Experience of hope in adult patients with advanced chronic disease and their informal caregivers: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review will evaluate the experience of hope in adult patients with advanced chronic diseases other than cancer, transitioning toward end-of-life. The review will also evaluate the experience of hope in informal caregivers caring for adult patients with advanced chronic diseases other than cancer as they transition toward end-of-life. INTRODUCTION: Hope is an important resource that assists patients and informal caregivers to deal with difficult and complex situations, such as living with advanced chronic disease. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The review will include studies written in English, French, and Portuguese exploring hope. Qualitative studies focusing on adult patients with advanced chronic diseases other than cancer and/or informal caregivers will be considered. Studies with children as patients or parents as caregivers will be excluded. METHODS: The review will search Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, DART-Europe E-theses Portal, and Google Scholar. The search will be conducted without date restrictions. Articles will be assessed against the inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. Data will be extracted using a standard tool. The extracted findings will be synthesized using the meta-aggregation approach through assembling and categorizing data. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42021266487.

Postgraduate nursing students' experiences in providing frontline and backstage care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Safety measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated universities to reorganise teaching to accommodate the students' needs, including nursing students who had been called back into clinical practice to support front-line nursing. PURPOSE: To describe the experiences of post-graduate students in nursing sciences (experienced in clinical nursing) during the Covid-19 pandemic. METHOD: This qualitative descriptive study took place at a Swiss University delivering masters and doctoral programmes in nursing sciences. Participants were post-graduate students enrolled in masters and doctoral programmes. All current students were invited by email to participate in three focus groups, which were recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Thirteen students participated, with a majority who had been called back into clinical practice. Four themes were identified: Challenges of caring for patients during the coronavirus pandemic, Challenges of being a student during the pandemic, Resilience amid the difficulties, and Recognition of the Clinical Nurse Specialist competencies. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that amid the challenges, post-graduate nursing students demonstrated high leadership skills, resilience, and a tremendous sense of professional duty, where patients' and families' best interest remained their main concerns. Educators and nurse administrators need to acknowledge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on post-graduate nurses, caught in the tension between their academic career aspirations and duty of care to patients, families, and the healthcare system.