Resilience among older adults living at home : Urban-rural difference in a population-based study

Funding Information: The research was funded with grants from the Icelandic Regional Development Institute, the University of Akureyri Research Fund, the Akureyri Hospital Research Fund, and the Icelandic Nurses´ Association Research Fund. None of these hold a specific grant number. Publisher Copyright: © by Società Italiana di Gerontologia e Geriatria (SIGG).Objective. We examined how individual and contextual factors affect resilience in community-dwelling older adults living in urban or rural areas in Northern Iceland. Methods. A cross-sectional study, conducted from 2017–2018, ran-domly sampled community-dwelling older adults (age ≥ 65) stratified by residency (urban/rural), age, and gender. Results. Compared with rural dwellers (n = 75), urban dwellers (n = 105) had more education (p 0.001). Conclusions. We found a significant association between contextual and individual factors and resilience. To enable older adults to live lon-ger in their own homes, health care professionals should pay attention to health literacy and mental health factors that increase resilience.Peer reviewe

Educational and personal burnout and burnout regarding collaborating with fellow university nursing students during COVID-19 in 2020-2021

Funding Information: The research received funding from the scientific funds of the University of Iceland and the University of Akureyri. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic College of Caring Science.BACKGROUND: Knowledge is lacking about the effects of COVID-19 on nursing students' burnout symptoms. Burnout can lead to negative feelings and behaviours towards learning and poor mental health. AIMS: To describe and compare nursing/midwifery students' burnout, explore differences and detect predictors at two time points through COVID-19. METHODS: Students were offered participation in the spring semesters of 2020 and 2021 (N = 2046), during COVID-19. The response rate was 30-33%. By using reliable and valid instruments, the students' stress and burnout were analysed as well as the students' health and perceived support. RESULTS: Symptoms of academic burnout were higher among 1st and 2nd year BSc students in 2021. On the contrary, 3rd and 4th year students had higher academic and personal burnout than graduate students as well as than 1st and 2nd year students. Regarding academic burnout, 47% of the variability was explained by educational level, support, stress and the interactional effect of stress and support. Collaborational burnout, predicted by the students' educational level and support, explained 7% of the variability in the outcome. Additionally, educational level, and stress, predicted 52% of the variability in personal burnout. CONCLUSION: Educators or student counsellors need to facilitate effective learning practices and offer academic support, specifically during 3rd and 4th year to boost helpful coping strategies and handle uncertainty and stressors related to crises such as COVID-19.Peer reviewe

Predictability of seasonal mood fluctuations based on self-report questionnaires and EEG biomarkers in a non-clinical sample

Funding Information: The study was supported by the Research Fund of the University of Akureyri (RHA, R1916). Funding Information: We thank the BS-students Anna Hj?lmeig Hannesd?ttir, El?sa Huld Jensd?ttir, M?ni Sn?r Hafd?sarson, Sara Teresa J?nsd?ttir, Sigr?n Mar?a ?skarsd?ttir, and Silja Hl?n Magn?sd?ttir at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Akureyri for recruitment and data collection. Also many thanks to the BS-students of the Faculties of Psychology at the University of Iceland, Anton Nikolaisson Haydarly, Elena Arngr?msd?ttir, Erla ?str?s J?nsd?ttir, Inga Vald?s T?masd?ttir, Mar?a Lov?sa Brei?dal, and ?l?f Traustad?ttir to sample the data in the online part of the study. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Höller, Urbschat, Kristófersson and Ólafsson.Induced by decreasing light, people affected by seasonal mood fluctuations may suffer from low energy, have low interest in activities, experience changes in weight, insomnia, difficulties in concentration, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Few studies have been conducted in search for biological predictors of seasonal mood fluctuations in the brain, such as EEG oscillations. A sample of 64 participants was examined with questionnaires and electroencephalography in summer. In winter, a follow-up survey was recorded and participants were grouped into those with at least mild (N = 18) and at least moderate (N = 11) mood decline and those without self-reported depressive symptoms both in summer and in winter (N = 46). A support vector machine was trained to predict mood decline by either EEG biomarkers alone, questionnaire data from baseline alone, or a combination of the two. Leave-one-out-cross validation with lasso regularization was used with logistic regression to fit a model. The accuracy for classification for at least mild/moderate mood decline was 77/82% for questionnaire data, 72/82% for EEG alone, and 81/86% for EEG combined with questionnaire data. Self-report data was more conclusive than EEG biomarkers recorded in summer for prediction of worsening of depressive symptoms in winter but it is advantageous to combine EEG with psychological assessment to boost predictive performance.Peer reviewe

