OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to identify lipohypertrophy prevalence and to establish the association between the presence of lipohypertrophy and its associated risk factors, including years on injection, total injection in a day, total insulin unit per day, often change needle, insulin injection site and move to a different area.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 128 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who received insulin therapy in an outpatient diabetic clinic. Questionnaires on socio-demographic and lipohypertrophy-associated risk factors were distributed among patients, and lipohypertrophy-assessment was done using a checklist. Descriptive statistics and Pearson Chi-square were used for statistical analysis.
RESULTS: The prevalence of lipohypertrophy was 51.6% (95% CI: 42.6, 60.5). Swelling on fatty tissue (46.1%) exhibited the highest percentage of lipohypertrophy features during the assessment. Pearson Chi-Square revealed a significant relationship between the presence of LH and BMI categories (χ2 = 10.059, df = 3, p = 0.018), duration of injection (χ2 = 15.001, df = 3, p = 0.002), frequency of needle replacement (χ2 = 9.525, df = 3, p = 0.023) and rotation of injection site (χ2 = 5.914, df = 1, p = 0.015).
CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of lipohypertrophy indicates a need for a prevention strategy. Thus, nurses should play an important role in educating patients regarding the proper administration of insulin injections and performing a routine lipohypertrophy assessment and health education on the correct method of insulin injection.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to validate the Individual Community Related Empowerment (ICRE) scale in alignment with the national language of Malaysia.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from May to December 2019. Back-to-back translation from the English to Malay version of the ICRE scale was done. A total of 328 older persons aged 60 years old and above who attended clinics and understood Malay had been randomly selected. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), particularly Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation and Kaiser Normalization, was performed in this study using IBM SPSS version 27 Amos graphic.
RESULTS: The findings revealed that the Malay version of the Individual Community Related Empowerment (ICRE-m) scale consists of five components: self-efficacy, intention, participation, motivation, and critical awareness, which collectively accounted for 92.3% of total variance. All five components demonstrated Cronbach's alpha values greater than 0.7, indicating the reliability of the selected items for field studies.
CONCLUSION: The ICRE-m scale is acceptable for field studies and valid for measuring individual-related community empowerment. Nurses and other healthcare professionals can employ this scale specifically within the Malay-speaking population, particularly in the Asian region. Future studies on community empowerment among older individuals can utilize this tool to assess community readiness for participating in community health interventions.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the job satisfaction of the foreign-educated nurses in Malaysia, which includes the job satisfaction dimensions and the significant difference between sociodemographic status and job satisfaction.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 102 foreign-educated nurses working in private hospitals, clinics, hemodialysis centers, nursing homes, and private homes in Malaysia was conducted from September 2017 to March 2018. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: The study revealed that the participants had a median satisfaction score of 22 (IQR = 19 to 24). Serving the sick and needy and participants' self-respect were the highest satisfaction dimensions among the participants (Median = 3, IQR = 3 to 3). Moreover, the job satisfaction was significantly higher for registered foreign-educated nurses (mean rank = 62.5) than for unregistered foreign-educated nurses (mean rank = 48.65) when working in other countries (p = 0.02). Indian nurses (mean rank = 60.36) also expressed higher satisfaction in terms of working in other countries than Filipino nurses (mean rank = 46.88; p = 0.02). In addition, positive relationships with colleagues and superiors led to higher satisfaction among Indian nurses (mean rank = 61.02) than among Filipino nurses (mean rank = 47.24; p = 0.04). The job satisfaction of male foreign-educated nurses was significantly higher than their female counterparts in terms of self-respect, relationship with fellow nurses and superiors, working in other countries, career development, and ease of finding employment (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION: The overall job satisfaction among the foreign-educated nurses in Malaysia is high, mainly when serving the sick and needy, and their degree of self-respect. Understanding job satisfaction among foreign-educated nurses in Malaysia enables the management team to develop effective strategies for addressing nursing shortages and improving the quality of patient care.
OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the financial burden of HD treatment on patients at a Malaysian tertiary teaching hospital.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the HD unit at a Malaysian tertiary teaching hospital from January to February 2021. Patients undergoing HD were purposively selected. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic, finances, the patient's health history, treatment costs, and healthcare utilization. In addition, Pearson Chi-Square tests were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: A total of 100 patients receiving HD treatment were included in the study. The mean age was 62.06 years (SD = 27.50), with 52% reporting moderate financial burdens. The financial burden was associated with employment status, salary, and income class among HD patients (p <0.05).
CONCLUSION: Evidence showed a large proportion of Malaysian patients receiving HD treatment came from the B40 income bracket. The findings indicate that financial burdens can impact HD patients and are related to employment status, salary, and income class. Therefore, the ability to identify HD patients' financial needs is critical in nursing practice.
OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the knowledge and attitude of nurses regarding BRCA genetic testing in a tertiary teaching hospital in Malaysia.
METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 nurses using a simple random sampling technique in a tertiary teaching hospital in northeast peninsular Malaysia. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, assessing nurses' knowledge and attitude regarding BRCA genetic testing. Fisher exact test analysis was used to determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge and attitude level. In addition, the overall knowledge and attitude were analysed using the sum score of each outcome based on Bloom's cut-off point.
RESULTS: Of the 150 nurses, 66.7% had high knowledge level about BRCA genetic testing, and 58% were positive towards genetic testing. The participants' mean age was 28.9 years (SD = 6.70). Years of working experience (p = 0.014) significantly influenced knowledge level on BRCA genetic testing, whereas speciality working experience (p <0.001) significantly influenced BRCA genetic testing attitudes.
CONCLUSIONS: The results show that most nurses have adequate knowledge of BRCA genetic testing. However, their attitude could be termed negative. Therefore, targeted education programs on BRCA genetic testing and risk are needed to improve the knowledge and attitude of nurses and, ultimately, can educate the women and increase health-seeking behaviour among eligible women.
OBJECTIVE: This empirical research investigated the significant implications of psychological safety and intrinsic motivation in the mostly uncultivated link concerning the empowering leadership style and leader-member exchange (LMX) constructs and the practice of voice behavior among nurses in the selected Malaysian public hospitals.
METHODS: Primary data of the study were from nurses employed in the selected large public hospitals within the Klang Valley, also known as the Greater Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia. A total of 366 complete and valid responses were collected with the help of head nurses via a self-administered survey in February 2020. The SmartPLS 4 for Windows software generated the standard partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate associations between research variables and evaluate the model's strength in explaining the proposed constructs.
RESULTS: This research disproved the indirect effects of psychological safety on the connection explorations between empowering leadership-voice behavior (β = 0.015, t-value = 0.300, 95% CI [-0.090, 0.110]) and LMX-voice behavior (β = 0.002, t-value = 0.285, 95% CI [-0.014,0.020]). Intrinsic motivation partially mediates the link between empowering leadership-voice behavior (β = 0.214, t-value = 7.116, 95% CI [0.160, 0.279]) and LMX-voice behavior (β = 0.114, t-value = 4.669, 95% CI [0.071, 0.168]) of the nurses.
CONCLUSION: Patients, non-governmental organizations, volunteers, nurses, and other hospital staff are vested in how voice behavior signifies in the healthcare context. Essential factors for nurses to become more outspoken are discovered in this study, providing nurse managers and other leaders with numerous recommendations for encouraging vocal behavior and bolstering psychological safety and intrinsic motivation. More competent nurses will improve workplace culture, deliver superior healthcare services, and manage publicly financed hospitals with an overall sense of trust, but only after a substantial effort to execute reforms.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the social support associated with the family caregivers of older people.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 231 family caregivers of older people conveniently selected from two districts in Kelantan, a state in the North-East Region of Peninsular Malaysia. Data were gathered between June to December 2021 using a Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data in frequencies and percentages. Independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to examine correlations among variables.
RESULTS: The mean scores of social support for family caregivers were significantly higher among their family (Mean ± SD; 5.44 ± 0.969) and other important people (5.25 ± 1.123) compared to their friends (4.84 ± 1.094). Caregivers' gender and duration of caregiving were significant factors associated with social support (p <0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: The family caregivers received maximum support from their family and other important people, but they were less supported by their friends. This study also observed that the perceived social support of the caregivers of older people was affected by several factors, such as gender and duration of caregiving. This finding gives nurses and other healthcare workers the basic information they need to enhance nursing interventions and promote social support among those who care for older people, which can positively impact caregiving.
