Perceptions of nurses on the scope of culturally competent care in critical care: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The cultural competence of nurses is crucial in providing nursing care for patients from different cultures. The absence of cultural competence can negatively impact the entire course of care; however, implementing cultural competence in critical care unit can be complicated. AIM: This study aimed to determine nurses' perceptions regarding cultural competence in critical care units. STUDY DESIGN: This study used a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews with nurses (n = 10) working in critical unites. Data were collected from February to June 2022 and then categorized and evaluated. Atlas.ti was used for the inductive thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Three key areas identified were as follows: (1) nurses and culturally competent care in critical care, (2) cultural challenges in practice and (3) suggestions for improving culturally competent care. The participants expressed that culturally competent care in critical care units has specific limitations because of the nature of the intensive care units (ICUs). Additional learning included opportunities to improve culturally competent care, such as raising cultural awareness, developing language skills and promoting culturally competent care. CONCLUSIONS: Providing culturally competent care in critical care units is an understudied area. Identifying barriers and cultural challenges is one strategy nurses can use to improve culturally competent ICU care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Creating cultural awareness by training nurses in their own culture, in cultural diversity, and in overcoming prejudices and stereotypes is an essential step towards increasing cultural competence. Understanding nurses' perceptions on this topic can provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities for providing culturally sensitive care in a critical care setting.

Impact of Selected Geriatric Syndromes on the Quality of Life in the Population Aged 60 and Older.

BACKGROUND: Geriatric syndromes represent a critical domain in the population more than 60 years old. Basic syndromes include frailty, sarcopenia, loss of body mass, and a mild cognitive disorder. These are significant problems which can affect the quality of life. In our study, the Rapid Geriatric Assessment (RGA) tool was used to assess the geriatric syndromes, and the WHOQOL-BREF was used to assess the quality of life to survey 498 respondents from a population aged 60 and older. In all the assessments, the distribution of variables was tested, a nonnormal distribution of variables was identified, and subsequently, nonparametric tests were performed to identify the differences between groups. The study showed that the domain of physical health and the psychological domain were most affected. The results have shown that individual geriatric syndromes affect certain domains of the quality of life of the population above 60 with various intensity.

Use of Standardized and Non-Standardized Tools for Measuring the Risk of Falls and Independence in Clinical Practice.

(1) Background: The use of standardized tools is regarded as the basis for an evidence-based assessment. The tools enable monitoring of complex events and the effectiveness of adopted interventions. Some healthcare facilities use standardized tools such as the Morse Fall Scale, but many use non-standardized tools created based on patient needs. Our study question was, why are non-standardized tools used when standardized tools are more beneficial and can be statistically evaluated and compared to other results; (2) Methods: We used a quantitative, non-standardized questionnaire to survey 1200 nurses, which was representative sample for the entire Czech Republic. All questionnaires were assessed in two phases (a) the frequency evaluation and descriptive analysis, and (b) hypotheses testing and correlation analyses; (3) Results: We found that the Conley Scale, Barthel test, and IADL test were preferred by many nurses. Furthermore, we found that nurses using standardized assessment scales noticed risk factors significantly more frequently but regarded the increased complexity of care to be psychologically demanding. (4) Conclusions: In patients with physical disabilities, both types of tools (internal non-standardized and standardized) are used to assess the risk of falls and independence; nurses generally welcomed the increase use of standardized tools in their facilities.

EyeTribe Tracker Data Accuracy Evaluation and Its Interconnection with Hypothesis Software for Cartographic Purposes.

The mixed research design is a progressive methodological discourse that combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methods. Its possibilities of application are, however, dependent on the efficiency with which the particular research techniques are used and combined. The aim of the paper is to introduce the possible combination of Hypothesis with EyeTribe tracker. The Hypothesis is intended for quantitative data acquisition and the EyeTribe is intended for qualitative (eye-tracking) data recording. In the first part of the paper, Hypothesis software is described. The Hypothesis platform provides an environment for web-based computerized experiment design and mass data collection. Then, evaluation of the accuracy of data recorded by EyeTribe tracker was performed with the use of concurrent recording together with the SMI RED 250 eye-tracker. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed that data accuracy is sufficient for cartographic research. In the third part of the paper, a system for connecting EyeTribe tracker and Hypothesis software is presented. The interconnection was performed with the help of developed web application HypOgama. The created system uses open-source software OGAMA for recording the eye-movements of participants together with quantitative data from Hypothesis. The final part of the paper describes the integrated research system combining Hypothesis and EyeTribe.