Knowledge and Perception Regarding Medication Error Among Nurses.

BACKGROUND: Patient safety is the major concern in providing quality care. Medication errors have been identified as the most common type of preventable errors. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and perception regarding medication error among nurses. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional research design was used. The study was conducted in four different private hospitals in Lalitpur. A total enumerative sampling technique was used to select 302 nurses from these hospitals. Descriptive statistical methods were used to assess socio-demographic variables and inferential statistics methods such as the chi-squared test was used to analyse the association between knowledge, perception, and its socio-demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Most of the respondents 244 (80.8%) agreed the cause of medication error occurs due to unclear handwriting and 217 (71.9%) agreed prescribing the wrong route or dose and time. Mostly respondents 126 (41.7%) had inadequate knowledge, 101 (33.4%) had adequate knowledge and 75 (24.8%) had moderate knowledge on medication error. Mostly respondents 273 (90.4%) had positive perception and 26 (8.6 %) had negative perception. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the nurses had inadequate knowledge but has positive perception on medication error. Appropriate strategies for reducing nurses' workload, barriers to reporting, and sensitization workshops in a regular basis by the administrator should be developed to address medication errors and enhance patient safety in hospital settings.

Environmental and Human Microbiome for Health.

Microorganisms are an essential part of life on the earth and can exist in association with virtually any living thing. The environmental microbiome is much more diverse than the human microbiome. It is reported that most microbes existing in the environment are difficult to culture in the laboratory. Whereas both pathogenic and beneficial microbes may be prevailing in the environment, the human body can have three categories of microbes- beneficial, pathogenic, and opportunistic pathogenic. With at least 10-fold more cells than human cells, microbes as normal flora are critical for human survival. The microbes present in the human body play a crucial role in maintaining human health, and the environmental microbiome influences the human microbiome makeup. The interaction between the environmental and human microbiome highly influences human health, however it is poorly understood. In addition, as an established infection is associated with health-seeking behavior, a large number of studies have focused on the transmission and dynamics of infectious microorganisms than the noninfectious or beneficial ones. This review will summarize how the interaction between the environmental and human microbiome affects human health and identify approaches that might be beneficial for humans to improve health by being exposed to the natural environment.

Fear, Risk Perception, and Engagement in Preventive Behaviors for COVID-19 during Nationwide Lockdown in Nepal.

The world has faced huge negative effects from the COVID-19 pandemic between early 2020 and late 2021. Each country has implemented a range of preventive measures to minimize the risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed the COVID-19-related fear, risk perception, and preventative behavior during the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 in Nepal. In a cross-sectional study, conducted in mid-2021 during the nationwide lockdown in Nepal, a total of 1484 individuals completed measures on fear of COVID-19, COVID-19 risk perception, and preventive behavior. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with COVID-19 fear. The results revealed significant differences in the fear of COVID-19 in association with the perceived risk of COVID-19 and preventive behaviors. Age, risk perception, preventive behavior, and poor health status were significantly positively related to fear of COVID-19. Perceived risk and preventive behaviors uniquely predicted fear of COVID-19 over and above the effects of socio-demographic variables. Being female and unmarried were the significant factors associated with fear of COVID-19 among study respondents. Higher risk perception, poor health status, and being female were strong factors of increased fear of COVID-19. Targeted interventions are essential to integrate community-level mental health care for COVID-19 resilience.

Validation of the Nepalese version of Recovery Experience Questionnaire.

People with stressful situations tend to experience lower psychological well-being highlighting the importance of involvement in activities or strategies that have the potential to promote recovery after stressful work situations. This study aimed to validate the Nepalese version of the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ-N), which evaluates how individuals unwind and recuperate from work in their leisure time. Registered nurses of three university hospitals (N = 438) in Nepal were asked to complete the REQ-N voluntarily and the data was analyzed using SPSS-20 and AMOS. Reliability was examined by using the Cronbach alpha coefficient. Factorial validity was examined by using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Convergent validity was examined by examining the relationships with psychological distress, overall health, happiness, job performance and job satisfaction. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for four subscales ranged from 0.67 to 0.70. A hypothesized four-factor model fitted better to the data. As expected, mastery and control subscales correlated with psychological distress, overall health, happiness, job performance, and job satisfaction. However, psychological detachment subscale correlated with poor health and relaxation subscale correlated with low job satisfaction. The REQ-N displayed an acceptable level of internal-consistency reliability. The theory-based four-factor structure and the association with psychological distress, overall health, happiness, job performance and job satisfaction for mastery and control experience subscales supported the construct validity (including factor-based validity). However, some of the model fit statistics could not meet the minimum recommendations suggesting a need of a large study involving a heterogeneous population. Also, unexpected findings for psychological detachment and relaxation may reflect the culture and values of Nepalese people and need further research.

