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Aims and Objectives: To assess nursing and allied health students' demographics, knowledge and intentions to care for patients with an infectious disease, COVID‐19. Background: COVID‐19 has caused a public health crisis and worldwide panic. Little is known about students' knowledge levels and intentions to care for infected patients during pandemics. Design: A quantitative, cross‐sectional study. Method: A cross‐sectional study with a convenience sample (N = 480) of nursing and allied health students was analysed using the Mann–Whitney and Spearman's correlation tests. Results: At least 60% of the participants attained high scores for 16 of the 22 items on the knowledge scale. Knowledge was positively associated with attitude (rs =.19, p <.01) and perceived behavioural control (rs =.38, p <.01) and negatively associated with subjective norms (rs = −.11, p <.05). Senior students had higher scores (p =.024) in knowledge. Intention was negatively correlated with knowledge (rs = −.24, p <.01) and perceived behavioural control (rs = −.16, p <.01). Male students (p =.031) and younger students had higher scores in intention (p =.040). Males had higher scores in subjective norms (p <.001), and older and senior students had higher scores in perceived behavioural control (p <.001). Conclusions: Despite the current knowledge on COVID‐19 available through multimedia‐communication channels, students had negative perceived behavioural controls and intentions to care for COVID‐19 patients. Formal education and training are required to enhance students' intentions to care for patients with infectious diseases. Additionally, demographics and belief variables influence students' intentions to care, and further in‐depth analysis is required. Relevance to Clinical Practice This study suggests the importance of updating and contextualizing nursing and allied health curricula to meet global infectious disease guidelines and, ultimately, to support the healthcare system with efficient practitioners in future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has been reported as one of the neurological manifestations linked to COVID-19, a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus 2. We present the case of a 72-year-old male patient attending a tertiary care hospital in Muscat, Oman, in 2020 with a history of progressive bilateral limb weakness and numbness. The current diagnosis was in line with a rare complication of COVID-19. After exclusion of other possible causes, a diagnosis of GBS induced by COVID-19 was made. The patient received 0.4g/kg of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) per day for five days. This case report highlights the characteristics and course of GBS following COVID-19 infection. Further studies are needed to characterize the manifestations and course of various neuromuscular disorders in relation to COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine patterns of troponin testing in the emergency department of a large tertiary care hospital in Oman and to determine its effect on patient management, including length of hospital stay (LOS). Methods: This retrospective study analysed the medical records of all adult patients undergoing troponin testing in the emergency department of the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman, during the month of July 2015. Patients who presented with an ST-elevation myocardial infarction were excluded. Results: A total of 4,845 patients attended the emergency department during the study period; of these, troponin tests were ordered for 588 patients. The majority of the patients had negative troponin test results (81.3%). Chest pain, palpitations and breathlessness were the most common presenting complaints for those with positive troponin results. However, 41.8% of patients did not have any cardiac symptoms. Individuals with positive troponin tests had a significantly longer LOS compared to those with negative tests (mean: three versus one day; P = 0.001). In total, only 28.2% of those with positive troponin test results had final diagnoses associated with a cardiac condition, such as heart failure, an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), atrial fibrillation or other types of arrhythmia. Conclusion: A positive troponin test was associated with increased LOS; however, only a small proportion of these patients had a final diagnosis associated with a cardiac condition. Guidelines should be provided to ensure that troponin testing is performed only in cases where an ACS is suspected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]