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wellbeing of nursing and midwifery students, and their perception of the learning environment during the national ‘lockdown’a qualitative study

Tilgangur. Markmið rannsóknarinnar var annars vegar að lýsa áhrifum COVID-19-faraldursins á líðan og nám hjúkrunar- og ljósmóðurfræðinemenda og hins vegar að lýsa viðhorfum nemenda til breytinga sem gerðar voru á námsumhverfi þeirra á tímum faraldursins. Aðferð. Rannsóknin var eigindleg. Þátttakendur voru samtals 15: fimm nemendur í hjúkrunarfræði við Háskólann á Akureyri, fimm nemendur í hjúkrunarfræði við Háskóla Íslands og fimm nemendur í framhaldsnámi við Hjúkrunar- og ljósmóðurfræðideild Háskóla Íslands. Í heildina voru fjögur rýnihópaviðtöl tekin með fjarfundarbúnaði á vormánuðum 2021. Niðurstöðurnar voru þemagreindar með aðferð Braun og Clarke (2012). Niðurstöður. Greind voru tvö meginþemu og sjö undirþemu. Meginþemað „Svo skellur covid á“ lýsir þeirri óreiðu og óvissu sem nemendur fundu fyrir, upplifun þeirra á skyndilegri breytingu á námsumhverfi og kennsluaðferðum, sem og áskorunum sem þeir mættu í klínísku námi. Þemað „Krefjandi tímar“ lýsir því hvernig nemendunum fannst þeir vera einir og því mikla álagi sem þeir voru undir bæði í námi og einkalífi á tímum faraldursins. Nemendur lýstu ótta við að bera smit og þörf fyrir stuðning var mikil, en hann fengu nemendur frá fjölskyldu og samnemendum en fáir þeirra voru meðvitaðir um eða nýttu sér þá aðstoð sem skólarnir buðu upp á. Ályktun. Fordæmalausar samkomutakmarkanir á tímum faraldursins höfðu margþætt áhrif á bóklegt og klínískt nám nemendanna sem og á líðan þeirra. Niðurstöðurnar sýna mikilvægi þess að nægur stuðningur sé frá kennurum og námsráðgjöfum sem og mikilvægi góðs aðgengis að tækniaðstoð. Aim. The aim of the study was to describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being and learning of nursing and midwifery students and to describe their perceptions of the changes made to their learning environment during the pandemic. Method. The study used a descriptive qualitative design. Fifteen students participated: five undergraduate nursing students from University of Akureyri and five undergraduate nursing and five graduate students from the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at University of Iceland. Data was collected during four focus-group interviews via an online platform at the end of the 2021 spring semester. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis as described by Braun and Clarke (2012). Results. Two main themes and seven subthemes were identified. The main theme, "Then Covid hits", describes the chaos and uncertainty that prevailed, the students’ experience of the abrupt shift in their learning environment and the various challenges in their clinical training. The theme "Challenging times" captures how the students felt they were on their own and the strain they experienced, in both their studies and their personal lives, during the pandemic. The students described their fear of spreading infection and their need for support from family and fellow students, but few were aware of or took advantage of the resources available from the universities. Conclusion. The unprecedented national ‘lockdown’ had a multifaceted impact on the students’ theoretical and clinical learning in addition to their well-being. The results highlight the importance of the provision of both sufficient support from study counselors and teachers as well as access to adequate technical support.Peer reviewe

Predictors of university nursing students burnout at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadBackground: Little is known about the stress and burnout experienced by undergraduate and graduate nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic burnout among nursing students can have an impact on students' learning ability, health, and wellbeing and on the quality of care and intention to leave the profession post-graduation. Objectives: Evaluate the predictors of nursing students' personal, academic, and collaboration-related burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design: Cross-sectional two-site study. Settings: Icelandic universities offering nursing education. Participants: Graduate and undergraduate nursing students in Iceland (N = 1044) were asked to participate in the study, with a response rate of 32.7%. Methods: An online survey was used to evaluate the students' stress and burnout in spring 2020. Results: The main findings show that 51% of the variability in the students' personal burnout was explained by their perceived stress, mental health, and perceived support. Furthermore, the students' perceived stress, support, and educational levels predicted 42% of the variability in their academic burnout. Burnout related to collaborating with fellow-students was explained by the nursing students' physical health and by their educational level, explaining 6% of the variability in fellow-students burnout. Conclusion: University administrators might consider adding academic support facilities into their undergraduate nursing programs and teaching their students healthy coping skills. Keywords: Burnout; COVID-19 pandemic; Nursing students; Stress.University of Iceland University of Akureyr