Aim and objective
To describe relations among health, job satisfaction, work engagement and job features in Spanish nurses working in a public hospital.
Background
It has been established that ...nursing staff health affects the quality of their work and is associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and different job features. Understanding the relationships among these variables could provide useful information to improve staff performance and prevent work‐related illnesses.
Design
A descriptive, cross‐sectional, correlational and comparative study was performed between January–April 2016. This research adheres to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guideline.
Methods
A total of 926 nurses were requested to complete an online questionnaire. Nurses on sick leave or in period of unpaid leave during data collection were excluded. The final study population reached 392 nurses. The online survey was fully completed by 373 nurses. General health, job satisfaction and work engagement were measured. Tools used were as follows: sociodemographic questions, the General Health Questionnaire, the Overall Job Satisfaction Scale and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.
Results
Significant correlations among general health, job satisfaction and work engagement were found. Specifically, general health levels were negatively correlated with job satisfaction and work engagement subscales. Job features with influence on these constructs were the type of shift, type of contract, type of service, salary, type of continuous formation and having a specialty/profile.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that job‐related features affect job satisfaction, general health and work engagement. The organisation should make interventions over these features to increase job satisfaction and work engagement levels, since they are relevant for nursing staff health and patient security.
Relevance to clinical practice
The analysis of the relationships among general health, job satisfaction, work engagement and job features in nurses could offer a basis to design preventive programmes to improve staff performance and prevent work‐related illnesses.
Intestinal organoids have emerged as a powerful in vitro tool for studying intestinal biology due to their resemblance to in vivo tissue at the structural and functional levels. However, their ...sphere-like geometry prevents access to the apical side of the epithelium, making them unsuitable for standard functional assays designed for flat cell monolayers. Here, we describe a simple method for the formation of epithelial monolayers that recapitulates the in vivo-like cell type composition and organization and that is suitable for functional tissue barrier assays. In our approach, epithelial monolayer spreading is driven by the substrate stiffness, while tissue barrier function is achieved by the basolateral delivery of medium enriched with stem cell niche and myofibroblast-derived factors. These monolayers contain major intestinal epithelial cell types organized into proliferating crypt-like domains and differentiated villus-like regions, closely resembling the in vivo cell distribution. As a unique characteristic, these epithelial monolayers form functional epithelial barriers with an accessible apical surface and physiologically relevant transepithelial electrical resistance values. Our technology offers an up-to-date and novel culture method for intestinal epithelium, providing an in vivo-like cell composition and distribution in a tissue culture format compatible with high-throughput drug absorption or microbe-epithelium interaction studies.
Abstract Genome editing on human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) together with the development of protocols for organ decellularization opens the door to the generation of autologous bioartificial ...hearts. Here we sought to generate for the first time a fluorescent reporter human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line by means of Transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) to efficiently produce cardiomyocyte-like cells (CLCs) from hPSCs and repopulate decellularized human heart ventricles for heart engineering. In our hands, targeting myosin heavy chain locus (MYH6) with mCherry fluorescent reporter by TALEN technology in hESCs did not alter major pluripotent-related features, and allowed for the definition of a robust protocol for CLCs production also from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) in 14 days. hPSCs-derived CLCs (hPSCs-CLCs) were next used to recellularize acellular cardiac scaffolds. Electrophysiological responses encountered when hPSCs-CLCs were cultured on ventricular decellularized extracellular matrix (vdECM) correlated with significant increases in the levels of expression of different ion channels determinant for calcium homeostasis and heart contractile function. Overall, the approach described here allows for the rapid generation of human cardiac grafts from hPSCs, in a total of 24 days, providing a suitable platform for cardiac engineering and disease modeling in the human setting.
Background Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases in women. Prevention and treatments have lowered mortality; nevertheless, the impact of the diagnosis and treatment continue to impact ...all aspects of patients' lives (physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual). Objective This study seeks to explore the experiences of the different stages women with breast cancer go through by means of a patient journey. Methods This is a qualitative study in which 21 women with breast cancer or survivors were interviewed. Participants were recruited at 9 large hospitals in Spain and intentional sampling methods were applied. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview that was elaborated with the help of medical oncologists, nurses, and psycho-oncologists. Data were processed by adopting a thematic analysis approach. Results The diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer entails a radical change in patients' day-to-day that linger in the mid-term. Seven stages have been defined that correspond to the different medical processes: diagnosis/unmasking stage, surgery/cleaning out, chemotherapy/loss of identity, radiotherapy/transition to normality, follow-up care/the "new" day-to-day, relapse/starting over, and metastatic/time-limited chronic breast cancer. The most relevant aspects of each are highlighted, as are the various cross-sectional aspects that manifest throughout the entire patient journey. Conclusions Comprehending patients' experiences in depth facilitates the detection of situations of risk and helps to identify key moments when more precise information should be offered. Similarly, preparing the women for the process they must confront and for the sequelae of medical treatments would contribute to decreasing their uncertainty and concern, and to improving their quality-of-life.