OBJECTIVE: This review aimed to identify self-care approaches, domains, and their effectiveness for a proper self-care educational guide package for women with GDM.
DESIGN: A systematic review using electronic literature databases published between January 2016 and December 2022 was conducted.
DATA SOURCES: Web of Science, Scopus, and Ovid databases were used.
REVIEW METHODS: This review utilized the PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes) framework to screen the retrieved articles for eligibility in which mothers with GDM, educational materials, standard practice or intervention, and effectiveness were considered the PICO, respectively. The CIPP (Context, Input, Process, Product) model served as a framework for adopting the education development model. Mixed methods appraisal tool was used for quality assessment. Data extraction and synthesis without meta-analysis were presented as evidence tables.
RESULTS: A total of 19 articles on GDM were included in the final analysis (16 Intervention studies, two qualitative studies, and one mixed-methods study). Four broad domains emerged from the analysis: 1) information or knowledge of GDM, 2) monitoring of blood glucose levels, 3) practice of healthy lifestyles, and 4) other non-specific activities. The majority of the articles employed a face-to-face approach in executing the educational group sessions, and most studies disclosed their positive effects on GDM management. Other methods of evaluating intervention effectiveness were described as improved self-care behavior, increased satisfaction score, enhanced self-efficacy, good glucose control, and better pregnancy outcome.
CONCLUSION: Knowledge or information about GDM, healthy diet, and exercise or physical activity was found to be the most applied domains of intervention. Framework domains based on the present review can be used in the future development of any interventional program for GDM women in enhancing health information reaching the targeted group in promoting self-efficacy.
PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021229610.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the caregivers' beliefs on children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia caregiving experiences in order to promote their well-being.
METHODS: Caregivers from thirteen families of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia participated in this phenomenological study. NVivo 12 was used for the thematic analysis of the data. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) were used in this study.
RESULTS: Overall, five main themes for caregivers' beliefs were identified from their responses: 1) dietary intake with emphasis on its importance in aiding recovery and its potential influence on cancer complications, 2) childcare which emphasized the need to be strong and self-sacrifice, 3) treatment which reflected the use of home or natural remedies and caregivers' negative perception towards chemotherapy, 4) causes of cancer believed to be linked to early childcare choices on food, beverage, and stress imposed on the child, and 5) source of beliefs that included doctors, online platforms, personal encounters and information on food labels.
CONCLUSION: Caregivers' beliefs are varied and nuanced, formed in a multicultural social background of Malaysia. These findings provide knowledge for future supportive cancer care for patients, their caregivers, and the treatment outcome in the Malaysian context. Nurses, who play an essential role between healthcare professionals and patients and/or their caregivers, can be empowered to provide psychological support, early detection of psychological distress, and exploration of caregiver beliefs, given that the number of clinical psychologists in Malaysia is lacking, and there is greater preference for care to be provided by doctors or nurses.
OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to elaborate on the process of developing, validating, and examining the Diabetic Care Self-Management Mobile Health Application (Diabetic Care).
METHODS: There are two phases conducted. The first phase is the process of developing and validating Diabetic Care. Intervention Mapping (IM) Framework was used to guide the process of developing Diabetic Care, while in assessing validity, guidance from Kassam-Adams et al. was used. A team of experts was appointed to validate the mobile app developed. Next, the usability of Diabetic Care was conducted among ten conveniently chosen patients with diabetes in a governmental primary care clinic.
RESULTS: The process of developing Diabetic Care was clearly explained. The Diabetic Care app showed a good I-CVI score (1.00) and general CVI score (1.00) after the expert team assessed. During the trial, two drawbacks were identified and explored to find solutions.
CONCLUSION: The Diabetic Care app is proven appropriate to be employed in the study. Even though there were two drawbacks encountered, however, possible solutions were able to be explored in addressing the issues. Further research should be conducted to examine the effectiveness of this mobile app in modifying foot care behavior and dietary behavior. Hence, it will assist in the translation of advanced technology in nursing care.
OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to explore the experiences of school health teams in Malaysia who provide unmarried adolescents with sexual health information either during school health visits or at health clinics, with a particular interest in the strategies they use to educate these young people.
