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The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted first-line medical staff as well as nursing-student clinical practicum programs. How to cooperate with the government's pandemic-prevention policies and reduce the gap between education and clinical practice represent significant challenges. In this paper, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology (CCUST) is used as an example to show how schools in Taiwan have effectively adapted the fundamentals of nursing practicum programs to the current pandemic using e-learning, group discussions, case analysis, clinical skill practice, and clinical case simulation scenario exercises. The program at CCUST both takes into account the safety of students and has achieved all critical nursing practice goals. After implementation of these adjustments, satisfaction among nursing students with the practicum environment and the clinical instructors was found to be significantly higher for the on-campus clinical practicum than for the offcampus clinical practicum. Furthermore, the results of qualitative data analyses show that nursing students in the on-campus practicum gained significant knowledge and experience and commented positively on their experience. For example, the students indicated that they were satisfied with the simulated clinical environment of the CCC, the teaching strategies and adaptability of the instructor, and the application of virtual reality scenario cases to enhance skill proficiency and learning outcomes. The adjusted nursing clinical practicum described in this paper may be used as a reference to ensure the quality of nursing clinical practicum programs is maintained during epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is an indispensable element that shapes every profession and discipline. "Employ evidencebased research into practice" is one of the five core competences highlighted by the American Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2001 that all healthcare professionals should possess. With the development of evidence-based medicine, "Nursing research competence" has gradually become a core competence that all nurses must have. In light of the major demographic changes and multicultural social revolution underway worldwide, nursing research trends must be adapted to meet new, global challenges rooted in changing environmental, populational, geographical, and ethnic conditions. This paper analyzed the Web of Science database using VOSviewer and inputting the names of schools and departments as key words in consideration of QS rankings among European, American, and Asia regions for the years 2014 - 2018. Analyses of keywords, themes, and countries of international cooperation were conducted on 6333 original nursing articles published in journals indexed on the Science Citation Index (SCI) and/or Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The results indicate that the cooperation between scholars from Taiwan and scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China is relatively common. With regard to both global and Asia-specific research study trends, the top- five key words used to describe nursing research papers were health, care, depression, prevalence, and quality of life. The differences between Europe and the United States and Taiwan were the "risk, intervention, experience, adolescent" and "risk and impact" depicted by visual analysis. In addition, this research examined the themes of academic nursing conferences announced online for 2020, and found that a majority highlighted "nursing and healthcare" as a major theme. In twenty-two Chinese nursing journals indexed on the Huayi Online Database (2017-2020), geriatric nursing, long-term care and improvement in nursing care quality were the most commonly used research topics. In general, the aims of nursing research are to enhance the professional image and status of global nurses and to achieve the goals of global health. To create a better nursing research environment in Taiwan, nurses should improve their research abilities and cultivate cultural nursing sensitivity with the goals of maximizing the quality and quantity of research and of strengthening international cooperation, with the ultimate aim of enhancing the health and well-being of all. The international visibility of nursing in Taiwan must be increased to improve our international profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional nursing organizations represent an important channel for the nursing profession to influence health policy, represent and protect the interests of nurses, and advocate for the further development of the profession. Facing the rapidly increasing aging population and emerging needs of long-term care in Taiwan, the Taiwan Nurses Association launched an integrated project to propose policy advice on the development of nursing in long-term care. In this paper, the relevant findings in the domestic and foreign literature are summarized to better define the role function and core competence of long-term care nurses. In addition, the current tasks, perceived competence, and training needs of nurses working in long term care settings are presented, and the consensus on various advocacy strategies are summarized. The findings presented in this study may be referenced when developing evidence-based policy recommendations related to education, practice, legal / regulatory amendments, and professional organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving enhanced healthcare quality by participating in cross-disciplinary medical teams and providing specialized, precision nursing are core professional values of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs). Although CNSs are crucial in the healthcare field, the development of CNSs in Taiwan remains in its infancy. The Taiwan Nurses Association has already announced regulations related to professional frameworks and scope of practice for advanced practice nurses and has reached a preliminary consensus and plans on the definition, qualifications, and indicators of care for CNSs. The clinical application, job titles, and certification of the professional core values of CNSs require continuous and joint deliberation and development by professional nurse organizations. In this study, the results of empirical research into professional organizational frameworks and certification of CNSs in Europe, the United States, and Australia were used to derive a reference model for CNS education and training development for advanced practice nurse specialties in Taiwan. The fundamental elements of the roles and professional frameworks and feasible qualification certification systems were also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this article is on a male patient with hearing loss who was diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning to Taiwan from overseas. Due to the severe pneumonia infiltration, the patient received the clinical-trial treatment Remdesivir. In addition to facing the isolation and new-drug-related anxieties of the patient, the medical team faced difficulties in communicating effectively with the patient and in helping him through the isolation period. During the period of hospitalization (March 14th to April 13th, 2020), the author used Roy's adaptation model to perform a nursing assessment, which confirmed that the patient faced the following problems: (1) ineffective breathing pattern related to COVID-19, (2) impaired verbal communication related to hearing impairment, and (3) social isolation related to the isolation experience and the communication barrier with healthcare workers. During the nursing care process, the author helped the patient receive the antiviral treatment and taught him how to do diaphragmatic breathing in a comfortable, recumbent position to improve his breathing pattern. To reduce the difficulty of communication, the author made a pile of cards with common care-related words, provided pen and paper to write, and used a mobile-phone-based socialnetworking application to communicate with the patient. The author used writing to communicate with the patient and learned some simple signs from him to enable interaction. Moreover, the intervention helped him adapt to the isolation and treatment protocols to reach holistic nursing care. Based on this experience, the author suggests that hospitals cooperate with sign language organizations to teach healthcare workers simple communication skills, including sign language and cards to provide more complete care for patients with hearing loss during hospitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), representing the current best-practice guidelines and recommendations for care, are supported by systematic review and evidence-based research. CPGs provide an effective and efficient approach to caring for patients and improving quality of care. Recently, the National Health Insurance Administration and National Institutes of Health developed CPGs for major diseases in Taiwan. This paper introduces the process that was used to develop one of these CPGs, the Taiwan Chronic Kidney Disease Clinical Guidelines, which was published in 2015. Further, we introduce the general development of published nursing guidelines in Taiwan. These CPGs are expected to initiate various renal-care guidelines and to promote the quality of renal care in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenza vaccinations may decrease the risk of contracting influenza and its complications significantly in pregnant women and effectively help infants less than six months of age avoid hospitalization. Based on scientific evidence supporting the safety and benefits of the influenza vaccination for pregnant women and fetuses, the epidemic prevention policy of both the World Health Organization and Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare recommend that pregnant women receive the influenza vaccination. However, low acceptance of the influenza vaccine among pregnant women is an ongoing concern in Taiwan. Nursing staffs play a key role in implementing the influenza vaccination program for pregnant women. Therefore, strengthening the professional competency and service effectiveness of nursing staffs may be expected to significantly improve the vaccination coverage rate. This article offers practical methods for achieving this, including promoting nursing staffs' professional knowledge and positive attitudes regarding influenza vaccinations for pregnant women, improving nursing staffs' related education and skills in communication with pregnant women and their families, and improving the implementation of the notification mechanism for disseminating accurate information regarding the vaccine and vaccine adverse events. Our ultimate goal is to enhance the confidence and willingness of pregnant women with regard to receiving influenza vaccinations in order to promote the health of mothers and their fetuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]