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Introduction. Little is known about how shifting hospital visitor restrictions issued by national health authorities were communicated, managed, and adapted by hospital charge nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aims. To describe the shifting visitor restrictions and the passing on of restrictions from the national authority level to charge nurses and secondly describe charge nurses' management of the restrictions and their challenges when enforcing them. Methods. The study consisted of a document analysis and a cross-sectional survey including open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were used. The survey was distributed online to 88 charge nurses in somatic units in a Danish university hospital from March 2020 to April 2021. Results. Restrictions were communicated from national authority level in an effective administrative cascade. The charge nurses led their enforcement in each unit. In total, 71 charge nurses (81%) responded to the survey. For 70%, the wording of the restrictions was clear, while 31% found them challenging to handle. On a weekly or daily basis, 68% of the charge nurses deviated from the restrictions. They identified both upsides and downsides to the absence of relatives. Communication, collaboration, and leadership were experienced as key tools in the ongoing processes of adapting to shifting restrictions. Conclusion. During this severe health crisis, essential information was passed on through well-defined management levels in an effective communication pathway. Charge nurses and their professional values were challenged when balancing shifting national restrictions against individual needs of patients and relatives. Implications for Nursing Management. Charge nurses serve as vital intermediaries between national authorities and frontline nursing practice in managing shifting visitor restrictions during a pandemic. Their experiences can contribute to further qualifying nurse managers' considerations when designing family-centred hospital visitor policies for the future. Also, they may strengthen the handling of future sudden major organizational changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recruitment and retention of in-patient psychiatric mental health registered nurses (PMH-RNs) remains a challenge. This qualitative study sought to identify factors impacting the recruitment and retention of PMH-RNs in acute-care settings. Participants (N = 15) were recruited for focus groups including one with in-patient unit administrators (n = 4), two with current PMH-RNs (n = 7), and two with nursing students (n = 4). Data were analyzed using a directed content analysis approach. Participants were informed about the study's purpose, procedures, potential risks, and benefits, and they provided verbal consent before participating. Administrators emphasized a focus on retention and described a variety of supports they provided PMH-RNs, including formal and informal support and education. PMH-RNs' most prevalent concerns were their safety, co-worker and/or management challenges, and emotional and/or physical exhaustion. Students also expressed concerns about safety in psychiatric settings and desired more interaction with PMH-RNs. They were also interested in learning more about the specialty as they valued the opportunity to see change in patients. All three groups mentioned a need for more interaction between students and PMH-RNs, while safety concerns were expressed by both PMH-RNs and students. Because PMH-RNs play a critical role for in-patient psychiatric care, recruiting and retaining specialist nurses can focus on increasing student engagement with the PMH-RNs, attending to PMH-RNs' management and staffing concerns, and providing additional resources for responding to events that threaten safety in the workplace to prevent burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a need to promote the most adequate behaviors. It is essential to know what aspects were implemented and what needs to be re-enforced. Objectives. (a) To identify the knowledge and behaviors related with preventive measures, lifestyle habits, sources of information, vaccination, and emotions generated and coping strategies and (b) to explore the personal experiences with respect to the knowledge, attitudes, and practices when facing COVID-19. Design. A convergent mixed method design. Setting and Participants. This study was conducted in the Segrià region (Catalonia, Spain) during the months of January and February 2022, with individuals 18 years old or older. Methods. Based on variables proposed by the WHO and a bibliographic review, an ad hoc electronic survey was utilized for the quantitative part, analyzed through frequency distribution or central tendency and dispersion measurements. For the qualitative part, two focus groups were analyzed through content analysis. Results. The participants (n QUAN = 1,559; n QUAL = 19) were aware about and applied the prevention measures, but when delving into it, deficiencies were detected especially when referring to hand-washing; lifestyles remained healthy; the population trusted the information from professionals (78.8%), but excess of information led to saturation; protection (75.3%) and herd immunity (47.2%) were recognized with vaccination; and the psychological impact (69.5%) was buffered with the activation of positive coping measures (99.1%), although it was maintained in more than half of them. Conclusions. This study showed that prevention measures must be re-enforced, especially hand-washing. Another revealing aspect was psychological impact, which, although coping measures were utilized, was maintained for another two years in most of them. This evidences the need for an intervention centered on this to guarantee the mental health of the population. Implications for Nursing Management. The detection of the current needs of the population provides the information necessary for the design of an adapted intervention and for promoting health education programs to address COVID-19 or other future health situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]