METHODS: This qualitative study used semi-structured interview data from twenty participants from four multidisciplinary school health teams. The participants included staff nurses, medical officers, and family medicine specialists. The transcripts were analysed for common themes.
RESULTS: Four main themes were identified: discourse on risk, being selective, using scare tactics and maintaining own honour. The findings indicate that the interactions between school health teams and unmarried adolescents were not always 'adolescent friendly'. The school health teams tended to use discourses of 'risk' or scare tactics to encourage abstinence in the adolescents they advised. Staff were also selective about the information they gave, prioritising notions of 'maintaining honour' over 'safer sex' messages.
CONCLUSION: This study revealed how school health teams perceived sexual health education to be about moral issues and social attitudes. Influenced by both culture and religion, the sexual health services provided were underpinned by a 'moral' approach and promoted abstinence. However, most of the nurses in this study held the belief that sexual health knowledge acts as an encouragement for sexual activity. Thus, as part of school health teams, nurses need to embrace evidence that improved sexual health education may delay sexual initiation and prevent unintended pregnancy and HIV/STDs.
OBJECTIVE: To examine factors related to the QoL of mothers having preterm newborns hospitalized in the neonatal critical unit.
METHODS: A non-probability convenience survey was used in a public hospital in Malaysia, covering 180 mothers whose preterm newborns were hospitalized into level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) through the completion of a 26-questions survey of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and the 26-questions of Parental Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS: NICU). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and Pearson correlation coefficients.
RESULT: The mean scores for mothers' quality of life were (M = 3.67, SD = 0.73) and maternal stress (M = 3.03, SD = 0.90) out of 5. A mother's occupation was found to be the only factor associated with the quality of life among mothers who have preterm newborns admitted to the NICU. Furthermore, maternal role change was found to have a moderate negative relationship with the quality of life (r = 0.310, p = 0.05).
CONCLUSION: The findings of this study revealed that the main factors contributing to the mother's QoL during their preterm newborns' NICU admission were role change-related stress. Thus, to maintain a better QoL among this group of mothers during this traumatic period, a special nursing intervention program must be implemented immediately, right after the preterm newborns' admission, to relieve the mothers' stress which has been proven to have a direct effect on the mothers' QoL. The study results will alert healthcare providers, particularly neonatal nurses, on the need to support mothers psychologically in terms of role change. This is to ensure a better quality of life among mothers whose newborns were admitted to the NICU.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the validity of the content and psychometric properties of HSOPSC 2.0 for use in Indonesian hospitals.
METHODS: The study was divided into three stages: translation, adaptation, and validation. Culture-adaptation was assessed using cognitive interviews with ten direct care nurses who worked in the hospital to evaluate their perceptions and the coherence of the translated items, response categories, and questionnaire directions. Content validity was also done by ten experts from academic and clinical settings. Finally, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and reliability testing were conducted among 220 nurses from two Indonesian hospitals.
RESULTS: The cognitive test results indicated that the language clarity was 87.8 % and 84.5% for cultural relevance. The Content Validity Index (CVI) ranged between 0.73 to 1.00, while the construct validity results indicated that each factor had factor loadings above 0.4, from 0.47 to 0.65. The fit indices showed an acceptable fit for the data provided by the 10-factor model, with RMSEA = 0.052, SRMR = 0.089, and CFI = 0.87. The Pearson correlation coefficients between the ten subscales ranged from 0.276 to 0.579 (p < 0.05). The Cronbach's alpha for all sub-scales was more than 0.70, except for organizational learning - continuous improvement, response to error, and communication openness.
CONCLUSION: This study offers initial evidence of the psychometric properties of the Indonesian-HSOPSC 2.0. Future studies are needed to examine its psychometric features to improve generalizability. However, nurses and other healthcare professionals could use the tool to measure hospital patient safety culture in Indonesia.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to empirically analyze the deviant workplace behavior and its antecedents among Malaysian nurses in public hospitals.
METHODS: A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. The survey questionnaires were distributed proportionately to staff nurses in six government hospitals in 2020, with a total of 387 nurses selected using a simple random sampling. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis.
