Evaluation of the effectiveness of an educational program for nurses in disaster nursing

Introduction: The complexity of disasters occurring in present era requires highly trained nurses. The lack of basic education in Disaster Nursing resulted in the development of many educational initiatives, the effectiveness of which, in most cases, has not been documented with scientific rigor. Purpose: The purpose of this study was the development of an educational program in the provision of care during disasters, the implementation of the program to hospital-based nurses and the evaluation of its effectiveness. Additional objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge of nurses and behavioral intention in providing care to people affected by disasters.Methods: To assess the knowledge and behavioral intention of nurses, a cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 245 nurses. To investigate the effectiveness of the educational intervention, that lasted 8 hours, a randomized control trial was conducted, and specifically a Switching Replications design in 207 nurses. Both study groups attended the program, while the original control group became the treatment group in phase two. The evaluation of the participants was made using a questionnaire that was developed for the study objectives based on the relevant literature. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), v. 20 for Windows. Statistical analysis included analysis of variance, x2 test, t-test, analysis of variance for repeated measurements while ordinal logistic regression Introduction: The complexity of disasters occurring in present era requires highly trained nurses. The lack of basic education in Disaster Nursing resulted in the development of many educational initiatives, the effectiveness of which, in most cases, has not been documented with scientific rigor. Purpose: The purpose of this study was the development of an educational program in the provision of care during disasters, the implementation of the program to hospital-based nurses and the evaluation of its effectiveness. Additional objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge of nurses and behavioral intention in providing care to people affected by disasters.Methods: To assess the knowledge and behavioral intention of nurses, a cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 245 nurses. To investigate the effectiveness of the educational intervention, that lasted 8 hours, a randomized control trial was conducted, and specifically a Switching Replications design in 207 nurses. Both study groups attended the program, while the original control group became the treatment group in phase two. The evaluation of the participants was made using a questionnaire that was developed for the study objectives based on the relevant literature. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), v. 20 for Windows. Statistical analysis included analysis of variance, x2 test, t-test, analysis of variance for repeated measurements while ordinal logistic regression 0.14)] and 2 [0.36 (TA: 0.17)]. Participants in the intervention group achieved a significantly higher score, after attending the educational course than the scores of the control group (p 0.05).Conclusions: The educational program entitled "Essential knowledge, nursing competencies and skills in disaster preparedness", that lasted 8 hours and was implemented in hospital-based nurses, was effective in increasing nurses’ knowledge and self-esteem.Εισαγωγή: Η πολυπλοκότητα των καταστροφών που παρατηρείται στη σύγχρονη εποχή απαιτεί άρτια καταρτισμένους νοσηλευτές. Η έλλειψη βασικής εκπαίδευσης στη Νοσηλευτική Καταστροφών είχε ως αποτέλεσμα την ανάπτυξη πολλών εκπαιδευτικών πρωτοβουλιών, η αποτελεσματικότητα των οποίων, στις περισσότερες περιπτώσεις δεν έχει τεκμηριωθεί επιστημονικά.Σκοπός: Σκοπός της μελέτης ήταν η ανάπτυξη εκπαιδευτικού προγράμματος στην παροχή φροντίδας κατά τη διάρκεια καταστροφών, η εφαρμογή του σε νοσηλευτές εργαζόμενους σε δημόσια νοσοκομεία και η αξιολόγηση της αποτελεσματικότητάς του. Επιπρόσθετοι στόχοι της μελέτης ήταν η εκτίμηση της γνώσης των νοσηλευτών αλλά και της πρόθεσης συμπεριφοράς τους στην παροχή φροντίδας σε πληγέντες από καταστροφές.Υλικό & Μέθοδος: Για την εκτίμηση της γνώσης και πρόθεσης συμπεριφοράς πραγματοποιήθηκε συγχρονική μελέτη σε τυχαίο δείγμα 245 νοσηλευτών. Για τη διερεύνηση της αποτελεσματικότητας της εκπαιδευτικής παρέμβασης, συνολικής διάρκειας 8 ωρών, πραγματοποιήθηκε τυχαιοποιημένη πειραματική μελέτη, τύπου Eναλλακτής Επανάληψης (Switching Replications) σε 207 νοσηλευτές. Και οι δύο ομάδες της μελέτης παρακολούθησαν το πρόγραμμα, με τη διαφορά ότι η αρχική ομάδα ελέγχου στη συνέχεια γίνεται ομάδα παρέμβασης και αυτή. Η αξιολόγηση της απόδοσης των συμμετεχόντων διενεργήθηκε με ερωτηματολόγιο που αναπτύχθηκε για τους στόχους της μελέτης σύμφωνα με τη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία. Τα δεδομένα αναλύθηκαν με το Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), v. 20 για Windows. Η στατιστική ανάλυση περιελάμβανε ανάλυση διασποράς, έλεγχο x2, έλεγχο t-test, ανάλυση διασποράς για επαναλαμβανόμενες μετρήσεις ενώ η διατάξιμη λογιστική ανάλυση χρησιμοποιήθηκε για τις διατάξιμες μεταβλητές. Το επίπεδο της στατιστικής σημαντικότητας για τον έλεγχο των υποθέσεων ορίσθηκε σε p0.05).Συμπεράσματα: Το εκπαιδευτικό πρόγραμμα με τίτλο «Βασικές γνώσεις, νοσηλευτικές ικανότητες και δεξιότητες στην ετοιμότητα αντιμετώπισης καταστροφών», διάρκειας 8 ωρών, το οποίο εφαρμόστηκε σε νοσηλευτές δημόσιων νοσοκομείων ήταν αποτελεσματικό ως προς την αύξηση της γνώσης και της αυτοεκτίμησης των νοσηλευτών

