Assessing hand hygiene knowledge, attitude, behavior and adherence among nursing assistants: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored hand hygiene knowledge, attitude, behaviors and adherence amongst nursing assistants. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with structured questionnaires and direct observation. Nursing assistants were recruited from two long-term care facilities in eastern Taiwan from July to September, 2021. RESULTS: The nursing assistants had high levels of hand hygiene knowledge, attitude, and behavior, however, the direct observational revealed hand hygiene adherence at 58.6% with 17.99 seconds duration on average. Comparing with alcohol-based hand rub, the nursing assistants performed very low adherence rate with soap and water wash, and the use of paper towel was the least followed skill applying to soap and water wash. CONCLUSIONS: The study finds that hand wash with soap and water has lower adherence than the alcohol-based hand rub. Future innovations in hand hygiene, such as accessible and easy-to-use hand washing agents and easy-to-remember hand cleansing techniques will be valuable.

Anxiety and work stress among newly employed nurses during the first year of a residency programme: A longitudinal study.

AIM: To explore changes in anxiety and work stress among new nurses in the first year of a 2-year residency programme. BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the anxiety and work stress of new nurses in a residency programme. METHODS: This longitudinal study examined levels of anxiety and work stress among newly employed nurses over 1 year at 1 week and 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Participants were purposively sampled from a medical centre in Taiwan. The Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Nurse Stress Checklist were used to measure anxiety and stress, respectively. RESULTS: The nurses (N = 200) generally perceived mild levels of anxiety and moderate work stress. However, anxiety and stress peaked at the first and second months. Levels stabilized by the sixth month. General ward nurses perceived higher stress levels than did those in emergency or operating rooms. CONCLUSIONS: Stress and work anxiety for new nurses peaked at 1-2 months of employment. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse managers, preceptors and educators must work together with newly employed nurses in individualized learning and support, doing so to improve the transition experience and reduce levels of work stress and anxiety.

[The Effects of a Mobile Application Social Support Program on Postpartum Perceived Stress and Depression].

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression is a common health problem for women following childbirth. Using effective social support to reduce postpartum depression has become an important issue. The current popularity of smartphones offers new possibilities for interventional methods. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of mobile-application-based social support programs on perceived stress and postpartum depression in postpartum women. METHODS: The present study employs an experimental research design. 126 smartphone users at 36 weeks' gestation were assigned randomly to the intervention (n = 61) or the control (n = 65) group. The intervention group received a social-support intervention via the mobile application Line twice per week for a period of 4 weeks after childbirth. The control group did not receive the intervention. The Perceived Stress Scale-Chinese version and Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale were used to evaluate the outcome. RESULTS: Participants in the intervention group had significantly lower perceived stress (F = 27.25, p < .001) and postpartum depression (F = 35.73, p < .001) than their control group peers. CONCLUSIONS: Social-support programs that are delivered via mobile applications such as Line may significantly reduce the perceived stress and postpartum depression of women during the early postpartum period. The results support the implementation of mobile-application-based social support programs in postpartum care.

[Relationship Between Symptom Distress and Fatigue in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Who Received Transcatheter Arterial Embolization].

BACKGROUND: The fatigue and symptom distress of cancer patients have been researched extensively. However, few studies have focused on the fatigue and symptom distress experienced by hepatic cancer patients following tran-scatheter arterial embolization (TAE) treatment. PURPOSE: This study explores the levels of symptom distress and fatigue in hepatic cancer patients and related factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used purposive sampling to recruit 100 hepatic cancer patients who had received TAE treatment from a medical center in southern Taiwan. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data from the first, second, and third days following the TAE treatment. RESULTS: Notable reductions in fatigue and symptom distress levels were observed in post-TAE-treatment patients. The 5 main symptoms were abdominal pain, fatigue, sleeplessness, fever, and abdominal distention. Factors identified as influencing the level of fatigue were marital status, family members' accompaniment during the TAE treatment, physical performance status, age, and symptom distress. CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Physicians treating hepatic cancer patients should better explain to patients the symptoms and fatigue associated with TAE treatment. Physicians should also provide interventions that may reduce the related symptoms, fatigue levels, and mental distress.

Antibacterial effects on dry-fast and traditional water-based surgical scrubbing methods: a two-time points experimental study.

This study determined the in-use effects of dry-fast and traditional hand-washing surgical scrubs among operating room staff members. This is a static group comparison study with purposive sampling. A total of 156 staff members were recruited in an operating room in a medical center located in southern Taiwan. The participants were divided into traditional and dry-fast hand-washing groups. Microbial counts were measured right after the two groups finished surgical scrubbing and at the completion of surgery. The results showed that the use of dry-fast antisepsis has a better persistent effect (P = 0.001), more nurses chose dry-fast antisepsis than surgeons (P = 0.012), and the post-operation number of colonies for nurses was significantly higher than that for surgeons (P = 0.003). Operating room nurses are long-term and frequent users of antibacterial agents, and their requirement of skin protection is higher. The dry-fast technique has the advantage of being less irritating to the skin and less time consuming; therefore, brush-free and dry-fast antisepsis is recommended.

The relationships among perceived stress, resilience, sleep quality and first-month retention of newly employed nurses: A cross-sectional survey.

AIM: Newly employed nurses are subject to high workplace stress, which leads to a low retention rate. Resilience can reduce burnout among nurses. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among perceived stress, resilience, sleep quality of new nurses during initial employment, and their impacts on first-month retention. DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study design. METHODS: We used a convenience sampling method to recruit 171 new nurses between January and September 2021. The Perceived Stress Scale, Resilience Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) were conducted in the study. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the impacts on first-month retention for newly employed nurses. RESULTS: The initial perceived stress, resilience, and sleep quality of the newly employed nurses were not correlated with the first-month retention rate. Forty-four per cent of the newly recruited nurses had sleep disorders. Resilience, sleep quality, and perceived stress of newly employed nurses were significantly correlated. Newly employed nurses assigned to their desired wards had lower perceived stress than their peers.

