To evaluate the impact of nurse care changes in implementing a blood pressure management protocol on achieving rapid, intensive and sustained blood pressure reduction in acute intracerebral haemorrhage patients.
Retrospective cohort study of prospectively collected data over 6 years.
Intracerebral haemorrhage patients within 6 h and systolic blood pressure ≥ 150 mmHg followed a rapid (starting treatment at computed tomography suite with a target achievement goal of ≤60 min), intensive (target systolic blood pressure < 140 mmHg) and sustained (maintaining target stability for 24 h) blood pressure management plan. We differentiated six periods: P1, stroke nurse at computed tomography suite (baseline period); P2, antihypertensive titration by stroke nurse; P3, retraining by neurologists; P4, integration of a stroke advanced practice nurse; P5, after COVID-19 impact; and P6, retraining by stroke advanced practice nurse. Outcomes included first-hour target achievement (primary outcome), tomography-to-treatment and treatment-to-target times, first-hour maximum dose of antihypertensive treatment and 6-h and 24-h systolic blood pressure variability.
Compared to P1, antihypertensive titration by stroke nurses (P2) reduced treatment-to-target time and increased the rate of first-hour target achievement, retraining of stroke nurses by neurologists (P3) maintained a higher rate of first-hour target achievement and the integration of a stroke advanced practice nurse (P4) reduced both 6-h and 24-h systolic blood pressure variability. However, 6-h systolic blood pressure variability increased from P4 to P5 following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, compared to P1, retraining of stroke nurses by stroke advanced practice nurse (P6) reduced tomography-to-treatment time and increased the first-hour maximum dose of antihypertensive treatment.
Changes in nursing care and continuous education can significantly enhance the time metrics and blood pressure outcomes in acute intracerebral haemorrhage patients.
STROBE guidelines.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
To analyse the content of the nursing diagnosis ineffective peripheral tissue perfusion in patients with diabetic foot.
A methodological study with a quantitative approach was performed.
The analysis was performed between January and May 2021 by 34 nurses with clinical/theoretical/research experience with diabetes or nursing diagnoses. These nurses evaluated the relevance, clarity and precision of 12 diagnosis-specific etiological factors, 22 clinical indicators and their conceptual and operational definitions.
All 12 etiological factors analysed were considered relevant to diagnostic identification. However, five showed inconsistencies regarding the clarity or precision of the operational definitions, requiring adjustments. Regarding the 22 clinical indicators evaluated, all of them presented a Content Validity Index (CVI) that was statistically significant. However, in the indicators, the colour does not return to lowered limb after 1 min of leg elevation, and cold foot had Content Validity Index (CVI) <0.9 regarding relevance and accuracy of operational definitions.
Twelve etiological factors and 22 clinical indicators were validated. Thus, this study revealed new and relevant aspects characterising peripheral perfusion in patients with diabetic foot that have not yet been clinically validated.
This study contributes to support the professional practice of nurses through the early identification of etiological factors and clinical indicators in persons with diabetic foot. As a proposal, we suggest the inclusion of new defining characteristics and related factors for the nursing diagnosis ineffective peripheral tissue perfusion in the NANDA-I taxonomy.
The research highlights new and relevant aspects such as etiological factors and clinical indicators to characterise peripheral perfusion in patients with diabetic foot. Based on these findings, clinical validation is recommended to confirm the relevance of the proposed elements in the population studied for greater reliability and improved diagnostic assessment for the professional practice of nurses.
EQUATOR guidelines were adhered to using the GRRAS checklist for reporting reliability and agreement studies.
No patient or public contribution.
This paper aims to: (a) determine the personal, sociodemographic, clinical, behavioural, and social characteristics of older Brazilians with clinical evidence of long COVID; (b) evaluate perceived quality of life and determine its association with personal, sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical and social variables; and (c) assess significant predictors of high perceived QoL.
Given the inherent vulnerabilities of the ageing process, the older people are an at-risk group for both contagion of SARS-CoV-2 and the perpetuation of residual symptoms after infection, the so-called long COVID or post-COVID syndrome.
