Healthcare providers as patients: COVID-19 experience

There is compelling evidence for the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and earlier epidemics. However, fewer studies have examined the subjective meaning experience of healthcare providers who have survived COVID-19 as patients. This qualitative study aimed to understand further and describe the life experiences of healthcare providers who have survived COVID-19 as patients in Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using unstructured in-depth individual interviews among n = 10 healthcare providers from public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Data were analyzed based on a phenomenological approach, which resulted in five themes: (i) physical and psychological signs and symptoms; (ii) self-healing, hiding pain, and family; (iii) fear of complications; (iv) disease stigma & long-term psychological outcomes; (v) emotional support, mental well-being & resignation. The overall synthesis showed that healthcare providers, as patients, experience the same difficulties and stressors as the general public. In some cases, these factors are even worse, as family members, colleagues, and employers develop a new type of stigma. Given the impact of social media and the flow of information of any type, more research is needed to examine the sources used to obtain information by the general public, whether these sources are reliable, and how the public can be taught to use only scientific data and not social data. Understanding the experience of healthcare providers as patients during the pandemic has allowed to look at the feelings and needs of people during illness from a new perspective. As expressed by participants, being a healthcare provider does not reduce the fear of the disease and does not mitigate its consequences in the form of stigmatization and isolation

Quality of Nursing Work Life among Nurses in Saudi Arabia: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Quality of working life (QWL) is a multidimensional concept that describes an employee’s satisfaction with several work life elements. Quality of nurse working life is considered as a stepping stone for health services improvement, as it affects job satisfaction which, in turn, affects the performance of nurses. Understanding and investigating the nurses’ quality of work life in Saudi Arabia is needed for improvement actions. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the quality of nursing work life (QNWL) among nurses working in Saudi Arabia and to determine the association between demographic variables and quality of work life among nurses. Methods: It was a cross-sectional design using Brooks’ quality of nursing work life survey. It was distributed among nurses over the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Results: There were 860 nurses participating in the study. The mean total score for the participants was 174.5+/− 30.3, indicating moderate to high QNWL. The highest score achieved by the nurses was for the work world context (4.29) while the lowest score was for work design dimension (3.92). The study revealed that nationality, income, and shift duration, having a dependent person, and having family accompany the nurse as significant factors affecting the quality of work life among the nurses. Conclusion: A novel contribution of the current study was that the demographic characteristics of the participants, including nationality, income, having family accompany the nurse, having an independent child, or spouse or parents, and shift duration, tended to have a statistically significant correlation with QNWL. The comprehensive results of this study have practical implications whereby authority bodies can create regulatory plans for enhancing satisfaction and performance over the sole utilization of job satisfaction measurements and can thereby improve nurses’ retention and turnover rates

Healthcare providers as patients: COVID-19 experience.

There is compelling evidence for the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and earlier epidemics. However, fewer studies have examined the subjective meaning experience of healthcare providers who have survived COVID-19 as patients. This qualitative study aimed to understand further and describe the life experiences of healthcare providers who have survived COVID-19 as patients in Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using unstructured in-depth individual interviews among n = 10 healthcare providers from public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Data were analyzed based on a phenomenological approach, which resulted in five themes: (i) physical and psychological signs and symptoms; (ii) self-healing, hiding pain, and family; (iii) fear of complications; (iv) disease stigma & long-term psychological outcomes; (v) emotional support, mental well-being & resignation. The overall synthesis showed that healthcare providers, as patients, experience the same difficulties and stressors as the general public. In some cases, these factors are even worse, as family members, colleagues, and employers develop a new type of stigma. Given the impact of social media and the flow of information of any type, more research is needed to examine the sources used to obtain information by the general public, whether these sources are reliable, and how the public can be taught to use only scientific data and not social data. Understanding the experience of healthcare providers as patients during the pandemic has allowed to look at the feelings and needs of people during illness from a new perspective. As expressed by participants, being a healthcare provider does not reduce the fear of the disease and does not mitigate its consequences in the form of stigmatization and isolation

