Hypoglycaemia fear, treatment adherence, and the quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes and its determinants.

AIM: This work aims to evaluate the relationship between the fear of hypoglycaemia, treatment adherence, and the quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its determinants. METHODS: This descriptive and cross-sectional study sample recruited 1060 T2DM outpatients in a health centre between January and July 2022. The Hypoglycemia Fear Survey (HFS), Type 2 DM Treatment Patient Compliance Scale, and the 5-Level EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D-5L) were used for data collection. RESULTS: There was a positive correlation between age, duration of T2DM, and the scores obtained from the HFS and its subscales (p < 0.001). There was a positive, moderate correlation between the total HFS score and the TCS (p < 0.001). There was a negative correlation between the scores obtained from the HFS and the EQ-5D-5L (p < 0.001). The multiple regression analysis showed that the quality of life scores of the patients were significantly predicted by hypoglycaemia fear, duration of T2DM diagnosis, and age. (F = 91.691, p < 0.001). Hypoglycaemia fear, duration of T2DM diagnosis, and age explained 38.1% of the quality of life of patients. CONCLUSION: We determined that the increase in hypoglycaemia fear resulted in a decrease in treatment adherence. Besides, hypoglycaemia fear increased with increasing age and duration of T2DM diagnosis.

Development of ethical conflict scale for nurses in extraordinary circumstances and psychometric testing.

AIM: The aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically test the Ethical Conflict Scale for Nurses in Extraordinary Circumstances (ECSNEC). DESIGN: This study is designed to develop and validate an instrument. METHODS: There are four basic steps in the development process of ECSNEC: (1) establishment of the conceptual framework, (2) creation of the item pool, (3) preliminary evaluation and (4) psychometric evaluation. The data were gathered from 519 nurses who worked in two different hospitals operating in Istanbul between June 2022 and October 2022. RESULTS: The scale had good content validity. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor construct which explained 47.31% of the total variance in the measured variable. The corresponding construct was confirmed by the confirmatory factor analysis. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were greater than .60 for all dimensions. The test-retest reliability coefficient value of the scale was 0.90. CONCLUSION: ECSNEC is a valid and reliable tool to determine the ethical conflict experienced by nurses in extraordinary circumstances. IMPACT: The established scale allows the identification of factors influencing the ethical challenges nurses face in extraordinary circumstances. Thus, policies can be developed to prevent such ethical conflicts. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

The effects of post-COVID-19 fatigue in nurses on organizational outcomes.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of fatigue in nurses with confirmed COVID-19 infection on organizational outcomes. The study was carried out with the participation of 200 nurses who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the last eighteen months and had COVID-19-related fatigue complaints. Data were collected between October 2022 and February 2023 using a questionnaire consisting of the Chalder Fatigue Scale, the Work Alienation Scale, the Turnover Intention Scale, and the Employee Performance Scale. Fatigue was the most common symptom of COVID-19 in this study, as in other results. The number of being infected with COVID-19 and education levels were found to be significant predictors of post-COVID-19 fatigue. Post-COVID-19 fatigue had an effect on turnover intention and alienation to work, but it did not affect employee performance. In this study, the effects of post-COVID-19 fatigue on organizational outcomes such as employee performance, turnover intention, and work alienation were determined. Therefore, regardless of its source, fatigue should be dealt with managerially, and preventive policies and procedures should be developed.

The effect of personal protective equipment use on nurses' tendencies to make medical errors and types of their medical errors: a cross-sectional study.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of nurses' use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during their care practices on their tendency to make medical errors and the types of medical errors. The study was conducted with 505 nurses in Turkey between May 2021 and June 2021. Descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis H test, Spearman's correlation test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses often used PPE on different levels. A significant relationship was determined between the type of PPE used by the nurses and falls, hospital infections and patient monitoring/material safety (p < 0.05). The conclusions in this study reveal the necessity of increasing the usability, safety and effectiveness of PPE used by nurses in health institutions.

Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program on Stress, Depression, and Psychological Well-being in Patients With Cancer: A Single-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: A mindfulness-based stress reduction program combined with music therapy is one of the interventions designed to help patients cope with stress and depression. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an online mindfulness-based stress reduction program combined with music therapy on stress, depression, and psychological well-being in adult patients with cancer. METHODS: This study was a single-blinded, prospective, randomized-controlled experimental design. One hundred twenty cancer patients were recruited (60 each in the intervention and control groups). Patients in the intervention group received a 10-day mindfulness-based stress reduction program combined with music therapy. Stress was measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory-State, psychological well-being was measured with the Psychological Well-being Scale, and depression was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory at baseline and the end of the study. RESULTS: The intervention group showed significantly lower stress and depression scores than the control group in the total scores at 10 days ( P < .05). The intervention group had significantly higher scores in the psychological well-being ( P < .001) than the control group at 10 days. Intragroup comparison of the stress and depression scores showed that posttest score of the intervention group was significantly lower than its pretest score ( P < .05). CONCLUSION: Mindfulness-based stress reduction program combined with music therapy reduced the levels of stress and depressive symptoms and improved psychological well-being in cancer patients. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: A nurse-led mindfulness-based stress reduction program combined with music therapy is an innovative and effective psychological intervention that may be integrated with regular patient care for adults receiving treatment of cancer.

