It is mandatory that healthcare workers wear personal protective equipment (PPE) while caring for COVID-19 patients. Studies have shown that wearing PPE for a prolonged time may lead to symptoms of physical discomfort including headache. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence and association between prolonged use of PPE and headaches. This was a cross-sectional study. A convenience sample of healthcare workers who worked with COVID-19 patients in clinical settings was recruited. The data were collected through an electronic survey shared as a link through social media. This study included 1060 participants, 753 (71%) female and 307 (29%) male. Participants were divided into two groups. Group A had 628 (60%) participants who did not have chronic headache before the COVID-19 pandemic, while Group B contained 432 (40%) participants who had a previous chronic headache. Headaches differed significantly between Groups A and B in frequency, type, location, and quality during the COVID-19 period. The analysis found a significant relationship between duration of PPE use and headache occurrence. The significant relationship between the duration of PPE usage and headache occurrence among healthcare workers should be considered when refining policies and procedures regarding prolonged PPE use.

No abstract

Over the past few decades, there have been concerns regarding the humanization of healthcare and the involvement of family members in patients’ hospital care. The attitudes of hospitals toward welcoming families in this respect have improved. In Arab culture, the main core of society is considered to be the family, not the individual. The objective behind involving family in patient care is to meet patients’ support needs. Consequently, this involvement affects nurses and their attitudes toward the importance of family involvement in patient care. Objectives: To describe nurses’ and nursing students’ perceptions of family involvement in the care of hospitalized adult patients in Saudi Arabia. Design: This study used a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design. The data were collected using a convenience sampling survey via social media. Results: A total of 270 participants (staff and students) took part in this study, including 232 (85.9%) females and 38 (14.1%) males. Moreover, a high percentage of participants (78.8%) acknowledged that family presence strongly affected the improvement of the patient’s condition. However, 69.3% of participants thought that involving family members during special care processes or cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) would be traumatizing for these individuals. Moreover, there was a significant diffidence between the attitudes of the nurses and nursing students toward family involvement and the number of years of employment (F = 3.60, p < 0.05). On the contrary, there were insignificant differences between the attitudes of the nurses and nursing students toward family involvement and their gender, nationality, age, education level, and years of work experience in Saudi Arabia (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the regression analysis showed a significant negative correlation between nurses’ years of employment and their support of family involvement in patient care (ß = −0.20, SE = 0.08, t = −2.70, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Nurses with more experience showed no support for family involvement in patient care. We have to consider the clinical barriers that affect nurses’ support for family involvement in patient-centered care, such as hospital polices, guidelines, and the model used for family-centered care integration in the hospital system to facilitate the interaction between healthcare providers and family members.

Background: Simulation-based learning (SBL) in nursing education is an innovative pedagogical approach that has significantly improved nursing education. Adopting SBL provides a controlled environment for meeting educational objectives without the risk of harm to real patients. Given that social distancing is required during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, SBL is a suitable alternative to clinical training for nursing students to learn and acquire the required clinical competencies. The study aimed to describe the effectiveness of SBL as a complete substitute for clinical experience from the perspective of students. This cross-sectional descriptive survey investigated students’ perceptions regarding the description of the effectiveness of SBL in four nursing colleges at four different universities across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Settings: Four nursing colleges at four different universities across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Participants included nursing students who attended simulation sessions. Data were collected by distributing a self-administrated online questionnaire, the Modified Simulation Effectiveness Tool (SET-M), which is a 19-item. Results: Approximately two-thirds of the participants were in their third (30.4%) and fourth (44.5%) academic year. The highest student presentation was for Site 1 (39.5%) and Site 2 (32.5%). Significant differences existed in all domains according to sex and university (p ≤ 0.001). There was a significant difference in relation to the level of agreement for pre-briefing, scenario, and debriefing domains (<0.001). Conclusions: SBL is a valuable teaching strategy that enhances nursing students’ self-awareness, self-confidence, clinical performance, and efficiency in performing procedures with considerable gender variation. Female students had more positive perceptions toward simulation effectiveness.

Background: Lymphedema is a condition in which excessive fluid accumulates in soft tissues. It is a common complication of breast cancer treatments. It can lead to serious consequences and interfere with the activity of daily living. This study aimed to determine the level of awareness of breast-cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) among women with breast cancer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This was a descriptive quantitative cross-sectional design that included a convenience sample of women diagnosed with breast cancer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected by distributing a self-administrated online questionnaire consisting of four parts, including demographic data (five items), the status of education about BCRL (three items), basic medical history of breast cancer (six items), and BCRL level of awareness of risk factors and management (nine items). Results: In total, 95 out of 135 of participants did not know about lymphedema, 119 of the participants (88.1%) did not receive any explanation about the possibility of lymphedema from their medical team before surgery, and 121 of them (89.6%) did not receive it after surgery. The most significant factor affecting participants’ level of awareness regarding BCRL was the lack of information about the possibility of BCRL occurrence, which was not provided to them by the medical team. Recommendation: Early and continuous education for future management is essential to prevent problems related to BCRL and improve quality of life.