The differences in spiritual health between non-depressed and depressed nurses.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the differences in spiritual health between depressed and non-depressed nurses. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have revealed that spirituality can buffer emotional pressure and maintain health, even in cases of depression. Nurses may have a tendency to develop depression; however, the relationship between depression and spirituality in nurses has been investigated only rarely. DESIGN: A correlational study. METHODS: The study was conducted using a convenience sample of 283 nurses who worked at a local hospital in northern Taiwan. We used a structured, self-administered questionnaire to obtain the data. This questionnaire included a spiritual health scale, the Beck Depression Inventory and personal data. The quantitative data were analysed using the t-test, one-way analysis of variance and logistic regression. RESULTS: All the participants were women, and 22·6% of the participants were ascertained to have depression. The non-depressed group had a higher average score for the different domains of the spiritual health scale than the depressed group. When personal and job-related variables were controlled, spirituality was a significant explanatory variable for depression. CONCLUSIONS: The spiritual health of the non-depressed nurses was better than that of the depressed nurses. The result was consistent with the previous studies on other populations. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The spiritual health and depression of nurses should be paid attention by nursing administrators. Spiritual promoting programme in preventing depression should be examined in future researches.

Spiritual health, clinical practice stress, depressive tendency and health-promoting behaviours among nursing students.

AIM: This paper is a report of an exploration of the association of spiritual health with clinical practice stress, depressive tendency and health-promoting behaviours among nursing students. BACKGROUND: Several studies in western countries have demonstrated an association between spirituality and health. Spirituality-related research in eastern countries, however, is still in its infancy. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was adopted and structured questionnaires were used for data collection. We adopted the Probability Proportional to Size cluster sampling method to recruit nursing students in senior grades. Data were collected in 2005 using the Spiritual Health Scale, Perceived Clinical Practice Stress Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II and Health Promotion Behaviours Scale. RESULTS: A total of 1276 nursing students with an average age of 20.1 years (sd = 1.6 years) participated in the study. Spiritual health was negatively associated with clinical practice stress (r = -0.211, P < 0.001) and depressive tendency (r = -0.324, P < 0.001) and positively associated with health-promoting behaviours (r = 0.611, P < 0.001). Using hierarchical regression analysis to control for demographic factors, spiritual health was found to be an important predictive factor for clinical practice stress, depressive tendency and health-promoting behaviours. CONCLUSION: These results are consistent with research findings from western countries. Educators should develop strategies to address nursing students' spiritual health. This may help nursing students to manage their stress, to reduce depressive symptoms and to enhance health-promoting behaviours.

Exploring Discrepancies in Perceived Nursing Competence Between Postgraduate-Year Nurses and Their Preceptors.

BACKGROUND: Postgraduate clinical training programs improve the core competence of nurses. How postgraduate-year (PGY) nurses perceive their clinical competence and their preceptors' perceptions may affect program effectiveness. This study compared the perspectives of clinical competencies of PGY nurses engaged in a residency program in Taiwan with their preceptors' perspectives. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a medical center in Taiwan. The Nursing Competence Questionnaire was used to obtain data from 99 pairs of PGY nurses and preceptors. RESULTS: PGY nurses' scores were higher than their preceptors' for communication, patient education, and management competencies (p <.05). Preceptors with more years of clinical experience exhibited greater assessment discrepancies for clinical care, communication, patient education, research awareness, and overall competence (p <.05). CONCLUSION: Preceptor development courses should be grounded in a strong pedagogical framework. An assessment tool with explicit behavioral indicators would be needed for objective evaluation from both perspectives. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2017;48(4):190-196.

[The application of student-centered teaching to nursing education].

Nursing education in Taiwan is currently facing an extensive reform toward student-centeredness. However, few articles were found in the Taiwanese nursing literature focusing on student-centered teaching and nurse educators in Taiwan may have different interpretations of it. Misinterpretation of the term 'student-centeredness' may lead educational reform into inconsistency or ineffectiveness. This study aims to expand student-centered teaching's application to nursing education, stressing that not only the teaching techniques but also a consistent thinking approach is essential for educational reform. The content of this article addresses the meaning of student-centeredness and the differences between teacher-centeredness and student-centeredness. The article also advocates Weimers' five key changes toward student-centered teaching: the balance of power, the function of content, the role of the teacher, the responsibility for learning, and the purpose and process of evaluation, and further expounds their application to nursing education. Hopefully this article can provide Taiwanese nursing educators and students with an explicit view of student-centeredness and facilitate a more effective application of it to educational reform in nursing.

An exploration of the status of spiritual health among nursing students in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have investigated the spiritual health of nursing students. The purpose of this study was to examine spiritual health in a group of senior nursing students in Taiwan, and to explore the factors that influenced the spiritual health of the group. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 1276 senior nursing students were selected using a probability-proportional-to-size (PPS) procedure, and were asked to complete a self-administrated questionnaire that included a spiritual health scale (SHS) and a demographic profile. RESULTS: All study participants were female with an average age of 20.1 years, and most reported a religious affiliation and participation in religious activities. Their spiritual health was moderate; and generally the study metric "connection to others" was the highest factor, and the metric "religion attachment" was the lowest. Certain demographic characteristics, including age, education level, aboriginal characteristic, level of religious devotion, and family atmosphere were predictors of spiritual health. CONCLUSION: Nursing educators should be aware of the impact of spiritual health on nursing students, and should consider developing spiritual and religious education programs to enhance students' spiritual health and to nurture their ability to supply spiritual nursing care for patients.