The Perceptions of Children and Adolescents with Cancer Regarding Nurses' Communication Behaviors during Needle Procedures.

Background: Communicating with children and adolescents with cancer during a needle procedure can prove challenging for healthcare professionals. Objective: Our aim was to explore the perceptions of children and adolescents with cancer regarding communication with nurses during needle procedures. Method: Thus was a qualitative phenomenological study. Data were gathered through seven in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of children and adolescents with cancer. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to identify themes in the participants' narratives. Results: The analysis revealed three themes describing participants' experience: (1) nurses need to explain clearly what they are going to do while also allowing children to express their emotions without feeling coerced; (2) nurses need to be honest and approachable and relate to children as active participants in the treatment process; and (3) it is distressing to hear other children who are undergoing a needle procedure cry out in pain. Further application of the constant comparison method yielded a core theme: (4) the pressures faced by oncology nurses lead them to focus on the technical side of procedures at the expense of their young patients' communication needs. Conclusions: We suggest that hospital managers need to ensure that oncology nurses have sufficient training in communication skills and are confident in their ability to respect and respond to the communication preferences and needs of patients.

Spiritual pain as part of the hospitalization experience of children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A phenomenological study.

PURPOSE: To explore the experience of hospitalization among children and adolescents in treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. METHODS: Qualitative phenomenological study informed by grounded theory and involving a convenience sample of children and adolescents attending an oncology unit in Spain. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with seven children aged between 9 and 18 years and analyzed using ATLAS.Ti 7.1. software in order to identify themes in the participants' narratives. Specific strategies were applied to support the validity and reliability of the findings. RESULTS: The analysis of interviews revealed three themes in the participants' accounts of their experience of hospitalization: 1) It's normal to feel afraid when being treated in hospital; 2) Needle procedures are associated with pain, illness, and dying; and 3) Difficulty of expressing the suffering that is experienced in hospital. CONCLUSIONS: A core experience among children and adolescents who are hospitalized for cancer treatment is the spiritual pain that results from feeling afraid. These fears are especially associated with the needle procedures that are routinely performed in the diagnosis and treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Long-Term Care Facilities and Nursing Homes during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of the Perspectives of Professionals, Families and Residents.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions for nursing home residents, their families, and professionals. The objective was to describe the perspectives of residents, their families, and nursing home employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. A scoping review was carried out using the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. The inclusion criteria were: qualitative and/or mixed methods studies in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The review covers studies published from 11 March 2020 to 15 February 2021. CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, British Nursing Index, Proquest, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar databases were used. We conducted a systematic narrative synthesis, presenting the results narratively and showing descriptive statistics on the studies reviewed. Sixteen documents were obtained from 175 results. Two studies focused on residents and one on their families. The remaining studies looked at professionals. Nursing homes had great difficulty managing resources, which was exacerbated by emotional exhaustion among residents, employees, and family members. In nursing homes, creative initiatives and new forms of leadership appeared to meet emerging needs during the pandemic. The results of the study show the impact of the pandemic on nursing homes and the response capacity present among residents, family members, and professionals.

Personal tutoring in nursing studies: A supportive relationship experience aimed at integrating, curricular theory and professional practice.

The goal of personal tutoring is not only to guide future nurse practitioners in all aspects of their professional development in the academic context, but to support their development for nursing practice as well. The aim of this study is to explore how nursing students and personal tutors experience the process of personal tutoring. This was a qualitative study using educational action research methodology and convenience sampling, taking into account the criteria of maximum variation and theoretical saturation. Data were gathered through focus groups conducted separately with nursing students and personal tutors. The analysis revealed three categories that described the participants' experience of personal tutoring: tutoring as a supportive relationship that includes pastoral care; the personal tutor as a professional who links theory and practice; group meetings as an opportunity for peer support and learning. Personal tutoring is perceived by students and tutors as a supportive relationship that contributes to both the personal and the professional development of future nurse practitioners.

Development and psychometric properties of the assessment questionnaire for the process of the tutorial action plan.

BACKGROUND: Internationally, most countries recognize the right of the student to receive assistance from teachers and tutors. The Tutorial Action Plan is a teaching tool that aims to promote academic, personal, and professional development in students. It is important to monitor this process of tutoring to be able to provide appropriate guidance to nursing students throughout their education. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to design and validate an instrument to measure and monitor nursing students' perceptions of the Tutorial Action Plan process. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in two phases. The first consisted of the development of the Assessment Questionnaire for the Process of the Tutorial Action Plan through discussion groups and participant consensus. With 35 items related to the tutoring process, the questionnaire was designed to monitor the impact of that process. The items were grouped into four dimensions: Usefulness of the Tutorial Action Plan, Opinion about Tutor and Development of the Tutorial, Development of the Degree Final Project, and Usefulness and Completeness of the Learning Folder. In the second phase the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated, utilizing a sample of 410 nursing students. Reliability was measured by means of internal consistency, and construct validity was measured by means of confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.93, ranging from 0.73 to 0.92 for the dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model fitted a four-factor structure. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the Assessment Questionnaire for the Process of the Tutorial Action Plan is a valid and reliable assessment tool. This instrument is essential in monitoring the impact of tutoring of nursing students throughout their time in the program, both from a global perspective of the construct of tutoring and from the perspectives of the four dimensions identified.