Articles: pandemics.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2022
Neurosurgical emergency management during the lockdown period in health care regions in Spain with different COVID-19 impact: lessons learned to improve outcomes on the future waves.
COVID-19 has overloaded health care systems, testing the capacity and response in every European region. Concerns were raised regarding the impact of resources' reorganization on certain emergency pathology management. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of the outbreak (in terms of reduction of neurosurgical emergencies) during lockdown in different regions of Spain. ⋯ COVID-19 affected dramatically the neurosurgical emergency management. The most significant reduction in neurosurgical emergencies occurred on those regions that were hit unexpectedly by the pandemic, as resources were focused on fighting the virus. As a consequence, life-threating and non-life-threatening conditions' mortality raised. Results in regions who had time to prepare for the hit were congruent with an organized and sensible neurosurgical decision-making.
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Online learning has been shown to have a significant effect on education in the 21st century, and it has become indispensable in nursing education because of the requirement to connect theoretical courses with hospital-based practice. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, education has shifted abruptly away from traditional face-to-face instruction and towards distance learning. This study explores the experience of online education during COVID-19 from the perspectives of nursing educators, graduate students, and undergraduate students in two universities in the occupied Palestinian territory METHOD: A qualitative study adopting focus group interviews as a data collection method was conducted from September to October, 2020, in two Palestinian universities : Birzeit University in Ramallah city and Arab American University in Jenin city. A homogeneous purposeful sampling strategy was adopted to recruit participants. The data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the ethics committees of both universities. ⋯ None.
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New York City (NYC) is home to the largest public healthcare system in the United States and was an early epicenter of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections. This system serves as the safety net for underserved and marginalized communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Prior studies reported substantial declines in pediatric emergency department (ED) volume during the initial pandemic surge, but few describe the ongoing impact of COVID-19 throughout the year. We evaluated the characteristics of pediatric ED visits to NYC public hospitals during the pandemic lockdown and reopening periods of 2020 compared to the prior year. ⋯ NYC public hospitals experienced a sharp decrease in pediatric volume but an increase in patient acuity during both the initial pandemic surge and through the reopening periods. As COVID-19 variants emerge, the threat of the current pandemic expanding remains. Understanding its influence on pediatric ED utilization can optimize resource allocation and ensure equitable care for future surge events.
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Internal medicine journal · Jun 2022
Timely goals of care documentation in frail patients in the COVID era: A retrospective multi-site study.
Older frail patients are more likely to have timely goals of care (GOC) documentation than non-frail patients. ⋯ Timely GOC documentation occurred less frequently in frail patients during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the pre-COVID-19 era.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced emergency departments (EDs) to change operations to minimize nosocomial infection risk. Many EDs cohort patients using provincial screening tools at triage. Despite cohorting, staff exposures occurred in the 'cold zone' due to lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) use with patients deemed low risk, resulting in staff quarantines. The cohorting strategy was perceived to lengthen time to physician initial assessment and ED length of stay times in our ED without protecting staff well enough due to varying PPE use. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of hot/cold zones for patient cohorting during a viral pandemic on ED length of stay. ⋯ Cohorted waiting areas may provide a safety benefit without operational compromise, but cohorting staff and care spaces is likely to compromise efficiency and create delays.