•COVID-19 pandemic caused crucial changes in work and personal life of healthcare providers.•The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on work and personal life of healthcare providers life of healthcare ...providers is unknown.•Working in the pandemic era is a unique experience that may happen in the working life of every healthcare provider.•Along with providing protective devices and financial support for healthcare workers, it is essential to take into account their mental health status.•In site consulting and providing personalized mental care for the personnel is necessary.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching negative impact on healthcare systems worldwide and has placed healthcare providers under immense physiological and psychological pressures.
The aim of current study was to undertake an in-depth exploration of the experiences of health-care staff working during the COVID-19 crisis.
Using a thematic analysis approach, a qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 97 health care professionals. Participants were health care professionals including pre-hospital emergency services (EMS), physicians, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory personnel, radiology technicians, hospital managers and managers in the ministry of health who work directly or indirectly with COVID-19 cases.
Data analysis highlighted four main themes, namely: ‘Working in the pandemic era’, ‘Changes in personal life and enhanced negative affect’, ‘Gaining experience, normalization and adaptation to the pandemic’ and ‘Mental Health Considerations’ which indicated that mental ill deteriorations unfolded through a stage-wise process as the pandemic unfolded.
Participants experienced a wide range of emotions and development during the unfolding of the pandemic. Providing mental health aid should thus be an essential part of services for healthcare providers during the pandemic. Based on our results the aid should be focused on the various stages and should be individual-centred. Such interventions are crucial to sustain workers in their ability to cope throughout the duration of the pandemic.
With the increase in hospitalization of premature infants in emergency departments and the painful procedure in these sectors, appropriate methods of pain relief are required. This study aimed to ...compare the effect of oral dextrose and facilitated tucking in the reduction of pain during heel sticks in premature infants and assess their effectiveness and feasibility for use in emergency settings.
This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial with cross-over design. Sixty infants were recruited from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Valiasr hospital in Tehran, Iran from March 2015 to September 2016. They were randomly allocated into three groups (no pain relief method, oral dextrose and facilitated tucking). Six blood samples were collected by heel stick for each infant. Oral dextrose and facilitated tucking were compared with the routine method of blood sampling and pain was measured two times for each method. The pain scores was measured by the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP). Repeated Measure ANOVA, ANOVA and Scheffe post-hoc test were used with SPSS 16.
The pain score's increase during heel stick was significantly lower after using oral dextrose (3.58 ± 0.34) and facilitated tucking (5.58 ± 0.53) in comparison to the routine method (8.91 ± 0.18) of blood sampling (P < 0.001, η
= 0.971). Oral dextrose was more effective than facilitated tucking (P < 0.001, Cohen's d = 4.49). The emergency nurses rated oral dextrose as easier (t = 2.20, df = 118, p = 0.02, Cohen's d = 0.39) and more applicable method (t = 2.99, df = 118, p = 0.003, Cohen's d = 0.54) for the emergency department.
Facilitated tucking is an effective method of pain reduction which can be used in the absence of oral dextrose, in a situation in which it is contraindicated or in combination with oral dextrose. Based on the increase of infant's admission in emergency department future studies are needed to identify the best method of pain reduction for procedures in this setting.
Current Controlled Trials IRCT201408029568N9, 2014-09-08.
The quality of care and patient satisfaction is closely linked with dignity, which is a crucial component of therapy and care. However, there is very little study on dignity in the context of mental ...health care. Planning for ongoing patient care might benefit from an understanding of the notion of dignity by exploring the experiences of patients, caregivers and companions of patients who have a history of hospitalization in mental health institutions. To retain patients' dignity while they were being treated in mental wards, this study sought to understand the experiences of patients, caregivers and companions of patients.
This investigation was qualitative. Semistructured interviews and focus groups were utilized to collect the data. The purposeful sampling method was employed for participant recruitment, which continued until data saturation. Two focus group discussions and 27 interviews were conducted. Participants included 8 patients, 2 patients' family members (companions), 3 psychologists, 4 nurses and 11 psychiatrists. Two focus group discussions were held with seven family members or companions of patients. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.
The primary theme that emerged was the infringement of patients' dignity, through negative guardianship, dehumanization and violations of their rights. Subthemes included dehumanization, worthlessness and namelessness, patient rights violations and stripping patients of authority.
Our results suggest that, regardless of the severity of the illness, the nature of psychiatric illness significantly compromises patients' dignity. Mental health practitioners, due to their sense of guardianship, may unintentionally treat patients with mental health disorders, thus compromising the patient's dignity.
