What strategies can hospital administrations take to alleviate and prevent psychological issues encountered by clinicians on the Covid-19 frontlines?

Clinicians caring for Covid-19 patients have shown multiple signs of stress including anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance.1 Predictors of these adverse effects include young age, low work experience, female gender, heavy workload, working in unsafe settings, and lack of training and social support.2

Issues in COVID-19 care that may provoke these problems include “limited information about COVID-19, unpredictable tasks and challenging practices, insufficient support, concerns about family, and emotional and psychological stress”3, as well as “working in an isolated environment, concerns about personal protective equipment shortage and usage, physical and emotional exhaustion, intensive workload, fear of being infected, and insufficient work experiences with COVID-19.”4

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What are some strategies to increase compliance of correctly completing the bedside shift reports?

“Bedside report is an evidence-based practice used to increase patient involvement in their care and improve patient satisfaction. A change management strategy and standardized approach to bedside report can help increase nurse compliance with the process.”
In this study “A change management strategy and standardized approach to bedside report helped increase nurse compliance with the process, leading to improved patient satisfaction.”

Scheidenhelm, S, et. al  Hardwiring Bedside Shift Report. (2017). Journal of Nursing Administration., 47(3), 147.

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How does nursing work engagement effect patient and hospital outcomes?

“The vital connection of nurse engagement to the experience of care, and ultimately to nurse and patient outcomes, is clear. Quality improvement efforts that equally emphasize initiatives to improve the patient experience and create and sustain a highly engaged nursing workforce are key to achieving desired safety and quality outcomes.”

Dempsey C, Assi MJ. The Impact of Nurse Engagement on Quality, Safety, and the Experience of Care: What Nurse Leaders Should Know. Nurs Adm Q. 2018 Jul/Sep; 42(3):278-283.

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What are modifiable risk factors for cancer?

“An estimated one third to one half of cancers could be prevented by healthy lifestyle choices: eliminating tobacco use, maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI), moderating alcohol consumption, and maintaining an active lifestyle.”
Arem, Hannah, & Loftfield, Erikka. (2018). Cancer Epidemiology: A Survey of Modifiable Risk Factors for Prevention and Survivorship. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine., 12(3), 200-210.

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What are the disparities and barriers to breast feeding and how to help new mothers overcome those impacts?

Despite recognized health benefits for both mothers and infants, significant disparities still exist in the rates of breastfeeding in the United States.  This article reviews the evidence related to barriers (prenatal, medical, societal, hospital, and sociocultural) that many mothers face, and explore the known barriers and the impact they have on a woman’s ability to breastfeed her infant.Strategies will be discussed to address (and potentially overcome) some of the most common barriers women face along with a list of resources that can be useful in this effort.
From: Sriraman, Natasha, et al

Sriraman, Natasha K, & Kellams, Ann. (2016). Breastfeeding: What are the Barriers? Why Women Struggle to Achieve Their Goals. Journal of Women’s Health., 25(7), 714-722.

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What are the various cultural beliefs and practices among minority groups regarding cancer prevention?

From Lott, B. et al. (Reference below)

“Minority youth represent a unique population for public health interventions given the social, economic, and cultural barriers they often face in accessing health services. Interventions to increase uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in minority youth have the potential to reduce disparities in HPV infection and HPV-related cancers.

Some studies have found that Black, His-panic, and Asian adolescents were more likely to initiate the HPV vaccine series than their white counterparts, however, were less likely to complete the series

Documented barriers to HPV vaccination of minority youth include knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs among parents, geographic location, distance to vaccination centers,immigrant or foreign-born status, acculturation levels, socioeconomic status, insurance status, and high cost of the vaccine”

Lott, B., Okusanya, B., Anderson, E., Kram, N., Rodriguez, M., Thomson, C., . . . Ehiri, J. (n.d.). Interventions to increase uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in minority populations: A systematic review. Preventive Medicine Reports., 19, 101163.

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What are the barriers and facilitators to the sustainability of cancer interventions?

These overarching themes were identified, which when present, were facilitators, and if absent, were barriers:

  1. Evidence (intervention credibility, experienced efficacy, perceived need for intervention)
  2. Context (positive attitude to and capacity for survivorship/FCR care, favourable therapist orientation and flexibility, strong referral pathways)
  3. Facilitation of implementation (intervention/service fit, intervention/patient fit, and training,support, and provided resources). Continue reading