Aims and objectives:To explore the relationship between Saudi nurses' professional values and competence.Background: Professionals are bound by ethical standards specific to their profession.Accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic is the most significant event that has impacted nurses' professional values and competency.Design: A descriptive cross-sectional design adhering to STROBE guidelines. Methods: Clinical nurses from four tertiary government hospitals (n = 659) participated and completed two self-report instruments. Study variables were analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. Results: The emerging model displayed acceptable model fit indices. Professionalism and activism were two dimensions of nurse professional values that significantly impacted professional competency. Professionalism significantly impacted the four other aspects of nurse professional values: caring, activism, trust, and justice. Caring had a significant and direct impact on activism. Activism had a weak, direct effect on trust, whereas justice had a moderate, direct effect on trust. Through the mediation of the dimension of activism, both the dimensions of professionalism and caring had a strong, indirect impact on professional competency. Conclusions: This research presents a structural model of the interrelationship between nurse professional values and competency. Nurse administrators can use the proposed model to develop approaches and policies for assessing, improving and evaluating professional values among nurses. Relevance for Clinical Practice: Nursing professionals are committed to upholding their ethical and moral standards while performing their caregiver roles. Nurse administrators can implement activities and strategies to develop nurses' professional competence further, as professional values represent the ideal values expected of nurses providing patient care.

Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures in children and is associated with extreme postoperative discomfort due to peritoneal inflammation and infection. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of postoperative pain (POP) in children after laparoscopic appendectomy. Articles describing or evaluating the control of POP in children with LA were considered eligible. All available literature such as randomized controls, prospective controls, retrospective as well as clinical studies were considered. A comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, Clinical trials.gov, and Google scholar. The initial search took place on 23 April 2021, and was updated on 24 August 2021. There were no language or date restrictions. Each of the included articles was evaluated separately by two independent reviewers. Additional papers were found by searching the reference lists of eligible studies. Eighteen papers were considered. All papers, and many of them used different methods to treat POP in children undergoing LA, such as lidocaine infusion, different analgesic approaches, ultrasound-guided transverse abdominis blockade (UGTAP), ultrasound-guided quadratus lumborum blockade (UGQLB), and comparison of open appendectomy (OA) with local anesthetics in relation to POP management in children. Laparoscopic appendectomy is the surgical procedure preferred by clinicians compared with open appendectomy in children. A multimodal analgesic approach is optimal and efficient surgical techniques such as UGBRSB, UGQLB, and UGTAP block might significantly impact POP in children except that there are contraindications. Dexmedetomidine proved to be an effective adjuvant that can enhance the effect of local anesthetics. The lack of a sufficient number of studies may be a factor affecting our confidence in the results of this study. Therefore, further evidence-based randomized control trials with a large sample size are needed to provide clarity.