The research team's experiences as a psychiatrist, doctor and nurse informed the study's objectives. Nurses and psychiatrists who work in the healthcare industry designed and conducted the study. The primary authors, who are healthcare providers, collected and analysed the required data. Furthermore, the entire study team contributed to the writing of the manuscript. Study participants were involved in the data collection and analysis.
Orientation: Workplace bullying has deleterious effects on individual well-being and various organisational outcomes. Different coping styles may moderate the relationship between workplace bullying ...and individual and organisational outcomes.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of four coping styles – seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing – in the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes.Motivation for the study: There is a lack of South African research exploring the moderating role of different coping styles in the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes.Research design, approach and method: The study used a cross-sectional design, quantitative approach and a convenience sampling method. One hundred white-collar respondents from a construction organisation in South Africa participated in this research. Moderated multiple regression (MMR) was used to analyse the data.Main findings: Results of the MMR indicated a direct negative impact of workplace bullying on psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave. Seeking help and assertiveness moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being. Avoidance and doing nothing also moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being but in a counterintuitive manner, exacerbating the negative impact of bullying on psychological well-being. Similarly, avoidance exacerbated the negative impact of bullying on self-esteem. Direct effects were also found for the coping strategy of seeking help on psychological well-being and for avoidance on job satisfaction. However, while seeking help improved psychological well-being, avoidance had a negative impact on job satisfaction.Practical/managerial implications: Different coping strategies may have different effects. Some may be productive in terms of leading to improved outcomes, while others may not. These findings have particular relevance for human resource departments and practitioners.Contribution/value-add: The findings of this research contribute to the limited body of South African research investigating different types of coping in moderating the bullying–well-being relationship.
Background: Developing moral competency is a main aim of educational systems, especially in healthcare-related disciplines. Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the moral development process ...in nursing students. Methods: This study used a constructivist grounded theory. Twenty-five semistructured, face-to-face interview with 22 participants were conducted to gather the data. The participants were nursing students and educators attending three nursing schools in Tehran. Results: Moral development evolves within nursing students following a stepwise progression. Within each step or phase, students experience specific changes with regard to both their practical skills and their moral capabilities and competencies. Three main steps were identified: moral transition, moral reconstruction, and moral internalization. Techno-scientific competence, biomedical competence, and nursing competence are developed in each step, respectively. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Moral competency in nursing students develops along with their competency as nursing practitioners. To facilitate progress through each phase, it needs to be ensured that the learning experiences that students are exposed to during each consecutive year of study facilitate as much as possible the development of moral competence.
Orientation: A large body of research evidence indicates that both sex role identity (SRI) and psychological capital (PsyCap) may have critical implications for individual and organisational ...well-being. As SRI is constituted of sex-based personality traits it is possible that SRI may have implications for individuals’ PsyCap.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between SRI and the positive psychological construct of PsyCap.Motivation for the study: Research on SRI and PsyCap has been explored independently of one another with a lack of research exploring the relationship between these two constructs. In addition, much of the previous research on SRI and organisational outcomes has only examined positive sex role identities, focusing almost exclusively on ‘positive’ or ‘socially desirable’ sex role identities. More recently, researchers have noted that this approach is theoretically and methodologically flawed, as it fails to account for negative traits or socially undesirable traits that may be contained within individuals’ SRI and which may have a number of deleterious implications for organisational outcome variables. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research within the South African context, which explores the adoption of positive and negative sexbased behavioural traits and their implications for PsyCap.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative study was conducted using a crosssectional design and a convenience sampling method to explore the relationship between SRI and PsyCap. Four hundred and seventy-eight respondents, all currently working in South African organisations, participated in this research. The composite questionnaire utilised for this research included a demographic questionnaire, The Extended Personal Attribute Questionnaire-Revised (EPAQ-R), and the PCQ-24 which measures PsyCap in terms of self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism.Main findings: Statistically significant differences were found between the positive and negative SRIs for levels of PsyCap. In particular, positive androgyny and positive masculinity scored the highest levels of PsyCap, whereas negative androgyny and negative femininity consistently scored the lowest levels. Although positive femininity fared significantly better than the aforementioned negative identities in most instances, this identity scored significantly lower levels on the positive PsyCap outcomes of hope and resilience, than the other positive identities of positive androgyny and positive masculinity. Furthermore, and counterintuitively, within this South African study, negative masculinity fared unexpectedly better on all dimensions of PsyCap, as compared to the poorer outcomes for negative masculinity evidenced in other international research.Practical/managerial implications: Given the pervasive impact of SRIs and PsyCap on interpersonal and organisational functioning, this research has practical and managerial implications for organisations with regard to recruitment, selection, training and development, and workplace counselling interventions.Contribution/value-add: The findings of this research contribute to the paucity of literature investigating both positive and negative SRIs and contribute further by exploring the interrelationship between these identities and PsyCap. As this study utilised a sample of individuals working in South Africa, its findings have a direct bearing on South African organisations.
