Nursing care management based on the Omaha system for inpatients diagnosed with COVID-19: An electronic health record study.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to identify the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and the existing nursing problems based on the Omaha System, and to establish a comprehensive nursing care management plan by determining the nursing interventions and care outcomes. DESIGN: This study used a descriptive cross-sectional design. METHODS: This study was conducted in a training and research hospital with 25 non-intubated COVID-19 inpatients between 6 April and 13 May 2020 in Turkey. Data were collected using a Socio-demographic and Clinical Characteristics Form, the COVID-19 Response Separate Guidelines and the Omaha System and Nightingale Notes software. Data were analysed using descriptive statistical tests and the chi-square method. RESULTS: Using the Omaha System, it was shown that the patients' most common problems were communicable/infectious condition, respiration, circulation, pain, nutrition, personal care and substance use respectively. The most common signs and symptoms were signs of infection, fever, cough, respiratory distress and pain. The interventions that were performed most frequently to the patients included infection precautions, medication action/side effects, signs/symptoms-physical, dietary management and nursing care targets for intervention. These interventions were applied using the category of teaching, guidance and counselling. A significant improvement was observed in the patients' pre- and post-intervention knowledge, behaviour and status scores. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the Omaha System provided effective guidelines for diagnosing the problems, planning and implementing appropriate interventions for the COVID-19 patients. Therefore, it is recommended to use the Omaha System in nursing care of COVID-19 patients. IMPACT: This is the first study to identify the nursing problems of COVID-19 patients and to evaluate the outcomes of nursing interventions and care using an international taxonomy along with electronic health record software. The findings of this study can provide evidence-based guidelines addressing the nursing problems, interventions and outcomes of COVID-19 patients.

Mothers' depression and health-related quality of life in neuromuscular diseases: role of functional independence level of the children.

BACKGROUND: In the literature there have been studies about quality of life of parents who have children with chronic diseases. Most of these studies have focused on the stress of parents of children with neuromuscular disease (NMD), and there was no evidence to support hypothesized relationships between caregiving demands and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The aim of the present study was therefore to evaluate the relations between maternal depression and HRQOL and functional limitations of the children with NMD. METHODS: Forty children with a diagnosis of NMD and their mothers were included in the study. HRQOL of the mothers was assessed on the Turkish version of the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP); potential cases of depressive illness were identified on Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); and Wee-Functional Independence Measure (Wee-FIM) was used to evaluate of functional independence level of the children. RESULTS: It was found that mean total NHP score of the mothers was moderately correlated with the total FIM score and sphincter control of the child, and weakly correlated with the locomotion of the child (P < 0.001). There was moderate correlation between mothers' social isolation and children's sphincter control, social integration and total Wee-FIM score and a weak correlation between mobility and communication scores (P < 0.001). In contrast there was no correlation between BDI scores of mothers and Wee-FIM scores of children (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The functional level of children with NMD is one of the factors that affect the quality of life of mothers.

Attitudes of students of health sciences towards the older persons.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare attitudes towards the elderly of Turkish students of various disciplines in health sciences at the level of associate and bachelor degree. METHODS: 685 students participated in this descriptive study. Data were collected with a questionnaire administered to the students and the Turkish version of Kogan's Attitudes Towards Old People Scale (KAOP). Statistical evaluation of the data was included in percentage, mean, median, t-test, and one-way variance analysis. RESULTS: The average age of the students was 20.91±2.25years, and mean and median scores of KAOP for these students were 131.21±14.403 and 130, respectively. The attitudes of physiotherapy students towards older people were better than students in other health disciplines (p<0.05), and there were no differences in the attitudes of health science students towards the older persons in eastern and western cities of Turkey (p<0.05). DISCUSSION: The attitudes of the health science professionals of tomorrow towards older people should be evaluated currently to be able to improve the provision of health care standards and to prevent possible negative beliefs and opinions in the future.

Serum leptin levels in children receiving long-term carbamazepine.

In this article we studied serum leptin levels in children receiving long-term carbamazepine (CBZ) therapy (mean 3.4 years) to determine whether or not there was a relationship between serum leptin level and CBZ therapy. The study includes 14 patients followed with the diagnosis of epilepsy and treated long term CBZ, and 19 healthy children. Only two (14%) patients complained about overeating and weight gain. We did not find any significant difference for age, sex, body mass index and serum leptin levels between the study and control groups (p > 0.05). If a markedly weight gain was seen in the study group, a higher levels of serum leptin could be expected. Additionally, there was not a relationship between serum leptin and CBZ levels (r: 0.48; p > 0.05). Our preliminary findings showed that long-term use of CBZ did not cause markedly weight gain in childhood and serum leptin levels did not differ from the control subjects. We think that more extensive studies should be performed about this subject.