To identify the nature, degree and contributing factors of workplace violence (WPV) incidents experienced by Australian nursing students during clinical placement.
Descriptive cross-sectional study.
Data were collected from 13 September to 25 November 2022. Eligible participants included all nursing students enrolled in nursing degrees at any Australian university who had completed at least one clinical placement. An adapted version of the WPV in the Health Sector Country Case Study survey was used.
A total of 381 nursing students across eight states of Australia completed the survey. More than half of the students had experienced an episode of WPV; patients were the most frequent perpetrators. Personal factors of patients, staff and students, organizational factors and cultural norms within the workplace supported acts of WPV.
Student nurses (SNs) most often experience violence from patients during direct care. Patient encounters are the core component of clinical placement. Education providers have a responsibility to effectively prepare students to be able to identify escalating situations and manage potentially violent situations. Registered nurses who supervise students during clinical placement require support to balance their clinical role with student supervision.
Experiencing WPV can negatively impact relationships between students, healthcare professionals and care recipients. This results in personal distress, decreased job satisfaction and potentially the decision to leave the nursing profession.
What already is known: SNs are exposed to WPV during clinical placement.
What this paper adds: More than half the SNs in this study experienced violence inclusive of physical, verbal, racial and sexual harassment. Patients were the predominant perpetrators.
Implications for practice/policy: Interventions at individual and systemic levels are required to mitigate WPV.
This study is reported using the STROBE guidelines.
To investigate the experience of nursing assistants being delegated nursing tasks by registered nurses.
Mixed method explanatory sequential design.
A total of 79 nursing assistants working in an acute hospital in Australia completed surveys that aimed to identify their experience of working with nurses and the activities they were delegated. The survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Interviews with 11 nursing assistants were conducted and analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Results were triangulated to provide a richer understanding of the phenomena.
Most nursing assistants felt supported completing delegated care activities. However, there was confusion around their scope of practice, some felt overworked and believed that they did not have the right to refuse a delegation. Factors impacting the nursing assistant's decision to accept a delegation included the attitude of the nurses, wanting to be part of the team and the culture of the ward. Nursing assistants who were studying to be nurses felt more supported than those who were not.
Delegation is a two-way relationship and both parties need to be cognisant of their roles and responsibilities to ensure safe and effective nursing care is provided. Incorrectly accepting or refusing delegated activities may impact patient safety.
Highlights the need for implementing strategies to support safe delegation practices between the registered and unregulated workforce to promote patient safety.
Describes the experiences of nursing assistants working in the acute care environment when accepting delegated care from nurses. Reports a range of factors that inhibit or facilitate effective delegation practices between nurses and nursing assistants. Provides evidence to support the need for stronger education and policy development regarding delegation practices between nurses and unregulated staff.
Complied with the APA Style JARS-MIXED reporting criteria for mixed method research.
No patient or public contribution.
Healthcare consumers require diverse resources to assist their navigation of complex healthcare interactions, however, these resources need to be fit for purpose.
In this study, we evaluated the utility, usability and feasibility of children, families and adults requiring long-term intravenous therapy using a recently developed mobile health application (App), intravenous (IV) Passport.
Multi-site, parallel, multi-method, prospective cohort study.
A multi-site, multi-method study was carried out in 2020–2021, with 46 participants (20 adults, 26 children/family) reporting on their experiences surrounding the use of the IV Passport for up to 6 months.
Overall, utility rates were acceptable, with 78.3% (N = 36) using the IV Passport over the follow-up period, with high rates of planned future use for those still active in the project (N = 21; 73%), especially in the child/family cohort (N = 13; 100%). Acceptability rates were high (9/10; IQR 6.5–10), with the IV Passport primarily used for documenting new devices and complications. Thematic analysis revealed three main themes (and multiple subthemes) in the qualitative data: Advocacy for healthcare needs, Complexity of healthcare and App design and functionality.
Several recommendations were made to improve the end-user experience including ‘how to’ instructions; and scheduling functionality for routine care.
The IV Passport can be safely and appropriately integrated into healthcare, to support consumers.
Patient-/parent-reported feedback suggests the Intravenous Passport is a useful tool for record-keeping, and positive communication between patients/parents, and clinicians.
Not applicable.
Consumers reported their experiences surrounding the use of the IV Passport for up to 6 months.
Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) is increasingly used as treatment for patients with active multiple sclerosis (MS), typically after failure of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). A recent phase III trial, ‘Multiple Sclerosis International Stem Cell Transplant, MIST’, showed that aHSCT resulted in prolonged time to disability progression compared with DMTs in patients with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS). However, the MIST trial did not include many of the current high-efficacy DMTs (alemtuzumab, ocrelizumab, ofatumumab or cladribine) in use in the UK within the control arm, which are now offered to patients with rapidly evolving severe MS (RES-MS) who are treatment naïve. There remain, therefore, unanswered questions about the relative efficacy and safety of aHSCT over these high-efficacy DMTs in these patient groups. The StarMS trial (Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation versus Alemtuzumab, Ocrelizumab, Ofatumumab or Cladribine in Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis) will assess the efficacy, safety and long-term impact of aHSCT compared with high-efficacy DMTs in patients with highly active RRMS despite the use of standard DMTs or in patients with treatment naïve RES-MS.