RESULTS: Trait anger triggered deviant workplace behavior in Malaysian nurses, thus supporting the argument that the personality trait could increase deviant behavior (β = 0.245, p = 0.000). At the same time, there was no evidence that negative affectivity could influence deviant behavior in the workplace among nurses in selected public hospitals in Malaysia (β = 0.074, p = 0.064).
CONCLUSION: The Malaysian nurses had positive affectivity, related to positive emotions like happiness, work interest, and attentiveness. On the other hand, the nurses were suffering from high levels of emotional tiredness. Further research should highlight a deeper understanding of Malaysian nurses' work experiences and workplace stress affecting their physical and mental health.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the NPWT program in improving the management of chronic wound healing.
DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis was used.
DATA SOURCES: The search strategy ranged from 2016 to 2021 in PubMed, CINAHL, ProQuest, and ScienceDirect.
REVIEW METHODS: Risk of bias was done based on the Risk of Bias 2.0 guideline using RevMan 5.4.1, and meta-analysis was done using Jeffreys's Amazing Statistics Program (JASP) software version 0.16.3. Critical appraisal of the included articles was done according to Joanna Briggs Institute's (JBI) appraisal checklist.
RESULTS: A total of 15 articles were included, with 3,599 patients with chronic wounds. There was no publication bias in this study seen from the results of the Egger's test value of 0.447 (p >0.05), symmetrical funnel plot, and fail-safe N of 137. However, heterogeneity among studies was present, with I2 value of 66.7%, Q = 41.663 (p <0.001); thus, Random Effect (RE) model was used. The RE model showed a significant positive effect of the NPWT on chronic wound healing, with z = 3.014, p = 0.003, 95% CI 0.085 to 0.400. The observed effects include decreased rate of surgical site infection, controlled inflammation, edema, and exudate, as well as increased tissue with varying forest plot size, as demonstrated by the small effect size (ES = 0.24, 95% CI -0.26 to 0.79, p <0.05).
CONCLUSION: The analysis results show that the standard low pressure of 80-125 mmHg could improve microcirculation and accelerate the healing process of chronic wounds. Therefore, applying the NPWT program could be an alternative to nursing interventions. However, it should be carried out by competent wound nurses who carry out procedure steps, implement general patient care, and give tips on overcoming device problems and evaluation.
PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022348457.
OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to understand the perceived barriers to reporting postpartum hemorrhage care experienced by women and healthcare workers in Birnin Kebbi, North west-Nigeria.
METHODS: Qualitative case research was employed in this study with face-to-face interviews among ten postnatal women who experienced bleeding and six healthcare workers. Data were collected from September to November 2021. The interviews were all audio-taped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. NVivo Pro Version 12 was applied to organize further and manage the data.
RESULTS: Six themes were developed: (1) knowledge deficit, (2) poor attitudes, behaviors, and performances, (3) low socioeconomic status, (4) lack of healthcare personnel, (5) cultural norms, and (6) lack of access to healthcare facilities.
CONCLUSION: The study findings might serve as input for healthcare policymakers and healthcare workers to improve health and reduce maternal mortality. Enhancing knowledge and awareness about reporting process is necessary to improve reporting for postpartum hemorrhage care among women. Training and continuous professional development of health care workers are also highly suggested to enhance the quality of care.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the role of the ERS in enhancing the voluntary reporting of near-miss (VRNM) incidents among nurses.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Al Dhafra region of the United Arab Emirates, involving 247 nurses from six hospitals. Data were collected using a questionnaire between April 2022 and August 2022. Structural Equation Modelling Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) was employed for data analysis.
RESULTS: The average variance extracted for the ERS construct was 0.754, indicating that the common factor accounted for 75.4% of the variation in the ERS scores. The mean ERS score was 4.093, with a standard deviation of 0.680. For VRNM, the mean was 4.104, and the standard deviation was 0.688. There was a positive correlation between ERS utilization and nurses' willingness to report near-miss incidents. Additionally, our research findings suggest a 66.7% relevance when applied to various hospital settings within the scope of this study.
CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that adopting a user-friendly reporting system and adequate training on the system's features can increase reporting and improve patient safety. Additionally, these systems should be designed to be operated by nursing staff with minimal obstacles.