Articles: pandemics.
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Palliative medicine · May 2022
Trapped in a double cage: How patients' partners experience the diagnosis of advanced cancer in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.
When confronting a partner's diagnosis of advanced cancer, family caregivers are often protected against severe psychological illness by their mental resilience. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic endangers this resilience through the daily threat of contagion exposure, viral transmission, isolation, and fear of death. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic challenges one's resilience, a process that, under normal circumstances, may evolve while caring for a partner diagnosed with advanced cancer. Although most partners seem to cope adaptively with both advanced cancer and COVID-19, healthcare professionals should be aware of the risk of exhaustion. Furthermore, it can be presupposed that threatened, contextual factors that may support resilience should be preserved to increase the chances for a resilient outcome.
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"Beyond Just a Supplement": Administrators' Visions for the Future of Virtual Primary Care Services.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented adoption and implementation of virtual primary care services, and little is known about whether and how virtual care services will be provided after the pandemic ends. We aim to identify how administrators at health care organizations perceive the future of virtual primary care services. ⋯ Health care organizations are considering how virtual primary care services can be used to improve patient outcomes, access to care, and convenience of care. To implement and sustain virtual primary care services, health care organizations will need long-term support from regulators and payers.
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Virtual residency interviews during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to students and residency programs in the United States. We evaluated fourth-year medical students' perceptions of the virtual format and social media use to help select residency programs. We also assessed applicant utilization and perceived usefulness of our social media content. ⋯ Most applicants to this family medicine residency program used social media to gather information, but they expressed worry that it was enough. Virtual interviews are likely to remain postpandemic, creating challenges for residency programs and especially for their hopeful applicants. Programs seeking to provide well-rounded information for applicants should maintain a social media presence as part of their recruitment practices.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has made innovative solutions to providing safe, effective care paramount. eConsult allows primary care providers to access specialist advice for their patients without necessitating an in-person visit. This study aims to explain how an eConsult service adapted to providing care for COVID-19 patients and examine its impact on patient care. ⋯ Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of rapidly adapting eConsult for COVID-19 care and supports similar action for other services.
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Preventive medicine · May 2022
Self-perception of health and physical activity among adults before and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: United States, 2019-2020.
The compounded impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on self-perception of health (SPoH) and physical activity (PA) levels among U. S. adults remains to be explored. We sought to: (1) describe the SPoH and PA levels among U. ⋯ Negative SPoH were associated with lack of moderate exercise, and lack of muscle-strengthening training among U. S. adults before and amidst the pandemic. Pandemic policies and recommendations should include and facilitate PA, specifically among vulnerable populations.