Background: Cardiovascular diseases, with their high mortality rates, significantly impact patients' quality of life, contribute to disability, and impose a substantial financial burden on society.

Aims and Objectives: This study aimed to illuminate patients' experiences before undergoing cardiac surgery during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Design: This is a qualitative interview study.

Methods: A purposive sampling technique was employed, with participants recruited from Department Cardiovascular surgery and interviewed to explore their experiences. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted, and reporting adhered to the EQUATOR guideline: COREQ.

Results: The study identified numerous challenges faced by patients during the preoperative period. Consequently, two prominent themes emerged from the patients' experiences while awaiting cardiac surgery during the COVID‐19 pandemic: the feeling of loneliness and the feeling of losing oneself.

Conclusions: The psychological vulnerability of patients during the perioperative phase, intensified by circumstances such as a pandemic, can lead to emotional and behavioural instability, significantly impacting the patient negatively.

Relevance to Clinical Practice: Prioritising the patient's experience is crucial in fortifying presurgical care. Delving into the nuanced perspectives of patients fosters a comprehensive understanding that transcends conventional approaches. This research underscores the significance of giving prominence to the patient perspective, offering opportunities for healthcare professionals to elevate the standard of patient care. Recognising and addressing the challenges faced by patients awaiting cardiac surgery can contribute to a more holistic and patient‐centered approach in clinical practice.

Patient or Public Contribution: Patients contributed by sharing their experiences during interviews, providing first‐hand insights that are presented in the study results.

Existential loneliness is a profound sense of loneliness that arises when confronting existential questions, often intensified by the awareness of mortality. For older migrants, this experience may be deepened by feelings of exclusion and a disrupted sense of belonging. While existential loneliness has been explored in general older populations, little is known about how it is perceived and addressed by healthcare support staff working with older migrants. This study explores healthcare support staff’s perceptions of existential loneliness among older migrants and the conditions necessary to address their needs. Using focus group methodology, analysis of data generated the overarching theme of “Navigating the unseen,” capturing the complexity of recognizing and responding to existential loneliness. Three subthemes illustrate how HSSs perceive and respond to experiences of EL among older migrants. The first two—(a) “Feelings of exclusion contribute to the experience of EL” and (b) “The ongoing quest for belonging”—highlight how participants perceived older migrants’ experiences of EL. The third subtheme, “Aspects influencing HSSs’ engagement with older migrants experiencing EL,” captures factors that shape HSSs’ capacity to support this population. This study highlights the complex challenges staff face in addressing existential loneliness in this population. To meet these needs, staff require time, training, and managerial support. Building trustful relationships, fostering cultural and religious inclusivity, and integrating psychosocial care are essential to support older migrants in finding meaning and belonging in later life

BACKGROUND: Hospitalizations and surgical procedures are unpleasant for both children and their parents. Therefore, postoperative pain assessments and management are less commonly performed in younger children than in adults.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of nonpharmacological interventions on postoperative pain and anxiety in children.

METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 160 children were randomly allocated to experimental (n=80) and control (n=80) groups. The children in the experimental group received age-appropriate distraction interventions for 3 postoperative days along with usual care. Children in the control group received standard care only. Each patient's pain was assessed using the EVENDOL pain scale, while their anxiety was measured using the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and repeated-measures analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS: The children in the experimental group showed significantly decreased pain, anxiety, and physiological parameters (heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation) compared to those in the control group. Significant intergroup differences were noted in the mean and standard deviation values of the pain, anxiety, and physiological parameters.

CONCLUSION: The distraction interventions provided by nurses reduced the pain and anxiety levels and improved the postoperative recovery of pediatric surgical patients.

Sex education can be described as an important part of health education in school and one way of strengthening health education could be a collaboration between different professionals in the school team. The aim of this study was to describe teachers' and school nurses' experiences and perspectives with regard to sex education among students aged 11-12 years and to explore potential influencing factors. We employed a qualitative design, and the teachers and school nurses were interviewed individually. A thematic analysis was conducted on the interviews and the results showed that the classroom was considered to be the teacher's arena. Tradition and attitudes between professionals could be obstacles that affect collaboration between teachers and nurses and the study showed that there remains much to be done before collaboration at the same level between the groups can be established.

