Stretching oneself too thin and facing ethical challenges: Healthcare professionals' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUNDS: Most countries are facing increased pressure on healthcare resources. A better understanding of how healthcare providers respond to new demands is relevant for future pandemics and other crises. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore what nurses and doctors in Norway reported as their main ethical challenges during two periods of the COVID-19 pandemic: February 2021 and February 2022. RESEARCH DESIGN: A longitudinal repeated cross-sectional study was conducted in the Western health region of Norway. The survey included an open-ended question about ethical challenges among doctors and nurses in hospital departments. Free-text comments were analysed using Systematic Text Condensation and also presented in a frequency table. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Ethical approval was granted by the Regional Research Ethics Committee in Western Norway (131,421). All participants provided consent when participating in the study. RESULTS: In 2021, 249 and in 2022, 163 healthcare professionals responded to the open-ended question. Nurses and doctors reported three main categories of ethical challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) barriers that hindered them in acting as they ethically would have wanted to do; (2) priority-setting dilemmas linked to overtreatment, transfer of resources and ranking patient needs; and (3) workload expansion threatening work-life balance and employees' health. Category one comprised of resource barriers, regulatory barriers, system barriers, and personal barriers. Regulatory barriers, especially visitor restrictions for next-of-kin, were the most frequently reported in 2021. Resource barriers, related to the increased scarcity of qualified staff, were most frequently reported in 2022. Clinicians stretched themselves thin to avoid compromising on care, diagnostics, or treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Developing clinicians' ability to handle and cope with limited healthcare resources is necessary. To foster resilience and sustainability, healthcare leaders, in collaboration with their staff, should ensure fair priority-setting and initiate reflections among doctors and nurses on what it implies to provide 'good enough' care.

Correlated physical and mental health composite scores for the RAND-36 and RAND-12 health surveys: can we keep them simple?

BACKGROUND: The RAND-36 and RAND-12 (equivalent to versions 1 of the SF-36 Health Survey and SF-12 Health Survey, respectively) are widely used measures of health-related quality of life. However, there are diverging views regarding how to create the physical health and mental health composite scores of these questionnaires. We present a simple approach using an unweighted linear combination of subscale scores for constructing composite scores for physical and mental health that assumes these scores should be free to correlate. The aim of this study was to investigate the criterion validity and convergent validity of these scores. METHODS: We investigated oblique and unweighted RAND-36/12 composite scores from a random sample of the general Norwegian population (N = 2107). Criterion validity was tested by examining the correlation between unweighted composite scores and weighted scores derived from oblique principal component analysis. Convergent validity was examined by analysing the associations between the different composite scores, age, gender, body mass index, physical activity, rheumatic disease, and depression. RESULTS: The correlations between the composite scores derived by the two methods were substantial (r = 0.97 to 0.99) for both the RAND-36 and RAND-12. The effect sizes of the associations between the oblique versus the unweighted composite scores and other variables had comparable magnitudes. CONCLUSION: The unweighted RAND-36 and RAND-12 composite scores demonstrated satisfactory criterion validity and convergent validity. This suggests that if the physical and mental composite scores are free to be correlated, the calculation of these composite scores can be kept simple.

Priority-setting dilemmas, moral distress and support experienced by nurses and physicians in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway.

BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic has imposed challenges on healthcare systems and professionals worldwide and introduced a ´maelstrom´ of ethical dilemmas. How ethically demanding situations are handled affects employees' moral stress and job satisfaction. AIM: Describe priority-setting dilemmas, moral distress and support experienced by nurses and physicians across medical specialties in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Western Norway. RESEARCH DESIGN: A cross-sectional hospital-based survey was conducted from 23 April to 11 May 2020. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: Ethical approval granted by the Regional Research Ethics Committee in Western Norway (131421). FINDINGS: Among the 1606 respondents, 67% had experienced priority-setting dilemmas the previous two weeks. Healthcare workers who were directly involved in COVID-19 care, were redeployed or worked in psychiatry/addiction medicine experienced it more often. Although 59% of the respondents had seen adverse consequences due to resource scarcity, severe consequences were rare. Moral distress levels were generally low (2.9 on a 0-10 scale), but higher in selected groups (redeployed, managers and working in psychiatry/addiction medicine). Backing from existing collegial and managerial structures and routines, such as discussions with colleagues and receiving updates and information from managers that listened and acted upon feedback, were found more helpful than external support mechanisms. Priority-setting guidelines were also helpful. DISCUSSION: By including all medical specialties, nurses and physicians, and various institutions, the study provides information on how the COVID-19 mitigation also influenced those not directly involved in the COVID-19 treatment of patients. In the next stages of the pandemic response, support for healthcare professionals directly involved in outbreak-affected patients, those redeployed or those most impacted by mitigation strategies must be a priority. CONCLUSION: Empirical research of healthcare workers experiences under a pandemic are important to identify groups at risks and useful support mechanisms.

