Nursing Practice Today

Nursing's Potential in Health Diplomacy: Challenges, Benefits, and the Road Ahead

Arthur Luiz Barbosa Martins — 2024-12-02

Background: Global health diplomacy has gained prominence in the nursing profession, allowing nurses to contribute significantly to international healthcare efforts. This literature review explores the challenges and benefits faced by nurses engaged in global health diplomacy, highlighting their role in addressing complex health issues that transcend borders.

Aims: This review aims to examine the challenges and benefits of global health diplomacy for nurses, emphasizing their unique perspective in the international healthcare arena.

Methods: The review consolidates existing literature and research on global health diplomacy, with a focus on nursing. It explores the complexities and opportunities inherent in this field and the role of nurses in promoting global health.

Results: The findings demonstrate that nurses deal with challenges related to the complexity of international healthcare systems, cultural differences, and language barriers. However, by overcoming these challenges, they can significantly influence global health policies, enhance healthcare access in remote areas, and advocate for vulnerable populations. Global health diplomacy empowers nurses to broaden their professional horizons, gain valuable cultural knowledge, and develop leadership skills. Despite the limitations of qualitative data and the evolving nature of global health diplomacy, the benefits of nurses' involvement in this field are substantial.

Conclusions: Nurses engaging in global health diplomacy play a crucial role in strengthening global healthcare systems and promoting health equity. The challenges they face are outweighed by the positive impact they can make on healthcare worldwide. Further research and a deeper analysis of the impact of global health diplomacy on nursing practice are needed, along with the recognition of contextual variations within healthcare systems and local realities.

Shielding Our Angels: Tackling Workplace Violence Against Nurses working in Community Environments

Mohammed Ghalib Qutishat — 2024-11-24

Background: Oman has seen remarkable progress in healthcare, leading to a decrease in mortality and infectious diseases and an increase in non-communicable chronic diseases, prompting the strengthening of community health nursing services. However, community health nurses in Oman face challenges like limited resources and high levels of workplace violence, which can significantly impact their well-being and care quality.

Aim: This study aims to investigate the prevalence and experiences of workplace violence against nurses working in community settings in Oman.

Method: This study used a descriptive cross-sectional design with a convenience sampling approach. One hundred ninety-seven community nurses completed the study questionnaires. The Research and Ethics Committee at Sultan Qaboos University approved the study, which employed an online survey methodology, ensuring participant confidentiality, and collected data from September to October 2023.

Results: Seventy-one percent of nurses surveyed experienced community-based violence, most commonly in the form of verbal (35.71%) and emotional (33.57%) abuse, with organization staff (33.57%) being the primary source. Despite 71.1% being aware of the reporting system, underreporting was expected due to perceptions of inaction and unclear procedures. While 60.4% were satisfied with the organization's response, a concerning 71.1% expressed an intent to leave their workplace, highlighting the urgent need for more robust measures to address workplace violence against community health nurses in Oman.

Conclusion: The research found that 71.1% of community nurses in Oman experience recurring workplace violence driven by employment and social factors. Nurses face mistreatment and are dissatisfied with reporting and organizational responses. Alarmingly, 71.1% want to leave, risking healthcare quality. Comprehensive measures are needed to improve safety, reporting, training, and coordination to protect these frontline workers.

The effectiveness of dance interventions on cognitive functioning of people with dementia or cognitive impairment? A systematic reviews

DAUDA SALIHU — 2024-11-24

Background: Dementia significantly impairs cognitive abilities, well-being and the functioning of daily life, but there is no cure yet. In the search for non-pharmacological interventions, dance has emerged as a potential complementary therapy to support people with dementia or cognitive impairment. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of various dance interventions on the cognitive performance of people with dementia or cognitive impairment.Methods: In accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a systematic search was conducted in six databases from 2002 to 2023. The quality of the studies was rigorously assessed using the JBI tool. A narrative synthesis approach was used to summarize the effects on key cognitive outcomes. Effects of the interventions were presented either as Standardized Mean Difference, Weighted Mean Difference, or Mean Difference. Effect sizes of <0.1 is considered trivial while awhile > 0.5 is considered a large effect.Results: The meta-review showed significant improvements in global cognition, memory, attention, language and fluency in different dance genres such as ballroom, Latin and aerobics. However, different effects were observed in executive and visuospatial functions.Conclusion: This meta-review shows the effectiveness of dance interventions in improving several cognitive functions in people with dementia, including memory, attention, language and fluency. This shred of evidence supports the use of dance as an effective non-pharmacological approach in dementia care and merits its consideration in treatment strategies and further research studies.

Patient Education & Follow-up Units in Iran: A Quality Improvement Project

Elham Almassi — 2024-11-24

Background & Aim: The rising prevalence of chronic and non-communicable diseases, presents significant challenges to health systems. This study aims to empower patients and their families by establishing patient education and follow-up units, thereby improving readmission rates, reducing unplanned referrals to emergency departments, and enhancing patient satisfaction, which are key nursing-sensitive indicators.
Methods & Materials: This perspective article presents a quality improvement project utilizing the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle model. Initially, the problem of non-compliance among discharged patients and the resulting adverse consequences were identified. Consequently, a program for patient and family education and follow-up post-discharge was proposed. In the second step, patient education and follow-up units were implemented across three universities of medical sciences, and the results were analyzed in the third step. Upon confirming the achievement of the expected outcomes, the fourth step involved the national dissemination of implementation guidelines.
Results: The established units in hospitals demonstrated significant improvements in nursing-sensitive indicators. The percentage of readmission among follow-up patients decreased from 14.3% in the first half of 2023 to 6.6% in the first half of 2024. The indicator of unplanned referrals dropped from 8.93% to 6.1% over the same period. Additionally, patient satisfaction increased from 91% to 93%.
Conclusion: The experience of establishing patient education and follow-up units highlights that this strategy during the transition to home is an effective, affordable, and sustainable solution that can improve NSIs. This approach, facilitated by nurses, can play a crucial role in managing non-communicable and chronic diseases.

Effect of COVID-19 on care seeking in the presence of signs of sexually transmitted infections among women in Morocco

Nezha NACER — 2024-11-24

Background & Aim: The emergence of COVID-19 has had significant effects on access to screening services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This study aimed to describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on care-seeking in the presence of signs of STIs among women of childbearing age in the Essaouira province of Morocco between April and June 2020.

Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional, retrospective approach was used for this study. It consisted of a comparative analysis of retrospective programmatic data from April, May, and June 2019 and April, May, and June 2020 and collecting data from women of childbearing age. A questionnaire was distributed to women, including their socio-demographic characteristics and care-seeking behavior in the presence of STI signs.

Résults: The sample included 1100 women of childbearing age. Of these women, 425 reported showing signs of STIs during the Covid-19 period. 72.2% reported seeking health care from a qualified professional. The study found a correlation between women's healthcare seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic (p<0.05) and factors such as residence, education, marital status, socioeconomic status, and distance from healthcare facilities. The breakdown of STI cases for the years 2019 and 2020 revealed disparities in reported cases.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has hampered the search for care for signs of sexually transmitted infections in women of childbearing age. It is, therefore, crucial to improve the living conditions of these women, as well as the skills and knowledge of healthcare professionals, particularly nurses and midwives, involved in the management of STIs.