Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Outbreak as Experienced by ICU Nurses: Manifest Qualitative Content Analysis.

From the moment the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic, intensive care unit (ICU) nurses struggled to care for the COVID-19 patients. As the pandemic became increasingly critical, the task of daily care for critically ill patients fell upon the shoulders of ICU nurses. Understanding the lived experience of ICU nurses, as well as their perception of the experience, is important to identify key lessons to further improve ICU nurses' psychological well-being and resilience. This study explored the lived experiences of ICU nurses who cared for COVID-19 patients using exploratory manifest qualitative content analysis. The findings of this study revealed that these ICU nurses offer important information concerning the crucial role of nurses' family support and religious-spiritual practices in helping them to maintain well-being and cope with the intense situations caused by the pandemic. The lessons emerging from the study findings show that family support and religious-spiritual practices are resources for coping and resilience in times of future pandemics. This implies that ICU nurses who provide care during stressful emergency surges require relief by nurses working in other areas to provide them the opportunity to rest, reconnect with family and become emotionally re-energized.

Shared Situational Awareness within the Hospital Emergency Context: A Scoping Review.

Background. Shared Situation Awareness (SSA) has been applied in many fields such as sport, the military and aviation with promising outcomes on team performance. The application of SSA within the hospital emergency healthcare context has not been explored yet. The aim of this scoping review is to explore and map literature related to shared situational awareness within the hospital emergency healthcare context. Methods. The Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework was used in which three electronic databases were searched for evidence investigating SSA within a hospital emergency healthcare context. Results. A review of the literature showed a clear lack of evidence that directly investigates SSA within the context of hospital emergency care. In the emergency medical field, the term SSA is seldom used and 'team situation awareness' is the most frequently used term. The most common framework was the three-level framework. Two techniques were reported in the selected studies to investigate SSA (1) freeze probe technique and (2) observer-based rating technique. The freeze probe technique mandates a simulation or artificial environment, while the observer-based rating technique could be applied in an ecological as well as an artificial environment. There is no standardized technique to calculate the score of the SSA. Finally, there was a significant impact of SSA on clinical team performance as well as some related skills such as leadership, task management, mindfulness and task prioritization. Conclusions. Reviewing the literature revealed a lack of studies investigating the use of SSA within the context of hospital emergency care. There is also a lack of agreement on how a SSA score should be calculated. Further studies are required to overcome these issues.

Development of undergraduate nursing entrustable professional activities through using a participatory design approach.

BACKGROUND: Competencies represent sets of general abilities and attributes that graduating nurses must acquire. Most nursing programs adopt competency based assessment and training approaches to prepare their students to enter the clinical environment. However, some concern has been raised regarding their interpretation and implementation in everyday clinical training. To operationalize competencies for better use in clinical practice, the Entrustable Professional Activities framework (EPAs) was introduced in 2005 by ten Cate. AIM: The aim of this study is to develop a framework of EPAs for an Undergraduate Nursing Program. METHOD: Through using a participatory action design approach, the participants developed a set of EPAs linked with competencies for an Undergraduate Nursing Program. Thematic analysis was performed, and EPAs framework validity was constructed. RESULT: A total of eight core EPAs were developed and each one was operationalized by a brief description and nested within the related core competency domains. Supervision levels and entrustment decisions were determined. CONCLUSION: The development of EPAs specific to undergraduate nursing programs may offer the opportunity to have standardized language to evaluate students' progress toward competency in nursing. It is recommended to conduct further research to improve the developed EPAs.

Factors Affecting the Decontamination Process in Hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION: Hospitals face various types of disasters that require either decontamination or disinfection interventions. These contaminants can be chemical, biological, radioactive, or infectious, such as COVID-19. Further, there are few studies in the literature on factors affecting decontamination in hospitals in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: Approximately 157 healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, and other specialists) participated in this study. Principle component analysis was used to explore three factors in Saudi Arabia that affect the ability of healthcare providers to decontaminate appropriately. RESULTS: Three factors were extracted: (1) having adequate skills to perform decontamination, (2) being adequately prepared for decontamination before a disaster occurs, and (3) organizational barriers to decontamination. There was a positive correlation between the skills and preparedness and a negative correlation between barriers and both skills and preparedness. DISCUSSION: It is essential to prepare for decontamination during disasters more effectively and to ensure that all healthcare providers have the requisite skills. Moreover, barriers to decontamination must be investigated thoroughly to improve implementation.

The Experiences of People with Diabetes during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown.

Little is known about the theoretical foundation underling the response of people with diabetes managing their everyday routines during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. AIM: To explore the experience of people with diabetes during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in light of the risk perception, response and behavioral change theories. METHOD: A qualitative descriptive design was employed, and Braun and Clark's six step analysis were used for thematic analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online using Zoom Videos Communication. RESULT: Five themes were defined as follows: (1) perceived the threat and faced their fears, (2) appraised the damage, (3) identified the challenges, (4) modified their routine, and (5) identified the strengths that facilitate the efficacy of their response. There were eight sub-themes within the themes. CONCLUSION: The results of this study may provide an opportunity for nurses to reflect on issues highlighted by the patients regarding more effective communication, knowledge and skill development for people to support self-care during national emergencies.

Synthesis of novel pyrrole and pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives bearing sulfonamide moiety for evaluation as anticancer and radiosensitizing agents.

Pyrroles and pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines were reported to act as potent anticancer agents, in this work, a series of novel 2-substituted-3-cyano-4-phenyl-pyrrole 5, 6, 11-18, and 5-phenyl-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives 7-10, 19-24 bearing either sulfathiazole or sulfapyridine were synthesized. The structures of these compounds were confirmed by elemental analysis, IR, (1)H NMR and mass spectral data. All the newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity against liver and breast cancer cell line (HEPG2 and MCF7). Most of the screened compounds showed interesting cytotoxic activities compared with the used reference drug (doxorubicin). The radiosensitizing ability of some of the synthesized compounds was studied and the results showed an increase in the cell killing effect of γ-radiation after combination with the tested compounds.

Synthesis of some new pyrazole and pyrimidine derivatives carrying a sulfonamide moiety of expected antitumor activity and study of the synergistic effect of gamma-irradiation.

Several novel pyrazole (11-18) and pyrimidine (19-23) derivatives were synthesized starting from different sulfonamides and different active methylenes. The synthesized compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1H-NMR and mass spectral data. The obtained compounds were screened as antitumor agents against human tumor cell line. Some of the tested compounds were equipotent while the others were more potent than doxorubicin (CAS 25316-40-9). The synergistic effect with gamma-radiation was also studied.