Orientation: There is a lack of research examining both positive and negative sex-based traits and sex role identities. Previous research has predominantly focused on positive sex role identities and ...their relationship to various outcome variables. Findings for such research have not always been consistent. It has been argued that research that only examines positive identities is methodologically flawed and that the inconsistent findings in such research may be attributable to the fact that the research conducted has not examined the extent to which individuals may have adopted negative sex role identities.Motivation for the study: With few exceptions, sex role identity (SRI) has been measured exclusively in terms of positive characteristics only. There is a dearth of research investigating both positive and negative sex role identities, particularly within the South African context.Research purpose: The purpose of this research was to explore the extent to which individuals adopt both positive and negative sex-based traits and sex role identities. A theoretical argument is made for examining positive and negative gender attributes followed by a discussion of seven empirical studies, which demonstrate that significant proportions of samples are adopting negative sex role identities.Research design, approach and method: This research was conducted using a cross-sectional design and a convenience sampling method across seven different samples. A total of 3462 employees participated in this research. A revised version of the Extended Personal Attribute Questionnaire (EPAQ-R) and a demographic survey were used to collect the data.Main findings: Across all seven samples, a significant proportion of the respondents adopted negative sex role identities. These findings suggest that there is a need to measure both positive and negative identities in research on SRI. The proportion of respondents across the seven samples that adopted negative identities ranged from 44% to 49% whilst 46% to 54% indicated the adoption of positive identities.Practical/managerial implications: This research is important as it highlights that investigations of SRI must assess both positive and negative sex role identities. Negative SRIs may have implications for critical individual and organisational outcomes. Furthermore, measures that assess both positive and negative identities may have implications for organisational processes, such as recruitment, selection and training, learning and development.Contribution/value-add: The findings of this research contribute to the South African body of literature investigating sex role identities. The present study’s finding of a high proportion of individuals endorsing negative identities has implications for future research. Future research needs to explore the relationship between both positive and negative identities and a wide variety of individual and organisational well-being indicators.Keywords: Sex role identity; positive sex role identity; negative sex role identity
A large body of research has indicated that there are sex differences in social support perception with women perceiving greater social support than men. However, not all research supports this sex ...difference. Equivocal findings with regard to biological sex and social support may be attributed to research only exploring biological sex differences and not taking into account sex role identity variations within males and females that may influence this relationship. There is a small body of research that has examined sex role identity variations and their relation to social support; however, this research has only looked at positive sex role attributes, with research on negative attributes being notably absent. The present study examined the relationship between both positive and negative attributes and social support to determine if there were 'within group' differences regarding these attributes and the relationship of these differences to social support, among a sample of biological females. The study was conducted on 1467 females working within the financial and tertiary sectors. Findings indicated that those with positive identities perceived greater social support than those negative identities. These findings provides an important contribution to research on sex and social support indicating that there are 'within sex' differences that can create variations in the way in which individuals of a specific biological sex perceive social support. Further, the study indicates the critical importance of distinguishing between positive and negative sex role identities and their implications for social support.
The aim of the study reported on here was to examine workplace bullying among teachers in South African schools. The research was framed by the Job Demands-Resources Model which was utilised to ...determine the extent of demands and resources that teachers experience and the implications thereof for creating an environment that fosters bullying and the effect of such bullying on teachers and schools. A qualitative interpretative research design was utilised. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with 13 teachers. Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was used to interpret the data. The findings reveal that teachers work in an environment characterised by excessive demands with ever increasing workloads and a lack of supportive resources. This environment fosters stress, anger, frustration and aggression, and increases perpetration of bullying acts, as teachers turn upon one another. The findings in this study indicate that in the aftermath of bullying, feelings of incompetence, emotional exhaustion, depression and anxiety manifest. Furthermore, teachers reported engaging in withdrawal behaviour and expressing an increased desire to leave the profession. The results of this study have serious implications for teachers’ well being and their willingness to remain within the profession. In order to protect the well being of teachers and the overall integrity of schools there is an urgent need to increase resources and interventions to create a more conducive and healthy work environment. The need for resource provision and a re examination of demands becomes even more evident during the era of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
PDF
