MATERIALS AND METHODS: During the period from 16 to 21 March 2007, outbreak investigations and active case finding were carried out among residents and nursing staff at the welfare home. Interviews and medical notes review were conducted to obtain epidemiological and clinical data. Hospitalised patients were tested for respiratory pathogens. Further genetic studies were also carried out on positive respiratory samples.
RESULTS: The overall clinical attack rate was 9.4% (17/180) in residents and 6.7% (2/30) in staff. All infected residents and staff had received influenza immunisation. Fifteen residents were hospitalised, with 2 developing severe complications. Genetic sequencing revealed that the outbreak strain had an 8.2% amino acid difference from B/Malaysia/2506/2004, the 2006 southern hemisphere influenza vaccine strain, which the residents and staff had earlier received.
CONCLUSIONS: A mismatch between the vaccine and circulating influenza virus strains can result in an outbreak in a highly immunised LTCF resident population. Active surveillance for acute respiratory illness in LTCFs could be implemented for rapid detection of antigenic drift. Enhanced infection control and other preventive measures can then be deployed in a timely manner to mitigate the effect of any outbreaks.
Objective: To determine the knowledge, awareness and perception towards hypertension among residents in nursing homes as well as the roles of caregivers in hypertension management.
Methods: A face-to-face survey with 200 hypertensive residents and 30 caregivers from 24 nursing homes in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia was conducted.
Results: Of all the hypertensive residents, 90.5% (n= 181) knew that lowering their blood pressure could improve their health. Most residents strongly believed that taking antihypertensive drugs is important for keeping their high blood pressure under control (n= 162, 81%). Taking medication was perceived as the most important factor in controlling the high blood pressure (58%,n= 116) compared to lifestyle or diet modification. The majority of the caregivers reported that they played a major role in managing hypertension, especially with regards to medication-taking. task (66.7%,n= 20).
Conclusion: The knowledge, attitude and perceptions of hypertension play a relatively major role in the self-management of hypertension. The role of caregivers also needed to be recognised in managing hypertension in nursing homes.
OBJECTIVE: This scientometric investigation aims to examine collaborative research networks, dominant research themes and disciplines, and seminal research studies that have contributed most to the field of telemedicine. This information is vital for scientists, institutions, and policy stakeholders to evaluate research areas where more infrastructural or scholarly contributions are required.
METHODS: For analyses, we used CiteSpace (version 4.0 R5; Drexel University), which is a Java-based software that allows scientometric analysis, especially visualization of collaborative networks and research themes in a specific field.
RESULTS: We found that scholarly activity has experienced a significant increase in the last decade. Most important works were conducted by institutions located in high-income countries. A discipline-specific shift from radiology to telestroke, teledermatology, telepsychiatry, and primary care was observed. The most important innovations that yielded a collaborative influence were reported in the following medical disciplines, in descending order: public environmental and occupational health, psychiatry, pediatrics, health policy and services, nursing, rehabilitation, radiology, pharmacology, surgery, respiratory medicine, neurosciences, obstetrics, and geriatrics.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite a continuous rise in scholarly activity in telemedicine, we noticed several gaps in the literature. For instance, all the primary and secondary research central to telemedicine was conducted in the context of high-income countries, including the evidence synthesis approaches that pertained to implementation aspects of telemedicine. Furthermore, the research landscape and implementation of telemedicine infrastructure are expected to see exponential progress during and after the COVID-19 era.
METHODS: A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for mixed-method systematic review. A search was undertaken across the following electronic databases for studies published in English during 2013-2022: CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and PsycINFO. Two of the researchers critically appraised included articles independently using the Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tools and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (version 2018). A data-based convergent integrated approach was adopted for data synthesis.
RESULTS: Of the 27 included articles (19 qualitative and eight quantitative), five each were conducted in Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia), Australia and Europe (Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom); four each in the United States and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and Kuwait); two in Canada; and one each in New Zealand and South Africa. Five themes emerged from the data synthesis: (1) desire for better career prospects, (2) occupational downward mobility, (3) inequality in career advancement, (4) acculturation and (5) support system.
CONCLUSION: This systematic review investigated the factors influencing AMN retention and identified several promising retention strategies: granting them permanent residency, ensuring transparency in credentialing assessment, providing equal opportunities for career advancement, instituting induction programmes for newly employed Asian IENs, enabling families to be with them and building workplace social support. Retention strategies that embrace the Asian IENs' perspectives and experiences are envisioned to ensure a sustainable nursing workforce.
OBJECTIVE: To understand the psychological processes involved in the experiencing of suffering at the end phase of life.
METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 palliative care inpatients from an academic medical centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The transcripts were thematically analysed with NVIVO9.
RESULTS: 5 themes of psychological processes of suffering were generated: (1) perceptions, (2) cognitive appraisals, (3) hope and the struggles with acceptance, (4) emotions and (5) clinging. A model of suffering formation was constructed.
CONCLUSION: The findings may inform the development of mechanism-based interventions in the palliation of suffering.
OBJECTIVE: To appraise and synthesize the best available evidence that examines the effectiveness of OBE approaches towards the competencies of nursing students.
DESIGN: A systematic review of interventional experimental studies.
DATA SOURCES: Eight online databases namely CINAHL, EBSCO, Science Direct, ProQuest, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE and SCOPUS were searched.
REVIEW METHODS: Relevant studies were identified using combined approaches of electronic database search without geographical or language filters but were limited to articles published from 2006 to 2016, handsearching journals and visually scanning references from retrieved studies. Two reviewers independently conducted the quality appraisal of selected studies and data were extracted.
RESULTS: Six interventional studies met the inclusion criteria. Two of the studies were rated as high methodological quality and four were rated as moderate. Studies were published between 2009 and 2016 and were mostly from Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Results showed that OBE approaches improves competency in knowledge acquisition in terms of higher final course grades and cognitive skills, improve clinical skills and nursing core competencies and higher behavioural skills score while performing clinical skills. Learners' satisfaction was also encouraging as reported in one of the studies. Only one study reported on the negative effect.
CONCLUSIONS: Although OBE approaches does show encouraging effects towards improving competencies of nursing students, more robust experimental study design with larger sample sizes, evaluating other outcome measures such as other areas of competencies, students' satisfaction, and patient outcomes are needed.
METHODS: Unstructured observations and a focus-group discussion were carried out with 18 participants involved in a six-week SRT program in a residential care facility in Kuala Lumpur.
RESULTS: Analysis revealed four themes: (i) Enthusiastic participation; (ii) Connections across boundaries; (iii) Expressing and reflecting; and (iv) Successful use of triggers.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the process of reminiscence, on which the program was based, was enjoyable for the participants and created opportunities to form connections with other members of the group. The use of relevant triggers in the SRT program that related to Malaysian cultures, ethnicities and religions was helpful to engage the participants and was acceptable across the different religions and ethnicities.
METHOD: This study used an analytic descriptive design with a cross-sectional approach with a population of 115 and the sample used was 85 people. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires. Questionnaires were used assess about nurses' knowledge, nurses' attitudes, and nurses' behavior in providing spiritual nursing care.
RESULTS: The results of bivariate analysis found a relationship between knowledge and behavior of nurses in the provision of spiritual nursing care with p value 0.010 (α=0.05). But there is no relationship between attitudes with nurses' behavior in providing spiritual nursing care with p value 1.000 (α=0.05).
CONCLUSION: Nurses' knowledge of nursing care can influence nurses' behavior in providing spiritual nursing care to patients.