Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to assess nursing and allied health students' knowledge and intention to care for patients with COVID-19.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess nursing and allied health students' demographics, knowledge and intentions to care for patients with an infectious disease, COVID-19. BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has caused a public health crisis and worldwide panic. Little is known about students' knowledge levels and intentions to care for infected patients during pandemics. DESIGN: A quantitative, cross-sectional study. METHOD: A cross-sectional study with a convenience sample (N = 480) of nursing and allied health students was analysed using the Mann-Whitney and Spearman's correlation tests. RESULTS: At least 60% of the participants attained high scores for 16 of the 22 items on the knowledge scale. Knowledge was positively associated with attitude (rs  = .19, p < .01) and perceived behavioural control (rs  = .38, p < .01) and negatively associated with subjective norms (rs  = -.11, p < .05). Senior students had higher scores (p = .024) in knowledge. Intention was negatively correlated with knowledge (rs  = -.24, p < .01) and perceived behavioural control (rs  = -.16, p < .01). Male students (p = .031) and younger students had higher scores in intention (p = .040). Males had higher scores in subjective norms (p < .001), and older and senior students had higher scores in perceived behavioural control (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite the current knowledge on COVID-19 available through multimedia-communication channels, students had negative perceived behavioural controls and intentions to care for COVID-19 patients. Formal education and training are required to enhance students' intentions to care for patients with infectious diseases. Additionally, demographics and belief variables influence students' intentions to care, and further in-depth analysis is required. Relevance to Clinical Practice This study suggests the importance of updating and contextualizing nursing and allied health curricula to meet global infectious disease guidelines and, ultimately, to support the healthcare system with efficient practitioners in future pandemics.

Systematic review: cultural adaptation and feasibility of screening for autism in non-English speaking countries.

BACKGROUND: Screening children for autism has gained wider acceptance within clinical practice, and early intervention has improved outcomes. Increasingly, adapting an existing screening instrument is a common, fast method to create a usable screening tool, especially for countries with limited resources and/or expertise. However, concerns have been raised regarding adaptation adequacy and the feasibility of screening across cultural groups. This study systematically examined the levels of cultural adaptation and feasibility aspects considered when screening for autism in non-English speaking countries to build upon the sparse knowledge that exists on this topic in the literature. METHODS: Nineteen studies, obtained from five electronic databases, were examined. PRISMA guidance was used for this review. The Ecological Validity Framework model, and Bowen Recommendations for Feasibility were adopted to extract relevant data, which was synthesised narratively. RESULTS: Cultural adaptation within the included studies mostly involved language translation with little information offered to enable conclusions on how the processes were guided and maintained. Few cultural adjustments involved modifying screening methods; clarifying difficult concepts and changing instrument content were employed to address the core values, competence, beliefs, and norms of the adapted culture. However, less attention was given to adapt the screening goals within the context of cultural values, and customs or to consider interactional match between the clients and assessors. The review also highlighted an acceptable level of practicality to screen for autism but did not encourage integrating autism screening within routine practice or beyond the study context for different cultures. CONCLUSION: Concurring with previous literature, we agree that knowledge on cultural adaptation for autism screening instruments is limited and not sufficiently documented to establish adaptation levels (process and/or contents), and prove adequacy. However, this review provides an infrastructure to improve future adaptation processes. Integrating autism screening as routine medical practice is not encouraged and warrants further feasibility studies to minimize wasted resources and improve screening effectiveness in various health care systems.