A qualitative exploration of the experiences of school nurses during COVID-19 pandemic as the frontline primary health care professionals.

BACKGROUND: It is widely acknowledged that the experiences of frontline primary health care professionals during COVID-19 are important to understand how they respond and act under situations of pandemic as the gatekeepers in primary health care system. School nurses are primary health care professionals who lead health care in schools and practice in a holistic manner to address the needs of schoolchildren and school personnel. There are rising mental health concerns of frontline health care professionals with anxiety and panic disorders, somatic symptoms, and feeling isolated. No studies use a qualitative study approach to document community frontline school nursing professionals' experiences and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, understanding the school nurses' experiences and challenges to fight against COVID-19 in the communities is important. PURPOSE: This study aims to explore the experiences of school nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. METHODS: A qualitative study design adopted the principles of thematic analysis. Nineteen school nurses were recruited to participate in individual semistructured interviews and shared their roles and responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. FINDINGS: Three themes indicated the school nurses' expand professional responsibilities to fight against COVID-19 emerged from the data analysis. These were "Managing Stress," "Navigating the School Through the Pandemic," and "Raising the Profile of the School Nurse Professional," DISCUSSION: Findings reveal the important role of school nursing professionals in minimizing the community-wide risk posed by pandemics and the need to integrate them into planning and implementation of school health policies and guidelines in the primary health care system. This essential role in schools is necessary to assess, implement, monitor, prevent, and reduce the spread of virus in school communities and to minimize the burden to and extra health care resources utilized in the acute care setting during COVID-19 pandemic.

Digitalizing traditional chinese medicine pulse diagnosis with artificial neural network.

OBJECTIVES: The increasing popularities of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and telehealth indicate a need for digitalizing major clinical assessment methods used during TCM consultations. In this study, an electronic TCM pulse diagnostic system was developed, and its validity was explored. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The system was developed with an artificial neural network (ANN). The output neurons were TCM pulse qualities operationalized as the intensity of eight elements (depth, rate, regularity, width, length, smoothness, stiffness, and strength) at six locations (left and right cun, guan, and chi). The input neurons were physical parameters of arterial pressure waveform acquired from the six locations by a pulse acquisition device. TCM pulse quality was rated by a TCM doctor on a 0-10 visual analog scale. Physical parameters were extracted from the arterial pressure waveform with a pulse extraction program developed in-house. The model structure, including number of hidden neurons and hidden layers, and training algorithms were manipulated to optimize model performance. The value of r² was the outcome measure indicating model performance. RESULTS: Two hundred twenty-nine subjects were recruited. Four-layer ANN models trained with 45 hidden neurons and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm performed the best. The r² ranged from 0.60 to 0.86. CONCLUSIONS: The validity of the proposed system generated by ANN is established and can assist TCM doctors in collecting relevant health data during telehealth consultation.

To evaluate the effect of challenge-based learning on the approaches to learning of Chinese nursing students: A quasi-experimental study.

Challenge-based learning (CBL) is a learner-centred, experimental learning strategy that aims to prepare students to manage unforeseeable and complex global issues in the 21st century. It cultivates an active and authentic learning environment that requires students' creative input, collaboration and community involvement. Studies in the past decade have shown that CBL strengthens soft skills essential for future society, such as critical thinking and creativity. However, its effect on students' metacognitive abilities is scarcely mentioned. This study - a quasi-experimental study with non-equivalent groups conducted in a self-financing tertiary institution in Hong Kong - aims to evaluate the effect of CBL on approaches to learning among nursing students. First-year students in the nursing programme who attended a nursing course using CBL were recruited for the intervention group and senior year-one students were included in the control group. Their approach to learning was measured by the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire administered at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the mean difference in scores of deep and surface approaches between the groups. A total of 209 participants were recruited, with 130 in the intervention group and 79 in the control group. The response rates were 65.3% (130/199) and 78.2% (79/101) for the intervention and control groups, respectively. In the intervention group, the mean post-test deep approach score was significantly higher than the pre-test score (F = 5.2, p = 0.023), even though it had only a small effect. There was no statistically significant difference in baseline post-test mean surface scores (F = 2.4, p = 0.125). The results of this study indicate that CBL may facilitate deep learning in nursing students.

Learning experience of Chinese nursing students in an online clinical English course: qualitative study.

The low English proficiency of Chinese nurse/nursing students affects their performance when they work in English-speaking countries. However, limited resources are available to help them improve their workplace English, i.e. English used in a clinical setting. To this end, it is essential to look for an appropriate and effective means to assist them in improving their clinical English. The objective of this study is to evaluate the learning experience of Chinese nursing students after they have completed an online clinical English course. Focus group interview was used to explore their learning experience. 100 students in nursing programs at Tung Wah College were recruited. The inclusion criteria were: (1) currently enrolled in a nursing program; and (2) having clinical experience. Eligible participants self-registered for the online English course, and were required to complete the course within 3 months. After that, semi-structured interviews were conducted on students whom completed the whole and less than half of the course. One of the researchers joined each of the interviews as a facilitator and an observer. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Finally, 7 themes emerged from the interviews: technical issues, adequacy of support, time requirement, motivation, clarity of course instruction, course design, and relevancy of the course. Participants had varied opinions on the 2 themes: motivation and relevancy of the course. Overall, results of this study suggest that the online English course helped students improve their English. Factors which support their learning are interactive course design, no time constraint, and relevancy to their work/study. Factors which detracted from their learning are poor accessibility, poor technical and learning support and no peer support throughout the course.