The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2020 catapulted institutions of higher education into an emergency transition from face-to-face to online ...teaching. Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing after-effects thereof, the study explored the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academics. A qualitative phenomenological research design was used to explore the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academics. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews from a sample of 11 full-time academics permanently employed at six public and private higher education institutions in South Africa in 2020 and 2021. The data were analysed by means of thematic analysis. The study found that the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions had a largely negative psychological impact on academics in higher education. The most dominant negative emotions reported by participants included stress, anxiety, fear and guilt either due to the threat of the virus itself, potential for loss of life, lockdown restrictions, a new working environment, and/or their perceived inability to assist their students. Participants also reported feelings of emotional isolation and an increase in levels of emotional fatigue. In conclusion, institutions of higher education need to be aware of the negative psychological impact of COVID-19 on academics, and ensure they create and foster environments that promote mental well-being. Institutions may offer psychological services and/or emotional well-being initiatives to their academic staff. They must create spaces and cultures where academics feel comfortable to request and seek well-being opportunities. In addition to mental and emotional well-being initiatives, institutions must provide academics with tangible teaching and learning support as this would go a long way in reducing much of the stress experienced by academics during the pandemic.
Objective
This study explored whether psychological consultation offered to women prior to bilateral prophylactic mastectomy (BPM) appeared to provide psychosocial benefit to younger women ...(<35 years) at high risk of developing breast cancer due to a mutation or family history.
Methods
Qualitative interviews guided by interpretative phenomenological analysis were conducted retrospectively with 26 women who had undergone BPM. Participants were recruited from New Zealand and Australia, via a genetics clinic, registry, research cohort, and online.
Results
Three themes were identified: psychological well‐being and adjustment, satisfaction with intimacy, and body image. Participants that had seen a psychologist reported being more prepared for BPM and appeared to adjust positively post‐surgery. They appeared to have improved psychological well‐being, reported satisfaction with intimacy, and a more positive body image, compared with those who had no support.
Conclusions
Women who undergo psychological consultation prior to BPM appear to adjust positively after surgery. Implications for practice include standard psychological consultation for younger women (>35 years) considering BPM.
•Acute situations can involve more than the medical manifestations of the patient.•Novice nurses perceive a lack of competence in dealing with acute situations.•Interpersonal relations are crucial ...for appropriate management of an acute situation.
Today’s nurses face complex patient challenges and increased patient acuity. Novice nurses may feel unprepared for some of the tasks facing them. In order to prevent adverse events and improve patient outcomes, the management of acute situations has been identified as an area needing attention. Despite this, it is not yet clear what novice nurses themselves perceive as an acute situation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe novice nurses’ perceptions of acute situations.
The study has a qualitative, descriptive design with a phenomenographic approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve novice nurses, with less than a year of working experience, about their perceptions of acute situations.
Acute situations are perceived as situations that occur suddenly, that involve shortage of time, or that generate a sense of insufficient personal competence. When acute situations arise, nurses experience a feeling of overwhelming responsibility. Acute situations involve not only deteriorating patient health but can also include challenging interpersonal relations or deficiencies in organisational procedures.
An acute situation, as perceived by novice nurses, contains significantly more than medical manifestations related to the patient, a prominent perception being that interpersonal relations are crucial for appropriate management.
Reviews the book, Les Collectifs Du CIRP: Vol. 1. The Redirection of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Amedeo P. Giorgi edited by Thomas F. Cloonan and Christian Thiboutot (2014). The Redirection of ...Psychology was composed in honor of Dr. Amedeo P. Giorgi, the leading developer of the descriptive phenomenological method for psychological research and a leading critic of mainstream psychology, and was presented to him on May 8, 2011 at the meeting of the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists (ICNAP.) Also known as a festschrift, this collection of essays was written by Giorgi’s colleagues and students, spanning his 50-year career. This review provides an overview and sketch of this important tribute to Giorgi’s career and work in psychology, which created international ripple effects. I address key essays emphasizing aspects of Giorgi’s work that he highlighted in later years of his career and provide an overview of the remaining essays to show the breadth and diversity of issues and topics discussed by the authors. A limitation of this review is that not all of the essays in the work necessarily resonated with my sensibilities and interests. This review is also a commentary on how The Redirection of Psychology holds “something for everyone” in terms of subject matter and theoretical or philosophical commitments. The human sciences are diverse, and this contributed book demonstrates the diversity of our scholarly community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
The South African health care system was hard hit by the second wave of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which affected nurse managers as healthcare facilities became overwhelmed due to an increased ...workload emanating from the overflow of admissions. Therefore, this study sought to explore and describe the nurse managers' experiences during COVID-19 in order to identify gaps and lessons learnt. A descriptive phenomenological research approach was used to explore the experiences of ten nurse managers who were purposively selected from different units of a selected district hospital. Data was collected through telephonic unstructured individual interviews and analysed using Colaizzi's seven steps method. The study revealed that nurse managers experienced human resource related challenges during COVID-19, worsened by the fact that vacant posts were frozen. It also emerged that there was a shortage of material resources that affected patient care. Nurse managers also indicated that COVID-19 brought a lot of administrative duties plus an additional duty of patient care. Also, nurse managers who had previously contracted COVID-19 experienced stigma and discrimination. The government needs to address resource related challenges in rural public hospitals and provide continuous support to nurse managers, particularly during a pandemic like COVID-19.
The rapid ageing of Singapore’s population has led to the phenomenon of more elderly spending more total years in nursing homes. This study aimed to explore the meaning of Joy in Living to elderly ...residents of nursing homes in Singapore, the enabling and disenabling conditions to Joy in Living in nursing homes and how Person-centered Care can support Joy in Living in nursing homes. The concept of Joy in Living is used in this study as it is unique to an individual elderly’s experience; The study employed hermeneutical phenomenological research methodology to allow for the exploration of Joy in Living in lived experiences of elderly residents through in-depth sixteen semi-structured interviews with elderly residents and six participant observations of three nursing homes (pre and post interviews) between July 2021 and November 2021; Seven themes for Joy in Living experiences to flourish were identified, including “supportive nursing home environment and practices”, “connectedness through meaningful relationships”, “meaningful daily living”, “fulfil the need for spiritual care”, “personal control”, “desire to be free from worries”, and “adapting to changes”, each of which explains a facet of Joy in Living experiences of the elderly residing in nursing homes. These themes include the enabling and disenabling conditions to Joy in Living in nursing homes; Focusing efforts and resources on enabling the seven themes, including fulfilling the need for spiritual care will allow Joy in Living experiences of elderly to flourish in nursing homes. This in turn promotes better psychosocial well-being of the elderly and better living environments where nursing home residents may enjoy satisfactory accommodation while spending their remaining years in joy.
For those with feelings of social anxiety, university can present unique challenges. Socially anxious students can face functional impairments such as interpersonal and academic deficits, as well as ...social maladjustment due to a shift in their social networks. Despite this, there is surprisingly little research exploring their experiences at university using qualitative designs. The present study set out to explore how a small sample of undergraduate students experienced feeling socially anxious at university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight psychology undergraduates and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to explore their experiences and interpret deeper meaning. Five main themes emerged, two of which are presented in the present study: "persistent self-consciousness" and "avoiding reality." Findings are discussed in relation to Clark and Wells' (1995) cognitive model of social anxiety as well as existing literature. Areas requiring further exploration are discussed, as well as how universities may support socially anxious students.
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