Nurses' experiences of being recruited and transferred to a new sub-intensive care unit devoted to COVID-19 patients.

AIM: To describe the experiences of Italian nurses who have been urgently and compulsorily allocated to a newly established COVID-19 sub-intensive care unit. BACKGROUND: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, no studies have documented the experience of nurses urgently reallocated to a newly created unit. METHOD: A qualitative descriptive study. Twenty-four nurses working in a sub-intensive care unit created for COVID-19 patients participated in four focus groups. Audio-recorded interviews were verbatim-transcribed; then, a thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: The experience of nurses was summarized along three lines: (a) 'becoming a frontline nurse', (b) 'living a double-faced professional experience' and (c) 'advancing in nursing practice'. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses who experienced being mandatorily recruited and urgently reallocated to a COVID-19 unit lived through a mix of negative feelings in the early stages, a double-faced situation during the episode and, at the end, the perception of global growth as a person, as a team and as a professional. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse managers could play a key role in identifying and preparing nurses in advance to mitigate their concerns and their sense of unpreparedness. The value attributed to nursing care should be promoted both during and after the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Missed nursing care in a long-term rehabilitation setting: findings from a cross-sectional study.

Background: There is a growing amount of literature that links missed nursing care (MNC) to negative patient outcomes, reduced patient safety and poor quality of care. However, only few studies have investigated this phenomenon in long-term rehabilitation settings.Aim: To explore MNC occurrence, type, reasons and predictors in three rehabilitation units.Design: A cross-sectional study was performed between August and September 2017.Method: 95 registered nurses and nursing assistants completed section A (interventions missed) and section B (perceived reasons for MNC) of the MISSCARE Survey tool. Descriptive, bivariate and linear regression analyses were performed.Findings: The top missed elements were patient ambulation (score 2.4 out of 5, Standard Deviation [SD] 0.8), mouth care (2.3, SD 0.8) and participation to multidisciplinary meetings (2.3, SD 1.1). Lack of personnel was the most frequent reason reported for MNC with a score of 2.9 out of 4 (SD 0.9). At the linear regression analysis, advanced nursing education (ß = 3.58, CI 95% 1.32-5.84) and inadequate handovers (ß = 3.64, CI 95% 0.37-6.91) both increased the perception of MNC occurrence.Conclusion: MNC occurrence in rehabilitation settings appears to be lower than in other contexts; however, the most commonly missed elements are similar to those reported in other settings. As good strategies to detect the difference between expected nursing care and the one delivered to patients, advanced education and good quality handovers seem beneficial. Further research is needed to establish more evidence on predictors by developing longitudinal study designs.