Births in Norwegian midwife-led birth units 2008-10; a population-based study. / Fødestuefødsler i Norge 2008­10 ­ en populasjonsbasert studie.

BAKGRUNN: Fødestuene utgjør en del av en differensiert og desentralisert fødselsomsorg i Norge. Hensikten med studien var å undersøke forekomst og karakteristika ved planlagte og ikke-planlagte fødestuefødsler og årsaker til overflytting samt resultater for mor og barn. MATERIALE OG METODE: I perioden 2008-10 ble et tilleggsskjema til rutinemeldingen til Medisinsk fødselsregister fortløpende utfylt av jordmor for 2 514 av i alt 2 556 (98,4 %) fødestuefødsler og for 220 fødsler som var planlagt i fødestue, men der fødselen foregikk andre steder. Data fra tilleggsskjema ble så koblet med rutinedata i Medisinsk fødselsregister og resultater fra fødestuefødsler sammenlignet med resultater fra en lavrisikofødepopulasjon i sykehus. RESULTATER: Av de 2 514 fødestuefødslene var 2 320 (92,3 %) planlagt å foregå der, mens 194 (7,7 %) ikke var det. Ved planlagt fødestuefødsel ble totalt 6,9 % overflyttet til sykehus under fødsel, hvorav 19,5 % blant førstegangsfødende. Det var 0,4 % operative vaginale fødsler ved vanlige fødestuer, 3,5 % ved forsterkede fødestuer og 12,7 % ved fødsler overflyttet fra fødestue til sykehus. Blant barn født i fødestue hadde 0,6 % apgarskår < 7 ved 5 minutter, mot 1,0 % blant barn født i lavrisikosammenligningsgruppen i sykehus (p = 0,04). FORTOLKNING: Fødestuer bør rapportere resultater for alle som var selektert for å føde der, uansett om fødselen endte med å foregå i fødestuen eller andre steder.

Early death, morbidity, and need of treatment among extremely premature infants.

OBJECTIVE: To determine outcomes, in terms of perinatal and early death, need for treatment, and morbidity at the time of discharge home, among extremely preterm infants. DESIGN: A prospective observational study of all infants with a gestational age (GA) of 22 to 27 completed weeks or a birth weight of 500 to 999 g who were born in Norway in 1999 and 2000. RESULTS: Of 636 births, 174 infants (27%) were stillborn or died in the delivery room, 86 (14%) died in the NICU, and 376 (59%) were discharged from the hospital. The risk of being registered as stillborn or not being resuscitated increased with decreasing GA below 25 weeks. The survival rates for all births and for infants admitted to a NICU were, respectively, 0% for <23 weeks, 16% and 39% for 23 weeks, 44% and 60% for 24 weeks, 66% and 80% for 25 weeks, 72% and 84% for 26 weeks, 82% and 93% for 27 weeks, and 69% and 90% for >27 weeks. For the survivors, days of mechanical ventilation decreased from a median of 37 days to 3 days and the proportion in need of oxygen at 36 weeks' postconceptional age decreased from 67% to 26% at 23 and 27 weeks' GA, respectively. At 40 weeks' postconceptional age, the respective figures were 11% and 6%. The proportion with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) requiring treatment decreased from 33% for GA of 23 weeks to 0% for >25 weeks. Periventricular hemorrhage of more than grade 2 occurred for 6% of the survivors and significant periventricular leukomalacia occurred for 5%, with no significant association with GA. The proportion of survivors without severe neurosensory or pulmonary morbidity increased from 44% for 23 weeks' to 86% for 27 weeks' GA. Apart from ROP, the morbidity rate was not associated with GA. CONCLUSIONS: The survival rate was high and the morbidity rate at discharge home was low in the present study, compared with previous population-based studies. With the exception of ROP, the morbidity rates among the survivors were not higher at the lowest GAs, possibly because withholding treatment was considered more acceptable for the most immature infants. The need for intensive care increased markedly for survivors with the lowest GAs.

[Congenital malformations in children born after assisted fertilization in Norway]. / Medfødte misdannelser hos barn født etter assistert befruktning i Norge.

The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence at birth of birth defects in children born after intracytoplasmatic sperm injection (ICSI) and children born after traditional in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Altogether 553 children were born after ICSI treatment in Norway during the period 1996-1998 (351 singletons, 95 twins-pairs and 4 triplets) while 1731 were born after IVF treatment (1004 singletons, 344 sets of twins and 13 triplets). Birth defects were registered in 5.42% of children born after ICSI and in 5.14% of children born after IVF; 3,07% and 3.00% respectively were major birth defects. We conclude that intracytoplasmic sperm injection does not imply a significant increase in the prevalence at birth of birth defects compared to children conceived by traditional IVF.