Journal of Nursing Research最新文献

Background: The postpartum period is a physiologically and psychologically crucial transition phase for every woman who gives birth. Aromatherapy may improve mood and alleviate sleep challenges. However, few randomized controlled clinical trials have focused on the effect of aromatherapy in postpartum women.

Purpose: This study was designed to explore the effect of a bergamot essential oil aromatherapy intervention on depressive mood and sleep quality in postpartum women.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial used consecutive sampling. The participants were all women in a postpartum care center in eastern Taiwan and were randomly assigned to either the experimental (n = 29) or control (n = 31) group. Bergamot essential oil aroma was used in the experimental group, and pure water aroma was used in the control group. The experimental and control interventions were both performed while the participants were residents at the postpartum care center in the afternoon for 15 minutes each day. Before the aroma intervention, pretests were conducted using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Postpartum Sleep Quality Scale. The first and second posttests were conducted using the same two scales at 2 and 4 weeks after the intervention, respectively.

Results: At both the first and second posttests, depressive mood was significantly lower (p < .001) in the experimental group than in the control group, supporting the positive effect of the bergamot essential oil aroma intervention on depressive mood in postpartum women. No significant intergroup difference in sleep quality (p > .05) was observed at either the first or second posttest, indicating an uncertain effect of the bergamot essential oil aroma intervention on sleep quality.

Conclusions/implications for practice: The results of this study support the effectiveness of bergamot essential oil aromatherapy in alleviating depressive mood in postpartum women. In addition, the results provide a practical reference for clinical postpartum nursing care.

Background: Interdisciplinary collaboration in the intensive care unit (ICU) is crucial for improving the quality of patient care. Furthermore, interdisciplinary team members need to establish team leadership to function effectively in solving problems. However, the influence of improving leadership ability in nurses on interdisciplinary collaboration efficacy is uncertain.

Purpose: This study was designed to clarify the relationship between nursing leadership ability and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 3,324 nurses with > 3 years of experience working in an ICU in Japan as participants. The investigation period was from April to September 2016. The developed questionnaire addressed leadership ability (Self-Assessment Inventory of Leadership role for staff nurses) and activities and perceptions related to multidisciplinary collaboration (Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions). The questionnaires were then collected and mailed.

Results: The 2,063 valid questionnaire responses gave a valid response rate of 61%. Nursing leadership ability was found to be significantly higher in advanced practice nurses (APNs; 78.8 ± 9.5, p < .001) and nurses in higher positions (74.9 ± 8.9, p < .001) than in non-APNs. However, no differences were found in terms of ICU management systems (p = .116). In addition, higher levels of nursing leadership were associated with greater team coordination (β = .212), higher levels of interdisciplinary collaboration in the ICU (β = .196), and the perception of many medical staff members, as well as patients and family members, to be team members (β = .140) and APNs (β = .128; p < .001).

Conclusions/implications for practice: Improving the leadership ability of critical care nurses may impact interdisciplinary collaboration positively. Leadership ability in nurses was shown to be related to a high level of cooperation among multiple healthcare providers. To enhance leadership ability in critical care nurses, nurses must increase their level of knowledge and ability. However, examining and implementing educational methods, including the improvement of coordination ability mainly by APNs, remain a challenge.

Background: Multidisciplinary healthcare providers, especially clinical nurses, lack a valid tool to assess the comprehensive barriers affecting oncofertility care in breast cancer treatment.

Purpose: The aims of the research were to develop a self-assessment scale on oncofertility barriers and test its validity and reliability.

Methods: This was a methodological study. The initial 36 items of the developed Oncofertility Barrier Scale (OBS) were generated through qualitative study and a review of the literature. This scale was further refined using expert validity (n = 10), face validity (n = 10), and item analysis (n = 184). Exploratory factor analysis with principal axis factoring and direct oblimin rotation was used to determine the construct validity. The reliability of the OBS was evaluated using internal consistency and test-retest analyses.

Results: The mean item-level and scale-level content validity indices of the initial OBS were higher than .96. The data were shown to be feasible for the factor analysis, and a six-factor solution was chosen that accounted for approximately 57.6% of the total variance. These factors included (a) lack of information and education, (b) rigid thinking toward oncofertility care, (c) cancer patient stereotypes, (d) fertility risk, (e) insufficient support, and (f) interrupted oncofertility care. The Cronbach's alpha of the 27-item OBS was .91, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was .55.