Epithelial tissues are composed of layers of tightly connected cells shaped into complex three-dimensional (3D) structures such as cysts, tubules, or invaginations. These complex 3D structures are ...important for organ-specific functions and often create biochemical gradients that guide cell positioning and compartmentalization within the organ. One of the main functions of epithelia is to act as physical barriers that protect the underlying tissues from external insults.
, epithelial barriers are usually mimicked by oversimplified models based on cell lines grown as monolayers on flat surfaces. While useful to answer certain questions, these models cannot fully capture the
organ physiology and often yield poor predictions. In order to progress further in basic and translational research, disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine, it is essential to advance the development of new
predictive models of epithelial tissues that are capable of representing the
-like structures and organ functionality more accurately. Here, we review current strategies for obtaining biomimetic systems in the form of advanced
models that allow for more reliable and safer preclinical tests. The current state of the art and potential applications of self-organized cell-based systems, organ-on-a-chip devices that incorporate sensors and monitoring capabilities, as well as microfabrication techniques including bioprinting and photolithography, are discussed. These techniques could be combined to help provide highly predictive drug tests for patient-specific conditions in the near future.
Abstract
Telomerase RNA (
TERC
) has a noncanonical function in myelopoiesis binding to a consensus DNA binding sequence and attracting RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II), thus facilitating myeloid gene ...expression. The CR4/CR5 domain of
TERC
is known to play this role, since a mutation of this domain found in dyskeratosis congenita (DC) patients decreases its affinity for RNA Pol II, impairing its myelopoietic activity as a result. In this study, we report that two aptamers, short single-stranded oligonucleotides, based on the CR4/CR5 domain were able to increase myelopoiesis without affecting erythropoiesis in zebrafish. Mechanistically, the aptamers functioned as full
terc;
that is, they increased the expression of master myeloid genes, independently of endogenous
terc
, by interacting with RNA Pol II and with the
terc
-binding sequences of the regulatory regions of such genes, enforcing their transcription. Importantly, aptamers harboring the CR4/CR5 mutation that was found in DC patients failed to perform all these functions. The therapeutic potential of the aptamers for treating neutropenia was demonstrated in several preclinical models. The findings of this study have identified two potential therapeutic agents for DC and other neutropenic patients.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had numerous maternal and neonatal consequences, especially at the mental level. Pregnant women experience a rise in anxiety symptoms and prenatal stress.
The aim was to ...describe self-perceived health status, general stress and prenatal stress and to analyze relations and associations with sociodemographic factors.
A quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted using non-probabilistic circumstantial sampling. The sample was recruited during the first trimester of pregnancy during the control obstetrical visit. The Google Forms platform was used. A total of 297 women participated in the study. The Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (PDQ), the Perceived Stress Score (PSS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) were used.
Primiparas presented higher levels of worry about childbirth and the baby (10.93 ± 4.73) than multiparous women (9.88 ± 3.96). Somatic symptoms were present in 6% of the women. Anxiety-insomnia was scored positively by 18% of the women. In the Spearman correlation analysis, statistically significant values were found between almost all study variables. A positive correlation was observed between self-perceived health and prenatal and general stress levels.
During the first trimester of gestation, prenatal concerns increase when levels of anxiety, insomnia and depression also increase. There is a clear relationship between prenatal worries, anxiety, insomnia and depression with stress. Health education that focuses on mental health of pregnant women would help reduce worries during pregnancy and would improve the pregnant women perception of her health and well-being.
Highlights • Pes cavus had a significant reduction in the weight-bearing area of the foot. • Pes cavus had higher baropodometry records in metatarsal area than the normal foot. • The distribution of ...the load in metatarsal area is similar in cavus and normal foot.
Taking a corpus of nursing students enrolled in the 2017−2021 nursing degree, we aim to analyse how students' levels of resilience and fear of death evolve in the first three years of the degree and ...whether there are differences between students based on age and gender. In addition, we aim to describe the relationship between resilience and fear of death.
Throughout their training, nursing students will encounter situations of grief and death that may generate reactions of rejection, anxiety and emotional imbalance. Recognising and controlling these emotions through specialised training in end-of-life care and fostering resilience is essential.
Comparative, correlational and longitudinal study.
Our corpus comprised 100 nursing students who were followed through the first three years of their training. Data were collected using a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Collet-Lester Fear of Death Scale and the Resilience Scale.
The corpus reported medium-high levels of fear of death overall. Patterns were similar for all academic years: fear of other people's death was invariably the highest scoring subscale; and while individual dimensions of the Collet-Lester scale correlated directly and significantly with each other they were found to be inversely related to student age. High levels of resilience were recorded and were highest in the final year.
In this sample of student nurses, fear of death and resilience do not appear to be related to each other. Nursing education must include training specifically targeted at increasing levels of resilience and decreasing fear of death to improve end-of-life care.
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