A cross-sectional survey design using the STROBE checklist.
Brazilian older people with long COVID syndrome (n = 403) completed a phone survey measuring personal, sociodemographic, behavioural, clinical, and social characteristics, and perceived Quality of Life (QoL). Data were collected from June 2021–March 2022. A multiple linear regression model was performed to identify salient variables associated with high perceived QoL.
The mean age of participants was 67.7 ± 6.6 years old. The results of the multivariate regression model showed that race, home ownership, daily screen time, musculoskeletal and anxiety symptoms, and work situation were the significant predictors of QoL among COVID-19 survivors.
Knowledge about the persistence of physical, emotional, and social symptoms of COVID-19 can help nurses and other healthcare providers to improve the management of survivors, bringing benefits to the whole society.
Given the novelty of long-COVID and its heterogeneous trajectory, interventions focusing on the repercussions and requirements unique to more vulnerable older persons should be developed and these aspects should be included in public health recommendations and policymakers' concerns.
No patient or public contribution was required to design, to outcome measures or undertake this research. Patients/members of the public contributed only to the data collection.
To identify scales that assess parental stress in the paediatric clinical population and to analyse their psychometric properties.
Four electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Scopus) and metasearch engines (Google Scholar and Open Grey) were searched with no time period limitations. Methodological quality was assessed using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) and quality of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach modified by COSMIN. Finally, recommendations were made for the instruments with the highest quality of evidence.
A total of 38 studies reporting on 11 different instruments for assessing parental stress in the paediatric clinical setting were included. Six instruments were ‘A’ rated (recommended) in the final phase in line with COSMIN guidelines. The Paediatric Inventory for Parents was the instrument that evaluated the highest number of psychometric properties and obtained the highest methodological quality, global assessment, and quality of evidence for the different psychometric properties.
This systematic review provides an overview of the measurement properties of the parental stress instruments used in the paediatric clinical setting. The Paediatric Inventory for Parents stands out as being one of the most robust instruments for measuring stress in parents with a hospitalised or sick child. Evidence needs to be generated for all the parental stress scales used in the clinical setting.
Given that the psychometric properties of the existing parental stress scales used in paediatric health care settings have not been systematically assessed, the present review utilised comprehensive methods according to COSMIN.
PRISMA statement and COSMIN reporting guidelines for studies on measurement properties of patient-reported outcome measures.
To identify changes in mental health status among nursing professionals in a Brazilian municipality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An observational and longitudinal study.
Using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the presence of depressive symptoms was evaluated among 690 nursing professionals in the city of Pelotas, Brazil, at two moments: June/July 2020 and June/July 2021.
13.0% incidence of depressive symptoms was identified; as well as 12.2% remission; 24.1% persistence and 50.7% absence. Among the factors associated with the worst prognoses we can mention female gender, greater workload, feeling of overload, illness of family members or friends due to COVID-19 and use of psychotropic drugs
There was significant mobility in the diagnosis of depression among the professionals studied during the period analysed, with incidence of new cases of significant depression and greater than the number of remissions. In addition to sociodemographic aspects, traumatic experiences and exposure to continuous overload were associated with persistence and incidence of new cases.
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, several studies have shown an increase in depressive symptoms among nursing professionals; however, understanding the long-term effects of this scenario is still a challenge.
What problem did the study address? This study investigates changes in the mental health status of nursing professionals working at different care levels, taking the prevalence of screening for depression as a proxy, during a period of a year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What were the main findings? Between both data collection moments, 2020 e 2021, there was a significant percentage of professionals with persistent depression, in addition to a significant proportion of incident cases that slightly exceeded the number of remissions and the factors associated with the worst prognoses were sociodemographic aspects such as gender and emotional stressors like illness of family members or close friends due to COVID-19, in addition to those related to the organisation and support provided by the services, such as workload and feeling of overload.
Where and on whom will the research have an impact? This study will impact the nursing professionals and in role of the health services in order to establishing actions that contribute to minimising the deleterious effects of the pandemic on the mental health of their Nursing teams.
The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines were adopted in this study.
No Patient or Public Contribution.