Quality of Nursing Work Life among Nurses in Saudi Arabia: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Quality of working life (QWL) is a multidimensional concept that describes an employee’s satisfaction with several work life elements. Quality of nurse working life is considered as a stepping stone for health services improvement, as it affects job satisfaction which, in turn, affects the performance of nurses. Understanding and investigating the nurses’ quality of work life in Saudi Arabia is needed for improvement actions. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the quality of nursing work life (QNWL) among nurses working in Saudi Arabia and to determine the association between demographic variables and quality of work life among nurses. Methods: It was a cross-sectional design using Brooks’ quality of nursing work life survey. It was distributed among nurses over the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Results: There were 860 nurses participating in the study. The mean total score for the participants was 174.5+/− 30.3, indicating moderate to high QNWL. The highest score achieved by the nurses was for the work world context (4.29) while the lowest score was for work design dimension (3.92). The study revealed that nationality, income, and shift duration, having a dependent person, and having family accompany the nurse as significant factors affecting the quality of work life among the nurses. Conclusion: A novel contribution of the current study was that the demographic characteristics of the participants, including nationality, income, having family accompany the nurse, having an independent child, or spouse or parents, and shift duration, tended to have a statistically significant correlation with QNWL. The comprehensive results of this study have practical implications whereby authority bodies can create regulatory plans for enhancing satisfaction and performance over the sole utilization of job satisfaction measurements and can thereby improve nurses’ retention and turnover rates

The spectrum of non-ischemic cardiac magnetic resonance imaging findings: a retrospective analysis.

Introduction: Since cardiac pathologies remain ubiquitous, their prompt diagnosis through the means of innovative technologies, such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, remains pivotal. The spectrum of these pathologies varies widely, ranging from ischemic etiologies to rare cardiac malignancies. This study evaluates the prevalence of nonischemic cardiac pathologies, such as infiltrative heart diseases, that often warrant meticulous diagnostic evaluation through the means of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Methods: We performed a retrospective study in order to analyse the cardiac magnetic resonance imaging records of 250 patients over a period of six months with previously remarkable cardiac histories. Patients with a prior history of ischemic cardiac disease, as determined from past medical and surgical records, were excluded from the study. The prevalence of various nonischemic findings was ascertained. The demographic characteristics and comorbidities of the patients were also tabulated. Results: In the present study, 250 patients were included, of which 115 were females and 135 were males, with the mean age hovering at 48.21 ± 11.49 years. The top two most prevalent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging findings were concentric moderate-to-severe left ventricular hypertrophy and patchy subendocardial late gadolinium enhancement of the left ventricle; these were observed in 62.2% and 23.7% of the patients, respectively. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging also divulged findings typical of rarer pathologies, including cardiac sarcoidosis and primary cardiac lymphoma. Conclusion: Pathologies of the heart often mandate extensive diagnostic workup through the means of radiological modalities such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. In patients with indications of nonischemic cardiac pathologies, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging can be employed as part of the initial radiological armamentarium. Furthermore, cardiac magnetic resonance remains the imaging modality of choice for detecting infrequent cardiac pathologies, such as cardiac sarcoidosis.</div

Safety and efficacy of low-dose corticosteroids in patients with non-severe coronavirus disease 2019: a retrospective cohort study

Background: To date, several pharmacological agents have been employed in the treatment and management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While the utility of corticosteroids in severe COVID-19 infection is now widely touted, their efficacy in thwarting the progression of non-severe disease remains elusive. Methods: A retrospective cohort study involving 25 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of non-severe COVID-19 infection was conducted. Subjects were assigned to either the steroid or the non-steroid group. A low-dose, short-course corticosteroid regimen was administered for seven days and the disease outcomes were recorded and compared among the two groups. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was employed to discern the data normality. Results: In patients treated with low-dose, short-course steroids, the overall all-cause mortality was significantly lower compared with the non-steroid group (8.3% and 61.5%, respectively; p = 0.005). The prevalence of acute respiratory distress syndrome in the steroid group was significantly lower than that in the non-steroid group at the seven-day mark (16.7% and 84.6%, respectively; p = 0.002). Within the steroid group, the incidence of developing secondary complications was also markedly lower than that in the non-steroid group. Conclusions: In patients afflicted with non-severe COVID-19, the employment of low-dose, short-course corticosteroids may confer a therapeutic advantage, significantly curtailing the mortality rate, the length of hospital stay, and the risk of developing secondary complications.</div