StarMS is a multicentre parallel-group rater-blinded randomised controlled trial with two arms. A total of 198 participants will be recruited from 19 regional neurology secondary care centres in the UK. Participants will be randomly allocated to the aHSCT arm or DMT arm in a 1:1 ratio. Participants will remain in the study for 2 years with follow-up visits at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months postrandomisation. The primary outcome is the proportion of patients who achieve ‘no evidence of disease activity’ during the 2-year postrandomisation follow-up period in an intention to treat analysis. Secondary outcomes include efficacy, safety, cost-effectiveness and immune reconstitution of aHSCT and the four high-efficacy DMTs.
The study was approved by the Yorkshire and Humber—Leeds West Research Ethics Committee (20/YH/0061). Participants will provide written informed consent prior to any study specific procedures. The study results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and abstracts will be submitted to relevant national and international conferences.
Elder abuse is a global human rights issue, particularly in residential care settings where there is limited understanding of older people's experiences of this phenomenon. This scoping review aims to map and describe the existing literature on this phenomenon.
Using Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review methodology, further developed by Levac et al. and the Joanna Briggs Institute, a systematic search of six databases was conducted to identify relevant studies published from inception to January 2023. Studies were included if they focused on older people's experience of abuse within residential care settings. A comprehensive data extraction process was employed to identify key themes from the included studies.
The initial search yielded a total of 3701 articles of which eight met the inclusion criteria. The findings revealed a range of abusive experiences encountered by older people living in residential care settings, including psychological, physical, financial, neglect and sexual abuse. The common attributes of residents vulnerable to abuse were evident throughout each of the studies. Finally, the theme of organizational neglect was apparent through the absence of effective safeguarding measures in the included studies. The findings revealed the insufficient implementation of safeguarding measures increases the risk of abuse among residents.
This scoping review highlights the limited research on the experiences of older people who have encountered elder abuse in residential care settings. The findings stress the need for further research exploring the complex interplay of factors contributing to elder abuse within aged care settings. The insights gained from this scoping review can inform the development of comprehensive safeguarding strategies to prevent and address elder abuse in residential care settings, promoting the well-being and safety of older people.
This project is a scoping review of the literature; therefore, no patient or public contribution was deemed necessary.
Most research on elder abuse has been conducted in the community rather than in Residential Care Settings where there is a limited understanding of older people’s experiences of abuse within the published literature. The scoping review highlights the presence of inadequate safeguarding strategies in Residential Care Settings within the reviewed studies, providing recommendations for developing and improving safeguarding measures in Residential Care Settings to prevent abuse, neglect, and harm in the future.
To develop a consensus on evidence-based principles and recommendations for perioperative hypothermia prevention in the Australian context.
This study was informed by CAN-IMPLEMENT using the ADAPTE process: (1) formation of a multidisciplinary development team; (2) systematic search process identifying existing guidance for perioperative hypothermia prevention; (3) appraisal using the AGREE II Rigor of Development domain; (4) extraction of recommendations from guidelines meeting a quality threshold using the AGREE-REX tool; (5) review of draft principles and recommendations by multidisciplinary clinicians nationally and (6) subsequent round of discussion, drafting, reflection and revision by the original panel member team.
Australian perioperative departments.
Registered nurses, anaesthetists, surgeons and anaesthetic allied health practitioners.
A total of 23 papers (12 guidelines, 6 evidence summaries, 3 standards, 1 best practice sheet and 1 evidence-based bundle) formed the evidence base. After evidence synthesis and development of draft recommendations, 219 perioperative clinicians provided feedback. Following refinement, three simple principles for perioperative hypothermia prevention were developed with supporting practice recommendations: (1) actively monitor core temperature for all patients at all times; (2) warm actively to keep body temperature above 36°C and patients comfortable and (3) minimise exposure to cold at all stages of perioperative care.
This consensus process has generated principles and practice recommendations for hypothermia prevention that are ready for implementation with local adaptation. Further evaluation will be undertaken in a large-scale implementation trial across Australian hospitals.
Systematic review of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence studies undertaken in the WHO European Region to measure pre-existing and cumulative seropositivity prior to the roll out of vaccination programmes.
A systematic review of the literature.
We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and the preprint servers MedRxiv and BioRxiv in the WHO ‘COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease’ database using a predefined search strategy. Articles were supplemented with unpublished WHO-supported Unity-aligned seroprevalence studies and other studies reported directly to WHO Regional Office for Europe and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Studies published before the widespread implementation of COVID-19 vaccination programmes in January 2021 among the general population and blood donors, at national and regional levels.
At least two independent researchers extracted the eligible studies; a third researcher resolved any disagreements. Study risk of bias was assessed using a quality scoring system based on sample size, sampling and testing methodologies.
In total, 111 studies from 26 countries published or conducted between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020 across the WHO European Region were included. A significant heterogeneity in implementation was noted across the studies, with a paucity of studies from the east of the Region. Sixty-four (58%) studies were assessed to be of medium to high risk of bias. Overall, SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity prior to widespread community circulation was very low. National seroprevalence estimates after circulation started ranged from 0% to 51.3% (median 2.2% (IQR 0.7–5.2%); n=124), while subnational estimates ranged from 0% to 52% (median 5.8% (IQR 2.3%–12%); n=101), with the highest estimates in areas following widespread local transmission.
The low levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibody in most populations prior to the start of vaccine programmes underlines the critical importance of targeted vaccination of priority groups at risk of severe disease, while maintaining reduced levels of transmission to minimise population morbidity and mortality.