Prevalence of self-stigma and its association with self-esteem among psychiatric patients in a Nepalese teaching hospital: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Stigma against mental illness cuts across all age, religion, ethnic origin or socio-economic status. Similarly, self-stigma among psychiatric patients is also prevalent worldwide. The consequences of self-stigma are low self-esteem, increased severity of symptoms, low treatment adherence, increased rate of suicidality and decreased quality of life. Thus, this study aims to find the prevalence of self-stigma and its association with self-esteem of patients with mental illness in Nepal. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 180 patients with mental illness attending a psychiatric Outpatient Department (OPD). Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used for the study. The data was collected by face to face interview technique. Structured interview schedule questionnaire (brief version of internalized stigma scale and Rosenberg self-esteem scale) was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and correlation analysis were used for data analysis. P value was set at 0.05. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of self-stigma was 54.44%. Among those who had self-stigma 48% had mild self-stigma, 34.7% had moderate self-stigma and 17.3% had severe self-stigma. Among the five components of self-stigma scale, the highest mean score was on stereotype endorsement, followed by discrimination experience, social withdrawal, stigma resistance, and the lowest for the component of alienation. Furthermore, strong negative correlation (r = - 0.74) was found between self-stigma and self-esteem. The correlation was still significant (r = - 0.69) after controlling for socio-demographic and clinical variables. Hospital admission and diagnostic category of respondents were significantly associated with self-stigma. However, no significant association was found between socio-demographic variables and self-stigma. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that self-stigma is prevalent among psychiatric patients in Nepal. Most of the respondents experienced stereotype endorsement. Also, higher self-stigma is significantly associated with poor self-esteem suggesting self-stigma reduction programs. Furthermore, strong negative relationship between self-stigma and self-esteem suggests some causal relationship studies to confirm if self-esteem enhancement program can be beneficial to reduce self-stigma among psychiatric patients.

Prevalence and correlates of substance use among health care students in Nepal: a cross sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Substance use among health care students threatens professional standards and the delivery of quality services, potentially placing the public at risk. Therefore, our study aims to determine the prevalence and correlates associated with substance use among Nepalese health care students. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey using a self-administered health professional questionnaire was conducted among pharmacy, nursing, and public health students at three universities in Nepal in 2010. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 407 respondents (response rate, 82%) with a mean age of 22 years (standard deviation = 3.71). The overall lifetime prevalence of substance use (i. e., illegal use of prescription drugs and illegal drug use) was 42.8%. Marijuana was the most commonly used illegal drug (8.8%) and minor opiates (e.g., codeine cough syrups) were the most widely used illegal prescription drugs (32.4%). Substance use was directly associated with cigarette smoking, peer influence, and heavy drinking. In addition, respondents reported some major and minor dysfunctions because of their substance use. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of substance use among health care students at the three universities in Nepal was high. Peer influence, cigarette smoking, and heavy drinking were significant predictors of substance use.

Validation of Nepalese version of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Nepalese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-N) in a sample of hospital nurses. METHOD: Registered nurses from three hospitals in Nepal (total N=438) voluntarily completed a self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the hypothesized three-factor model of the 9-item version of the UWES-N (UWES-N-9) fitted the data best. The internal consistency of the scale was acceptable. Work engagement was positively related to job satisfaction, job performance, happiness and health, and it was negatively related to psychological distress, confirming its construct validity. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the findings of our study indicated that the UWES-N-9 has satisfactory psychometric properties and provided supportive evidence for use of the UWES-N-9 in the Nepalese context.

Nepalese pharmacy students' perceptions regarding mental disorders and pharmacy education.

OBJECTIVE: To determine Nepalese pharmacy students' perceptions of whether mental disorders impact performance in pharmacy school. METHOD: All first- and third-year undergraduate pharmacy students (n=226) in Nepal were invited to complete a modified version of the Mental Illness Performance Scale. RESULTS: Among the 200 respondents (response rate 88.5%), 14% reported that they had a mental disorder. The majority (92%) of third-year students agreed or strongly agreed that depression would interfere with a student's academic performance. Almost half of first-year students agreed or strongly agreed that alcohol or drug abuse would be grounds for both rejecting an applicant from pharmacy school (49%) and dismissal of a student from pharmacy school (46%). CONCLUSIONS: Students perceived a high level of academic impairment associated with mental disorders, but the majority did not perceive that mental disorders were grounds for dismissal from or rejection of entry to pharmacy school. Students' attitudes may discourage them from seeking help or providing mental health support to others.