Acceptance, Advocacy, and Perception of Health Care Providers on COVID-19 Vaccine: Comparing Early Stage of COVID-19 Vaccination with Latter Stage in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia

Vaccination of healthcare providers has recently gained focused attention of public health officials. As HCPs have direct contact with the population, and HCPs significantly influence the population, this study aimed to compare the acceptance rate, advocacy rate, and beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine among HCPs in two time periods. In this repeated cross-sectional study, different HCPs were assessed in two periods ten months apart, i.e., November to December 2020 and September to October 2021, which were before and after COVID-19 vaccine approval by authorities. The study was conducted in Qatif Central Hospital, Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia. There were 609 respondents: 236 participants in the first period and 373 participants in the second period. Only 13 participants did not get the COVID-19 vaccine. There was around a 40% difference in the acceptance rate between the two study periods; the latter period was higher at 94.7%. Furthermore, 24.1% was the difference between the willingness to advocate the COVID-19 vaccine for others; the first period had a lower percentage (60.1%). Overall, results of the study showed that vaccine hesitancy, as well as the willingness to advocate for the vaccine, were improved between the pre-vaccine approval period and post-vaccine approval period, showing that the efforts made by the government improved COVID-19 acceptance and advocacy among HCPs. However, vaccine hesitancy is not a new issue, and for a better understanding of HCPs’ beliefs, a qualitative study is needed

Artificial Intelligence for Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer

As medical science and technology progress towards the era of “big data”, a multi-dimensional dataset pertaining to medical diagnosis and treatment is becoming accessible for mathematical modelling. However, these datasets are frequently inconsistent, noisy, and often characterized by a significant degree of redundancy. Thus, extensive data processing is widely advised to clean the dataset before feeding it into the mathematical model. In this context, Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, including machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) and their types, are being used to produce a precise and cross-sectional illustration of clinical data. For prostate cancer patients, datasets derived from the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), MRI-guided biopsies, genetic biomarkers, and the Gleason grading are primarily used for diagnosis, risk stratification, and patient monitoring. However, recording diagnoses and further stratifying risks based on such diagnostic data frequently involves much subjectivity. Thus, implementing an AI algorithm on a PC’s diagnostic data can reduce the subjectivity of the process and assist in decision making. In addition, AI is used to cut down the processing time and help with early detection, which provides a superior outcome in critical cases of prostate cancer. Furthermore, this also facilitates offering the service at a lower cost by reducing the amount of human labor. Herein, the prime objective of this review is to provide a deep analysis encompassing the existing AI algorithms that are being deployed in the field of prostate cancer (PC) for diagnosis and treatment. Based on the available literature, AI-powered technology has the potential for extensive growth and penetration in PC diagnosis and treatment to ease and expedite the existing medical process

Promising Antimycobacterial Activities of Flavonoids against Mycobacterium sp. Drug Targets: A Comprehensive Review

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a threat to mankind, with over a billion of deaths in the last two centuries. Recent advancements in science have contributed to an understanding of Mtb pathogenesis and developed effective control tools, including effective drugs to control the global pandemic. However, the emergence of drug resistant Mtb strains has seriously affected the TB eradication program around the world. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop new drugs for TB treatment, which has grown researchers’ interest in small molecule-based drug designing and development. The small molecules-based treatments hold significant potential to overcome drug resistance and even provide opportunities for multimodal therapy. In this context, various natural and synthetic flavonoids were reported for the effective treatment of TB. In this review, we have summarized the recent advancement in the understanding of Mtb pathogenesis and the importance of both natural and synthetic flavonoids against Mtb infection studied using in vitro and in silico methods. We have also included flavonoids that are able to inhibit the growth of non-tubercular mycobacterial organisms. Hence, understanding the therapeutic properties of flavonoids can be useful for the future treatment of TB