Providing care to patients with COVID-19 in a reference hospital: health care staff intentional behavior and factors that affect it Running title: Intention to provide care to COVID-19 patients

Objective: The investigation of intentional behavior of hospital staff to care for COVID-19 patients and the study of the factors that influences it. Method: This is a cross-sectional study, of 261 physicians and nurses working in a COVID-19 reference hospital. Data were collected by an anonymous questionnaire including demographic and professional characteristics and a scale measuring behavioral intention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior of Ajzen. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 21. Results: Mean age of participants was 40.8 years old, while most of them were nurses (75.7%). Behavioral intention mean score was 18.2 (5-21), which shows high intention to care for COVID-19 patients. Bivariate analysis between independent variables showed that behavioral intention mean score was higher for those that had cared for COVID-19 patients and those that did not (19.0% vs. 16.7%, p < 0.001). Multivariate linear regression analysis identified that increased subjective norms (the perceived social pressure to perform or not the behavior) score was associated with increased behavioral intention score (p < 0.001). Also, participants that provided care for COVID-19 patients had higher behavioral intention score (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Healthcare staff, that cared for COVID-19 patients had high behavioral intention to continue caring for them. This finding could be used to inform policies and training for staff that will be employed in COVID-19 units

Reliability and validity of the Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire-Greek version (CCCQ-G)

Introduction: Cultural competency is a term that is widely used regarding health care providers around the world. As a consequence, a plethora of new instruments have been introduced in order to describe, evaluate and measure the new term of cultural competence. Objective: This study aimed to determine the validity and reliability of the Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire-Greek version (CCCQ-G) among Healthcare Professionals. Methods: Two hundred and twenty (220) health professionals, from three (3) general pediatric hospitals in Greece completed the questionnaire. Internal consistency was determined and convergent validity was further examined with the intercorrelations of subscales. The structure of the questionnaire was investigated using factor analysis. Results: Analysis resulted in a six-factor solution, explaining 55 % of the variance. All subscales resulting from the factor analysis had alphas that ranged from 0.71 to 0.91. Correlations among the scales were all statistically significant. Higher scores in most subscales were observed for health care professionals who had attended transcultural health courses. Conclusions: The Greek version of CCCQ was found to possess good reliability and validity, therefore, the instrument could be used in future research studying cultural competence of health care professionals