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The COVID‐19 pandemic has had an important impact on the academic world. It is known that university studies can influence the mental health of students, and especially those studying health sciences. In this study, we therefore sought to analyse whether the current pandemic has affected the mental well‐being of final‐year nursing students. This was a multi‐centre study, with a descriptive, longitudinal, and prospective design. Mental well‐being was evaluated using the General Health Questionnaire. A total of 305 participants were included in the study, of whom 52.1% had experienced the COVID‐19 pandemic. Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups analysed in terms of age, access to university, average marks, mental well‐being self‐esteem, emotional exhaustion, and sense of coherence. In the case of mental well‐being, a direct association was found with both the pandemic situation (OR = 2.32, P = 0.010) and emotional exhaustion scores (OR = 1.20, P < 0.001), while an inverse association was found with sense of coherence scores (OR = 0.45, P < 0.001). This study shows that the mental health of students is a significant factor and one that must be taken into consideration when training nursing staff at university. There is a need to promote healthy habits and provide appropriate coping strategies. It is also important to train and prepare students for pandemic situations as these can have an important impact on the mental health of both the members of the public who will be treated by these future nursing professionals and the students themselves.

Initial risk class and length of hospital stay in community-acquired pneumonia. R. Menéndez, D. Ferrando, J.M. Vallés, E. Martínez, M. Perpiñá. #ERS Journals Ltd 2001. ABSTRACT: The total medical costs of community-acquired pneumonia are directly related to the costs of hospital admission and length of stay. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reasons for prolonged duration of stay in patients stratified in five risk classes for death, and to identify factors associated with prolonged stay.The study population consisted of 295 patients. According to lower (classes I, II, III) or to higher (classes IV, V) risk, the target duration of hospitalization was set at 5 and 7 days, respectively. The causes of prolonged hospitalization were classified as pneumonia-related, complications, unstable comorbid diseases and nonclinical factors.The overall percentage of patients with appropriate duration of hospitalization was 32%. Causes of prolonged hospitalization were related mainly to pneumonia (32%) from all risk classes. Morbid complications and instability of the underlying illness were greater in class V patients. Nonclinical factors were present in 29.5% of cases. Hypoxaemia, anaemia, hypoalbuminaemia, and complications appearing before 72 h were associated with prolonged hospitalization.The cause of prolonged hospitalization of patients with community-acquired pneumonia is multifactorial, depending mainly on pneumonia and comorbid conditions but there is a large number of unnecessary hospitalization days that could be reduced by improving the efficiency of hospital care. Eur Respir J 2001; 18: 151-156.

OBJECTIVES: to analyse the knowledge, beliefs and perception of the professional role that nursing students have, about exerted violence against women in relationships. METHOD: a descriptive qualitative study following the ecological model through 16 focus groups realized with 112 students from four nursing courses of four Spanish universities. RESULTS: the analytical categories were: knowledge, professional role, and beliefs about ones behaviour before the victim and the abuser. Students are unfamiliar with the characteristics of abuse, guidelines, protocols and screening questions and demand patterns for specific intervention. They do not identify their own professional role, be it delegated or specialized. Beliefs regarding their behaviour with the victim, not guided by professional criteria, perceive violence as a specific situation and disassociate the prevention of health care. They perceive the abuser as mentally ill, justifying the tolerance or delegation of performances. CONCLUSIONS: students define preconceived ideas about couples' violence. Speeches reproduce and reinforce stereotypical myths, values indicative of inadequate training for nursing studies which raises the need to fortify the competencies in relation to intimate couples' violence in the curriculum.

The limitations of conventional microbiologic methods (CMM) for etiologic diagnosis of community pneumococcal pneumonia have made faster diagnostic techniques necessary. Our aim was to evaluate the usefulness of the immunochromatography (ICT) technique for detecting urinary Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen in the etiologic diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonias (CAP). This was a prospective study on in-patients with CAP in a tertiary hospital conducted from October 2000 to March 2004. Apart from using CMM to reach an etiologic diagnosis, we determined pneumococcal antigen in concentrated urine by ICT. We also determined the urinary pneumococcal antigen (UPA) content in patients from two control groups to calculate the specificity of the technique. One group was comprised of in-patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma, with respiratory infection, and without pneumonia; the other group included fractures. We studied 959 pneumonia patients and determined UPA content in 911 (95%) of them. We diagnosed the etiology of 253 cases (28%) using CMM; S. pneumoniae was the most common etiologic agent (57 cases). ICT analysis was positive for 279 patients (31%). Using this technique, the percentage of diagnoses of pneumococcal pneumonias increased by 26%, while the overall etiologic diagnosis increased from 28 to 49%. The technique sensitivity was 81%; the specificity oscillated between 80% in CAP with nonpneumococcal etiology and 99% for patients with fractures without infections. Determination of UPA is a rapid, simple analysis with good sensitivity and specificity, which increased the percentage of etiologic diagnoses. Positive UPA may persist in COPD patients with probable pneumococcal colonization or recent pneumococcal infections.