Conclusions/implications for practice: The final version of the developed OBS has acceptable reliability, content validity, and construct validity. This scale is appropriate for use in research and clinical practice settings to identify the barriers to fertility cancer care that should be resolved by the breast cancer care team.

Background: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic period, most university courses in Turkey have been taught via distance education. Beyond knowledge of digital technologies, self-efficacy is known to affect the learning motivation and learning goals of students.

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between eHealth literacy and self-efficacy levels in midwifery students receiving distance education during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The research data were collected using a literature-based questionnaire developed by the researchers, the eHealth Literacy Scale for Adolescents, and the Online Technologies Self-Efficacy Scale. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0, with values of p < .05 considered to be significant.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic on a sample of 578 female midwifery students. Snowball sampling method was used for data collection using an online questionnaire.

Results: On the basis of the results, eHealth literacy and self-efficacy levels were relatively low in students who were 20 years old or below, who were in their first year, who were from low-income families, who spent less than an hour a day on the Internet, who had a low level of satisfaction with distance education, and who wanted to continue taking theoretical courses via distance education. In addition, self-efficacy related to online technologies was shown to be relatively low in students who found Internet services to be expensive, who had Internet connection problems, and who preferred asynchronous courses. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found between eHealth literacy and self-efficacy levels for online education.

Conclusions/implications for practice: In the context of distance education, integrating the teaching/promotion of self-efficacy with regard to eHealth literacy and online technologies into midwifery education curriculum should better enable midwives to increase the quality of healthcare they provide and improve patient safety.

Background: Psychological resources such as hope have been suggested to affect quality of life (QoL) positively in patients with heart disease. However, little information regarding the relationship between these two constructs is available.

Purpose: This work was aimed at examining the factors associated with hope and QoL in patients with coronary artery disease.

Methods: In this descriptive work, perceived QoL and hope were assessed in 500 patients with heart disease. The information was collected using the McGill QoL Questionnaire, demographic variables, and the Herth Hope Index. The Pearson correlation test and general linear model were used to examine correlations through SPSS Version 22.

Results: A considerable correlation was discovered between QoL and hope (r = .337, p < .001). Multivariate analyses with regression revealed that religious beliefs and social support both had significant and positive effects on the total perceived hope of patients and that patient age had a considerable negative impact on QoL (p < .05). None of these factors had a significant impact on hope (p < .05). In addition, the total QoL had a significant and positive effect on patient feelings and thoughts, whereas the physical problems component of QoL had a significant and negative effect on hope (p < .05). Participants with higher levels of education reported more hope.

Conclusions: QoL relates significantly to self-perceived hope in patients. Understanding QoL and hopefulness in patients with coronary artery disease has implications for nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Background: Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) is an important issue among older adults with diabetes mellitus. However, information on longitudinal changes in HR-QoL over time using the illness trajectory model is limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify patterns of temporal change in HR-QoL and their predictors using longitudinal data and a group-based modeling approach.

Methods: European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions data for 440 older adults with diabetes mellitus were drawn from the nationwide Korea Health Panel Survey conducted from 2009 to 2013. Latent class growth analysis and multinomial logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors of HR-QoL trajectories.

Results: Four distinct classes of HR-QoL trajectory were identified: high decrease (n = 46, 10.5%), high stable (n = 232, 52.7%), medium stable (n = 157, 35.7%), and low increase (n = 5, 1.1%). Participants in ``high decrease" and ``high-stable" classes tended to be men who were highly educated, physically active, and adherent to their medication regimen. High economic status, few chronic diseases, independence in activities of daily living, and high self-rated health status were also identified as indicators of being in the ``high-decrease" and ``high-stable" class group.

Conclusions/implications for practice: A salient finding of this study is that HR-QoL trajectories in older adults with diabetes mellitus are not homogeneous but instead diverge into four distinct classes. Most participants showed no major changes in HR-QoL across the 5-year period, regardless of HR-QoL level. To prevent patients with diabetes from experiencing chronically low levels of HR-QoL, comprehensive assessment and individualized care based on HR-QoL are necessary.

