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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]

Background: Infection is more frequent, and serious in people aged > 65 as they experience non-specific signs and symptoms delaying diagnosis and prompt treatment. Monitoring signs and symptoms using decision support tools (DST) is one approach that could help improve early detection ensuring timely treatment and effective care.Objective: To identify and analyse decision support tools available to support detection of infection in older people (> 65 years).Methods: A scoping review of the literature 2010-2021 following Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A search of MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and PsycINFO using terms to identify decision support tools for detection of infection in people > 65 years was conducted, supplemented with manual searches.Results: Seventeen papers, reporting varying stages of development of different DSTs were analysed. DSTs largely focussed on specific types of infection i.e. urine, respiratory, sepsis and were frequently hospital based (n = 9) for use by physicians. Four DSTs had been developed in nursing homes and one a care home, two of which explored detection of non- specific infection.Conclusions: DSTs provide an opportunity to ensure a consistent approach to early detection of infection supporting prompt action and treatment, thus avoiding emergency hospital admissions. A lack of consideration regarding their implementation in practice means that any attempt to create an optimal validated and tested DST for infection detection will be impeded. This absence may ultimately affect the ability of the workforce to provide more effective and timely care, particularly during the current covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 crisis in Spain has exacerbated the shortage of nursing staff to respond to increasing healthcare demands. For this reason, nursing students were requested to collaborate voluntarily as auxiliary health staff. This emergency has led to mental health problems in health professionals, hence the relevance of coping techniques. The objectives of this study were to explore the experiences and emotional responses of final‐year nursing students who volunteered to carry out healthcare relief tasks during the peak of the COVID‐19 pandemic, and to identify the coping strategies they adopted to deal with this situation. A qualitative study was conducted in the constructivist paradigm. Purposive sampling was used, and twenty‐two students participated in semi‐structured interviews, which were then content‐analysed. The study is reported using the COREQ checklist. Five themes emerged in the 'Experiences and emotional response' dimension (context, patients, emotions and feelings, risk of contagion, and personal satisfaction), and three themes emerged in the 'Coping strategies' dimension strategies in the work environment, in daily life and personal life. Although the students expressed negative emotions due to the highly complex context and lack of professional experience, they evaluated the experience positively in terms of learning and usefulness. Most notably, the students employed adaptive coping strategies to deal with the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has had an important impact on the academic world. It is known that university studies can influence the mental health of students, and especially those studying health sciences. In this study, we therefore sought to analyse whether the current pandemic has affected the mental well‐being of final‐year nursing students. This was a multi‐centre study, with a descriptive, longitudinal, and prospective design. Mental well‐being was evaluated using the General Health Questionnaire. A total of 305 participants were included in the study, of whom 52.1% had experienced the COVID‐19 pandemic. Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups analysed in terms of age, access to university, average marks, mental well‐being self‐esteem, emotional exhaustion, and sense of coherence. In the case of mental well‐being, a direct association was found with both the pandemic situation (OR = 2.32, P = 0.010) and emotional exhaustion scores (OR = 1.20, P < 0.001), while an inverse association was found with sense of coherence scores (OR = 0.45, P < 0.001). This study shows that the mental health of students is a significant factor and one that must be taken into consideration when training nursing staff at university. There is a need to promote healthy habits and provide appropriate coping strategies. It is also important to train and prepare students for pandemic situations as these can have an important impact on the mental health of both the members of the public who will be treated by these future nursing professionals and the students themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the perception of education and professional development of final-year nursing students who carried out health relief tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global health emergency. This situation has exacerbated the need for additional healthcare employees, forcing the Spanish government to incorporate volunteer nursing students as auxiliary health staff. A qualitative study framed in the constructivist paradigm. Twenty-two students of nursing were recruited. A purposeful sampling was implemented until reaching saturation. A semi-structured interview as a conversational technique was used to collect information based on three dimensions: academic curriculum, disciplinary professional development, and patient care. Subsequently, a content analysis of the information was carried out. Three phases were followed in the data analysis process: theoretical, descriptive-analytical, and interpretive. The COREQ checklist was used to evaluate the study. The most important results are linked to the students' professional and academic preparation, how the nurses handled the pandemic situation and the characteristics of the COVID-19 patients. Students require training in order to offer holistic care to patients, adapted to the context. Participants highlight the importance of professional values and recognise a high level of competence and autonomy in nurses. • There is a lack of preparation to face a situation such as that caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. • Recognition of professional nursing skills as a key element of healthcare. • Need for humanistic and holistic care that emphasises professional nursing values. • Process of adaptation to an unexpected transition of students to the work context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]