuous variables, respectively. RESULTS: We enrolled 75 and 92 patients in the fluid-based (pre) and calorie-based (post) protocols, respectively. Both groups did not differ in their age, reasons for pediatric intensive care units admissions, length of stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, and risks of mortality. The frequency of appropriate feeds prescription increased (16.0% versus 33.7%, P = 0.002). The new protocol significantly reduced the time from protocol initiation to full feeds (median: 18.0 hours, interquartile range = 18.0-27.5 versus median: 12.8 hours, interquartile range = 12.0-16.0, P < 0.001). The satisfaction surveys (n = 63) revealed favorable nursing perceptions. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a calorie-based protocol with an electronic calculator led to an improvement in the accuracy of the prescribed feeds and the time required to attain full enteral feeding. Nursing perceptions regarding the protocol were positive.