The Effects of Disaster Nursing Education Program on Beliefs in General Disaster Preparedness, Disaster Response Self-Efficacy, and Psychological Resilience in Nursing Students: A Single-Blind, Randomized Controlled Study.

AIM: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a disaster nursing and management education program on beliefs in general disaster preparedness, disaster response self-efficacy, and psychological resilience in nursing students. METHOD: The sample consisted of nursing students receiving undergraduate education in Istanbul, Turkey. Participants were randomly divided into the intervention ( n = 65) and control ( n = 66) groups. The intervention group was given an eight-module education program with theoretical and applied components. Data were collected using the Belief in General Disaster Preparedness Scale, the Disaster Response Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Brief Resilience Scale. RESULTS: The mean Belief in General Disaster Preparedness Scale, Disaster Response Self-Efficacy Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale scores of the intervention group were higher than those of the control group. CONCLUSION: The disaster nursing and management education program provided to nursing students was determined to increase beliefs in general disaster preparedness, disaster response self-efficacy, and psychological resilience.

The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Breathing and Music Therapy Practice on Nurses' Stress, Work-Related Strain, and Psychological Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Infectious diseases cause psychological problems for health care workers and especially nurses. Nurses who provided coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients with care experience negative feelings such as stress, work-related strain, discomfort, and helplessness related to their high-intensity work. The aims of this study are to investigate the effect of the mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy practice on stress, work-related strain, and psychological well-being levels of nurses who provided COVID-19 patients with care. This randomized controlled trial was conducted in a COVID-19 department at a university hospital in Turkey. Nurses who care for patients infected with COVID-19 were randomly divided into an intervention group (n = 52) and a no-treatment control group (n = 52). The intervention group received mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy. In data collection, the Personal Information Form, State Anxiety Inventory, Work-Related Strain Scale, and Psychological Well-Being Scale were used. The data from the study showed that mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy decreased stress and work-related strain (P < .05) and increased psychological well-being (P < .05). The control group showed no statistically significant changes on these measures (P > .05). The mindfulness-based breathing and music therapy practice reduced nurses' stress and work-related strain and increased psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic and personal protective equipment: Evaluation of equipment comfort and user attitude.

This study aimed to evaluate the comfort of personal protective equipment (PPE) used during the COVID-19 and attitudes of healthcare professionals regarding the use of PPE. Descriptive research was conducted with 553 healthcare professionals, who work in a pandemic center in Turkey. Findings showed that all participants used masks, 99.3% wore gloves, 89% wore protective glasses, and 89% wore aprons during the COVID-19. The most-reported physical complaints have been dryness, irritation, and wound on the hands. Age and gender, as well as PPE discomfort, has been determined to affect the use of PPE. It might be concluded that age and sex, as well as the discomfort caused by PPE, affected the use of PPE and the attitudes of healthcare professionals.

Immunization in health employees: Relationship of confidence and attitude.

This is a cross-sectional online survey study performed to identify whether the health employees' confidence in the vaccine besides their confidence in the administrators about the vaccine had any effect on their attitudes toward the vaccine. The study was carried out on February 2021 with the participation of 402 health employees working in the pandemic hospitals. Approximately 33% of the participant health employees stated that they did not think of being vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Insufficient testing for the vaccines that are developed to fight against pandemics, having fear about their side effects, and finding them unreliable give rise to vaccine hesitancy in health employees. Besides, it was identified that the health employees' confidence in the vaccines and their confidence in the administrators about the vaccines affected their attitudes toward vaccination.

Development and psychometric testing of the Reality Shock Scale for newly graduated nurses.

AIM: This study aimed to develop and psychometrically test a Reality Shock Scale for newly graduated nurses. DESIGN: An instrument development and validation study. METHOD: A four-phase structure was used: (1) determining the conceptual foundation (2) creating the items, (3) preliminary evaluation of items and (4) refining the scale and evaluating psychometric properties. The scale was evaluated in terms of content and construct validity. To assess its reliability, the scale was tested for internal consistency and a test-retest approach was applied. The psychometric characteristics of the scale were tested with 1310 newly graduated nurses working in different positions at 19 hospitals. Data were collected over the period January 2018-July 2019. RESULTS: Prior to the creation of the scale items, a scan of the literature was carried out, after which individual face-to-face, semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with the newly graduated nurses. The scale's Content Validity Index was 0.97. A 47-item scale containing four subdomains (Relations and Cooperation, Professional Knowledge, Responsibilities, Performance) was developed as a result of the analyses; the scale explained 48.4% of total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the scale's four-factor construct. Cronbach's α was calculated as .95 for the overall scale. CONCLUSION: The Reality Shock Scale that was developed is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to determine the extent to which newly graduated nurses experience reality shock. IMPACT: The developed tool makes it possible to determine the reality shock experienced by newly graduated nurses and influencing factors. Thus, educational institutions as well as health institutions have the means to develop policies to prevent reality shock experienced among newly graduated nurses.