MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaires, a total of 24 nurses and 43 doctors were assessed for patient-centredness, psychological distress, and job satisfaction using the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Job Satisfaction Scale. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test and MANCOVA, with p<0.05 considered significant.
RESULTS: Overall response rate was 95.6% (43/45) for physicians and 85.7% (24/28) for nurses. Even after adjusting for known covariates, our principal finding was that doctors reported greater psychological distress compared to nurses (p=0.009). Doctors also reported lower job satisfaction compared to nurses (p = 0.017), despite higher levels of patient-centredness found in nurses (p=0.001). Findings may be explained in part by differences in job characteristics and demands.
CONCLUSIONS: Mental health is an important concern not just in cancer patients but among healthcare professionals in oncology.
METHOD: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to understand the experience of nurses caring for patients in the acute setting who had sustained a traumatic spinal injury with associated neurological deficit. Using the phenomenological approach guided by the insight of Gadamer and Max Van Manen, participants with a broad range of experience were recruited and interviewed. The responses were transcribed into a text and subjected to hermeneutic analysis. Burnard's (1991) 14-step process and the hermeneutic approach were used to interpret and understand the phenomenon of interest.
CONCLUSION: The study highlights the experience and challenges of providing care to these individuals. Although patients had significant physical disabilities and were often dependent physically, the nurses' concerns were directed more towards fulfilling their psychological needs. Nurses identified grieving patients and felt their role was to provide realistic hope to motivate them. They felt an internal tension regarding desensitisation towards their patients, but this was often an internal protective mechanism to deal with the significance of the events surrounding these patients. Nurses new to this setting took time to learn the routines and manage the unique challenges effectively. Caring for these patients gave the nurses the opportunity to understand their patients and their families, and appreciate that both groups will fluctuate in their behavior throughout the acute process, as they adjust to grief and loss.
METHODS: A systematic review was carried out using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The included sites and databases are Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) from 1994 to 2019. The quality of the selected studies was evaluated using a standard quality rating tool (SQRT). The quality of the criteria for inclusion and exclusion was independently reviewed by three researchers.
RESULTS: This study evaluated 5266 records in the identification stage. In the included stage, only four studies were included in this review. In the standard quality assessment, none of the included studies were evaluated as being a strong study, none used an experimental design at three points in time (pre, post and follow-up), and all showed a moderate to high risk of bias. There is a lack of knowledge and skills related to trauma triage among emergency nurses in the included studies.
CONCLUSION: A lack of knowledge and skills concerning trauma triage among emergency nurses could potentially have an adverse effect on the outcomes of the patients in trauma cases.
PURPOSE: To investigate the teaching and learning experiences of Malaysian nurses on Transnational Higher Education post-registration top-up degree programmes in Malaysia.
DESIGN: Hermeneutic phenomenology and the ethnographic principle of cultural interpretation were used to explore the views of eighteen Malaysian nurses from two UK and one Australian TNHE universities (determined by convenience and snowball sampling methods) to ensure data saturation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in English and Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian language) to enable nurses' voices to define, describe and evaluate their TNHE classroom experiences.
DATA ANALYSIS: Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
FINDINGS: The nurses' experiences within the short one or 2 weeks TNHE intercultural teaching and learning environment identified four categories: language and teaching and learning issues; TNHE degree requirements, guidance and support; shock and coping strategies and acclimatisation. They suggest there was a conflict between the assumptions and expectations of the TNHE 'flying faculty' and nurses' about the programme of study. There were also mismatches between Western and Malaysian pedagogical preferences, guidance and support, and professional values.
IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION/PRACTICE: There is a need for TNHE 'flying faculty' to internationalise the theoretical knowledge to reduce cultural incongruities and dissimilarities. Cultural immersion will stimulate intercultural views and knowledge to equip nurses for promotional and/or global opportunities whilst enabling the 'flying faculty' to create new learning environments. The research provides insights to inform TNHE provider institutions to improve teaching and learning to enable nurses to make the theory-practice connection.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of self-perceived emotional distress and its relation to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) in nurses.
METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire survey was carried out on 660 female nurses working in public hospitals in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The validated Malay version of the standardized Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire (M-SNMQ) was used to identify the annual prevalence of WRMSDs; perceived emotional distress was assessed using the validated Malay short version, depression, anxiety, and stress (M-DASS) instrument. In addition, socio-demographic and occupational profiles of the participants were considered. Factors associated with WRMSDs were identified using logistic regression analysis.
RESULTS: A total of 376 nurses completed the survey (response rate 83.3%). 73.1% of the nursing staffs experienced WRMSDs in at least one anatomical site 12 months prior to the study. 75% of nurses expressed emotional distress. Of these, over half also reported anxiety and stress. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that stress and anxiety significantly increased the risk of WRMSDs by approximately twofold.
CONCLUSION: There were significant associations between emotional distress and WRMSDs. Future longitudinal studies are therefore needed to investigate and identify the sources of emotional distress (non-occupational and occupational) to be used to establish preventive strategies to reduce the risk of WRMSDs.
BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is a known predictor of nurse retention. Although there is a broad understanding of the factors that affect job satisfaction, little is known about how these vary between home and expatriate nurses working in countries which rely on a multicultural migrant workforce.
METHODS: A descriptive qualitative approach was taken, in which 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses selected from different nationalities, all of whom were working in Saudi Arabian hospitals. Eight participants were Saudi Arabian, six Filipino, four Indian, four South African, two Jordanian and two Malaysian.
FINDINGS: Five themes were identified that differentiated the perceptions of expatriates regarding their job satisfaction from those of the home nurses: separation from family, language and communication, fairness of remuneration, moving into the future and professionalism.
CONCLUSION: Focusing on the enhancement of job satisfaction experienced by expatriate nurses can result in a healthier work environment and greater retention of these nurses.
IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND NURSING POLICY: To enhance nurse retention, policy makers in countries with migrant nurses should address their socio-economic needs. This includes providing both greater access to their dependent family members, and language lessons and cultural orientation to reduce linguistic and cultural challenges.
BACKGROUND: Nursing professionals are placed continuously at the forefront in the area of health care which makes them highly exposed to professional stress.
EVALUATION: Randomized controlled trial studies (RCTs) were systematically searched in eight different databases for works published in English from 2011 to 2019; inclusion criteria were applied by two reviewers critically and assessed the risk of bias using Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT).
KEY ISSUES: The systematic search contributed to the extraction of approximately 10 most relevant RCTs. Most of the RCTs considered in this systematic review revealed that the stress reduction interventions and strategies were effective in reducing the levels of occupational stress experienced by nurses.
CONCLUSIONS: Current review shows that stress management interventional programme tends to be effective, but additional well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm their effectiveness.
IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Implementing stress management interventions within health care organisations are likely to assist nurses in reducing occupational stress and in improving coping strategies used by nurses for dealing with stress.