Patient safety improvement in the gastroenterology department: An action research.

BACKGROUND: Patient safety is a global concern. Safe and effective care can shorten hospital stays and prevent or minimize unintentional harm to patients. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously monitor and improve patient safety in all medical environments. This study is aimed at improving patient safety in gastroenterology departments. METHODS: The study was carried out as action research. The participants were patients, nurses and doctors of the gastroenterology department of Ayatollah Taleghani Hospital in Tehran in 2021-2022. Data were collected using questionnaires (medication adherence tool, patient education effectiveness evaluation checklist, and medication evidence-based checklist), individual interviews and focus groups. The quantitative data analysis was done using SPSS (v.20) and qualitative data analysis was done through content analysis method using MAXQDA analytic pro 2022 software. RESULTS: The majority of errors were related to medication and the patient's fault due to their lack of education and prevention strategy were active supervision, modification of clinical processes, improvement of patient education, and promotion of error reporting culture. The findings of the research showed that the presence of an active supervisor led to the identification and prevention of more errors (P<0.01). Regarding the improvement of clinical processes, elimination of reworks can increase satisfaction in nurses (P<0.01). In terms of patient education, the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.01); however, the mean medication adherence score was significantly different (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The improvement strategies of patient safety in Gastroenterology department included the modification of ward monitoring processes, improving/modification clinical processes, improvement of patient education, and development of error reporting culture. Identifying inappropriate processes and adjusting them based on the opinion of the stakeholders, proper patient education regarding self-care, careful monitoring using appropriate checklists, and presence of a supervisor in the departments can be effective in reducing the incidence rate. A comprehensive error reporting program provides an opportunity for employees to report errors.

Coping strategy with coronavirus disease-2019 health anxiety in nursing students.

BACKGROUND: The high prevalence of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has a lot of stress on medical students. This study was conducted to investigating the adaptation strategy with COVID-19 health anxiety in nursing students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was designed as a cross-sectional study. Participants of the study were 431 students of the Nursing and Midwifery Faculty of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Inclusion criteria were studying at the time of the outbreak of COVID-19 and willingness to participate in the study. Data collection tools included participated in the study. Data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire, Health Anxiety and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Short Form). Reliability of tools was assessed and confirmed with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of health anxiety was 0.76 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations was 0.79. Data were collected between July 2020 and September 2020. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between the data. Data were analyzed with SPSS 26. RESULTS: Findings indicated that most of the participants were female, single, 22-28 years old, and undergraduate students. The mean of COVID-19 health anxiety was 5.59 ± 17.04. Results showed that 19.58 ± 5.05 of the participants used avoidance-focused adaptation strategies, 25.12 ± 3.88 problem-focused adaptation strategies, and 19.32 ± 5.13 emotion-focused adaptation strategies. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 health anxiety was higher in female, young, and married students. The problem-focused adaptation strategy should be further taught so that students can better coping with COVID-19 health anxiety.