Gestión enfermera durante la COVID-19: oportunidades y retos futuros / Nurse management during COVID-19: future opportunities and challenges

La pandemia COVID-19 ha representado un reto hasta ahora desconocido para nuestro sistema sanitario. Una parte significativa de la gestión de la crisis y adaptación durante este periodo ha correspondido a los mandos de enfermería. Este artículo muestra las dificultades y los éxitos de esta gestión, así como las oportunidades futuras que estos cambios pueden suponer para la profesión enfermera. Se realizó una encuesta telemática de 17 preguntas a las responsables de gestionar la adaptación de los servicios hospitalarios a la pandemia COVID-19, mediante la reestructuración de diferentes áreas: la comunicación interna con participación en la toma de decisiones, la formación para la seguridad de los pacientes, la dotación de materiales, la dotación y rotación de los profesionales y la actualización de los protocolos. Mediante el análisis de una encuesta realizada por responsables de enfermería de diversos hospitales públicos y mutuas laborales situados en Cataluña, hemos podido identificar las principales dificultades surgidas y las decisiones tomadas en un tiempo record para poder adaptar nuestros hospitales a la pandemia, preservando la seguridad del personal y dar una respuesta profesional y humana a nuestros pacientes. La crisis sanitaria vivida representa un incentivo para consolidar logros y proponer cambios que afiancen los aciertos, realizar autocrítica de los errores y devolver así a la sociedad, mediante cambios estructurales, aquello que hayamos aprendido. Defender este cambio supone impulsar perspectivas valientes en la redefinición de las enfermeras del futuro

The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a hitherto unknown challenge for our healthcare system. A significant part of management and adaptation during this period has been the responsibility of middle management nursing staff. This article shows the difficulties and successes of this management, in addition to the future opportunities that these changes, if they are known how to take advantage of, may represent for the nursing profession. An online survey was carried out with 17 questions to those responsible for managing the adaptation of various hospital services to the COVID-19 pandemic, through the internal communication redesign, the participation in the decision making process, the education for the patient's safety and the management of personnel, systems and materials. Through the analysis of a survey carried out by nursing managers from various public hospitals and labour mutual societies located in Catalonia, we have been able to identify the main difficulties encountered and the decisions taken in record time to be able to adapt our hospitals to the pandemic, preserving the safety of the staff and give a professional and humane response to our patients. The lived health crisis represents an incentive to consolidate achievements and propose changes that strengthen the successes, carry out self-criticism of mistakes and thus return to society, through structural changes, what we have learned. Defending this paradigm shift means promoting courageous perspectives in redefining the nurses of the future

Open-label randomized controlled trial to compare wound dressings for patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Surgical wounds are covered to prevent bleeding, absorb the exudates, and provide a barrier against external contamination. Currently, in our hospital, after orthopedic surgery, traditional occlusive dressing of sterile gauze and non-woven hypoallergenic adhesive tape is placed. Some of the newest dressings have been shown to reduce the incidence of blisters compared with traditional dressing or colloid adhesive dressings. However, there are no comparative evaluations between the different types of dressings and their contribution to the overall results of the healing process. METHODS/DESIGN: This is a randomized, controlled, open-label trial to compare five types of dressings used in total knee and hip arthroplasty surgical wounds. A total of 550 patients will be randomly allocated to one of the following dressings: (1) traditional occlusive dressing, (2) Aquacel Surgical®, (3) Mepilex® Border Post-Op, (4) OpSite Post-Op Visible, or (5) UrgoTul® Absorb Border. The dressing assigned is placed right after surgery. Patients will be followed up to 14 days after surgery when the dressing is definitively removed and will be tracked up to 3 months to record any late complications. During the immediate postoperative period and patient hospitalization and at the ambulatory visits after discharge, every time that the dressing is changed, nurses perform the study assessments. The main study outcome will be the percentage of patients with skin integrity at all times when the dressing has been changed. Skin integrity is a composite of the absence of blisters, erosion, erythema, maceration, swelling, wound dehiscence, and purulent exudates. Secondary outcomes include time to first change of dressing; percentage of patients with presence/absence of blisters, erosion, erythema, maceration, swelling, wound dehiscence, and purulent exudates; number of dressing changes needed; days of hospital stay; and nurse and patient satisfaction. Differences in the main variable between each treatment group and group 1 will be tested by means of a chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. Subgroup analyses of diabetic and non-diabetic patients, patients with a body mass index of more than 30 or not more than 30, and type of surgery (hip or knee) are planned. DISCUSSION: The results of this study will be useful for clinical decision making by giving information on the contribution of the dressings studied to the outcome of the wound and may also show which dressing offers better results depending on the characteristics of patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT03190447 ). Retrospectively registered on 16 June 2017.