Experiences and practices of mothers with children 0-5 age group on fever management: A mixed methods study.

AIMS: To determine fever management experiences and practices of mothers of children between 0 and 5 years of age. BACKGROUND: Fever is a common child health challenge known since ancient times. The implications of poor fever management include emotional trauma in parents and the convulsions that might cause neurological sequelae in rare cases. However, even today, mothers' emotional experiences, support needs and psychosocial difficulties during the fever management process at home are not well known. DESIGN: Convergent parallel mixed methods were used. METHODS: Questionnaire and Parent Fever Management Scale were applied to 170 mothers. 23 mothers were interviewed. 'Number Cruncher Statistical System' software and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. STROBE and COREQ checklist were utilized. RESULTS: The mothers participating in the study reported that they had difficulty controlling their child's fever at home and 87.6% reported that they felt negative emotions during the process. Negative emotions were anxiety (83.3%), fear (67.3%), panic (34.7%), loneliness (14.3%), incompetence (21.3%), anger (0.7%), helplessness and guilt (2.7%). Sixty percent of the mothers stated that they couldn't easily reach a nurse for counselling when their child had a fever at home. In the qualitative part, five themes were identified as 'meaning attributed to fever, psychosocial dimension of fever, fever management, difficulties in fever management, and fever within the scope of health service delivery'. CONCLUSION: Mothers still have difficulties in fever management at home. Nurses can support them with fever management programs either online or via telephone. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Our study shows that fever in children causes emotional problems as well as the burden of care among mothers. Mothers also need psychosocial and physical support during home-based management of fever. PATIENT/PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: Opinions were obtained from mothers about the qualitative findings and questions that will be included in the questionnaire and interviews.

Experiences of nurses working with COVID-19 patients: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive disruptions in daily life, business, education, lifestyle and economies worldwide. Nurses are a professional group who care directly for COVID-19 patients and thus face direct exposure to the virus. The nurses who work on the front lines during this period put their own well-being at risk to care for these patients. PURPOSE/AIM: The aim of this study was to identify the experiences and challenges faced by nurses working in pandemic clinics in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This qualitative study was based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted through the mobile application Whatsapp with 19 nurses who were actively working in pandemic clinics. Due to the pandemic, the snowball sampling method was used to reach the sample group. Interviews were continued until data saturation was achieved. All interviews were audio recorded and later transcribed. The study data were interpreted according to themes identified using thematic analysis. Throughout the study, the authors followed the COREQ checklist. RESULTS: The experiences of nurses caring for COVID-19 patients were summarised into five major themes: psychosocial adaptation, protection, difficulty in care and treatment, access to information and working conditions. CONCLUSION: Nurses caring for COVID-19 patients in Turkey have been affected psychologically, socially and physiologically. They experienced stigmatisation, exhaustion and burnout. One of the biggest challenges for the nurses was difficulty providing physical care and treatment due to the use of personal protective equipment. Nurses want improved compensation in addition to applause from the public. Interventions to help bolster nurses' psychological and physiological strength are recommended. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study emphasised nurses' psychologically, socially and physiologically affected. Therefore, improvements in financial and moral support would provide psychological reinforcement for nurses during the epidemic. Informing the public is necessary to reduce the stigmatisation of nurses working in pandemic clinics.

Thematic Analysis of the Organ Transplantation News in Turkish Press.

BACKGROUND: Organ transplantation, which is one of the most important developments in medical technology and a successful treatment against irreversible life-organ insufficiency, gives people a second chance at life and increases their quality of life. The aim of this qualitative research is to detect how often organ transplantation news is reported in the Turkish press and to analyze the content of this news. METHODS: The data in this qualitative study were obtained from the first 3 most widely read newspapers (Posta, Hürriyet, and Sabah) in Turkey between January and July 2018. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: When the newspapers were examined, only 17 texts on organ transplants were obtained during a period of 6 months. Six themes were defined after the data analysis. These themes were (1) information on the organ transplantation process, (2) emotional reactions, (3) medical knowledge, (4) importance of organ donation, (5) organ transplant in Turkey, and (6) legal regulation. Most news focused on the emotional reactions of patients and their families and information on the organ transplantation process. CONCLUSIONS: When we looked at the whole content in Turkish press, there was a place for organ transplantation. However, it is considered that in press news, where people access information easily, more space should be given to organ transplantation to create awareness of how vital it is in changing some people's lives; health professionals and journalists need to work collaboratively to reach this aim.