Background: Nursing competence is an essential element in ensuring high-quality nursing care and positive patient outcomes. Valid and reliable assessment tools for assessing nurse competence are needed to help nurse supervisors measure whether nurses are performing their job well and to provide a baseline for improving the competences of nurses.

Purpose: This study was designed to develop and psychometrically validate the Competence Scale for Clinical Nurses (CSCN).

Methods: The CSCN was developed in three steps: (a) generalize assessment items from nursing competence-related scales and a review of the relevant literature, (b) determine the content validity of the developed scale, and (c) psychometrically test the developed scale. Five hundred nurses were recruited from a medical center in southern Taiwan. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were executed to analyze construct validity and internal consistency reliability.

Results: The scale-content validity index was .87, as determined by five experts. Two thirds (63.29%) of the variance was explained by three factors: basic care skills (nine items), being dedicated to work (five items), and patient-centered and ethical considerations (four items). A second-order confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the data fit the model well. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for each of the three factors and the total scale were .84-.91.

Conclusions/implications for practice: The 18-item CSCN is a feasible and time-efficient tool for assessing competence in clinical nurses. Nursing supervisors may use this tool to explore nurses' competency and routinely track the effect of continuing education on competence. Continuous evaluation of nurses' clinical-based competence using the CSCN is recommended.

Background: Self-efficacy in the nursing profession has been reported to have a positive effect on personal performance in terms of clinical performance and decision-making abilities, nursing performance, professional intuition, organizational commitment, and turnover intention.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to verify the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Nursing Profession Self-Efficacy Scale (K-NPSES).

Methods: This methodological study used questionnaires collected from 307 nurses at medical institutions in South Korea. The content validity of the questionnaire was verified using the averaging method, whereas the criterion-related validity was evaluated by calculating the correlation with the Sherer General Self-Efficacy Scale. The construct validity was determined by analyzing the explanatory and confirmatory factors. Reliability was verified using Cronbach's α and test-retest by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients.

Results: The content validity index of the K-NPSES was found to be greater than .95, and the criterion-related validity was satisfactory (coefficient = .57, p < .001). The original Nursing Profession Self-Efficacy Scale has two subfactors, and the K-NPSES analyzed in this study has four subfactors. The data were appropriate for factor analysis using Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (.87) and Bartlett's sphericity test (χ2 = 1236.01, df = 137, p < .001). The model fit was acceptable (normed chi-square [χ2/df] = 2.22, root mean square residual = .05, root mean square error of approximation = .09, comparative fit index = .88, Tucker-Lewis index = .86, goodness-of-fit index = .83). Regarding reliability, Cronbach's α was .91 and the intraclass correlation coefficient was .78 (p < .001).

Conclusions/implications for practice: The findings of this study confirmed the K-NPSES as having acceptable validity. In addition to predicting nursing clinical performance, a well-established nursing profession self-efficacy scale may be used to improve the quality of clinical nursing.

Background: The symptoms of patients with ovarian cancer at a specific time point during the treatment process have been investigated in previous studies. However, only a few longitudinal studies have been conducted in China to determine the symptom cluster of patients with ovarian cancer before surgery, after surgery, and during the initial stage of chemotherapy.

Purpose: This study was carried out to identify the symptom clusters in patients with ovarian cancer at different stages of treatment.

Methods: A longitudinal survey was designed, and 430 patients with ovarian cancer who had undergone surgical operation combined with chemotherapy were recruited as participants. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the components of symptom cluster at three different time points: 3 days before surgery (T1), 2 days after surgery (T2), and the first day after the completion of chemotherapy cycle 1 (T3).

Results: The symptom clusters varied across the three time points. Notably, the pain-related, emotional, cognitive, and disease-related symptom clusters occurred at T1 and persisted through T2 and T3; the treatment-related symptom cluster occurred at T2 and persisted through T3; and the numbness symptom and gastrointestinal symptom clusters were observed at T3.

Conclusions: Priority symptom management interventions should be provided according to the most severe symptom clusters such as the emotional symptom cluster at T1, the treatment-related symptom cluster at T2, and the gastrointestinal symptom cluster at T3.