Aim. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many teachers to switch from traditional face-to-face teaching to the use of various digital platforms in a short period of time. The research aimed to find out about teachers' experiences of digital education at nursing faculties in four countries (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden) which participated in the Erasmus+ Digital Education in Nursing project. Material and methods. Qualitative research with semi-structured group interviews was used. A total of 28 nursing teachers participated. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed inductively, using qualitative content analysis. The interviews were analysed in accordance with the study aim by searching for codes which were grouped into subcategories and then into categories based on the similarity of the content. Results. Three important themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: "conflicting feelings of teachers when switching to digital teaching", "lack of digital competences", "challenges for digital teaching in the future". Conclusions. Rapidly developing digital technology provides new possibilities and support for both teaching and learning. The research identified the need for further development of the digital competences of teachers, who recommended that a hybrid teaching method is the best for the education of nurses, since certain skills cannot be acquired by students solely in a digital way.

INTRODUCTION: Existential loneliness (EL) is an unavoidable, deeper sense of loneliness. EL has been described as disconnection from life and the universe, experienced even in the presence of family and friends. Meaninglessness, loss of health and significant others seem to trigger older persons EL. Older Arabic-speaking women are a large migrant group in Sweden and there is a lack in knowledge about their experience of EL. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the phenomenon of EL as experienced by older Arabic-speaking female migrants.

METHODS: This study was based on a phenomenological approach known as reflective lifeworld research (RLR). Ten older migrated Arabic-speaking women were included in the study. Lifeworld interviews were conducted to collect data. The data were analysed in accordance with the phenomenological RLR principles of openness, flexibility and bridling.

RESULTS: This study shows that EL is experienced when there is a lack of attachment to place and people. EL is experienced more distinctively in the beginning of the migration process. It was difficult sharing feelings of EL with anyone. Feelings of meaninglessness occurred when entering a new lifeworld and triggered EL. EL was however attenuated when being able to practise their religion.

CONCLUSION: Lack of attachment to place and people as well as feelings of meaninglessness brought existential loneliness to the fore for the older Arabic-speaking female migrants. There was a collision of lifeworlds not at least by the fact moving as a Muslim woman to one of the most secular countries in the world. Practising their religion attenuated their EL. To promote better health for this group of women, it is of importance to be aware of EL and its mode of expression.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: It is crucial to let the voice of older Arabic-speaking female migrants be heard and to be aware of their experience of EL and its mode of expression in order to promote better health. Further, educational training for nursing professionals and nursing students needs to be provided to develop skills how to be aware of and address EL.

Due to the unfamiliarity of the surroundings, children having surgery endure worry and tension. Untreated anxiety in children impairs postoperative healing and causes changes in postoperative behavior. The purpose of this review was to determine the efficacy of distraction therapies on anxiety in children undergoing surgery. The systematic review was reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses standards. PubMed via MEDLINE, CINAHL, ProQuest, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were used to find relevant trials. Full-text papers published in English from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2021 were included. Children undergoing surgery aged 1 to 18 years were included. A data extraction form was created to extract data from the selected studies. According to the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool, studies were classified as "low risk, " "high risk, " or "unclear risk. " Review Manager software was used to do a quantitative meta-analysis. Thirteen studies looked at the effect of distraction intervention on children. Nine of them were selected for meta-analysis. The distraction interventions included in this review were: handheld video game, play dough and play with blocks and puzzles, tablet-based interactive distraction, animated video, painting and storytelling, age-appropriate video, distraction with video glasses, watching a movie, and bringing favorite toy during hospital stay. Meta-analysis showed that distraction interventions are effective on preoperative anxiety in children (standardized mean difference = -17.07, 95% confidence interval: 27.11-7.02, p = 0.0009).

A hospitalized child experiences anxiety more frequently as compared to non-hospitalized children. Surgery can be emotionally distressing for children, and subsequently their parents and caregivers, this distress can cause profound adverse impacts on children. We aimed to identify the effect of non-pharmacological interventions on children’s (1–18 years) anxiety undergoing surgery. The following databases: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Proquest, Web" of Science, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were systematically searched for full-text articles. The review included 15 randomized controlled trials. The risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. The interventions included in the study were preoperative education, puppet play, therapeutic play, distraction activities, parental presence, and clown therapy. The review presents a narrative reporting of the findings. This review identifies that non-pharmacological interventions are effective in reducing anxiety among children undergoing surgery. There are a limited number of studies from developing countries. Further research is required to underpin the use of these interventions with children before surgery. 

Introduction: The World Health Organization has reported that one fifth of all children in the world suffer from poor mental health regardless of cultural differences. Previous studies have shown that working with mental health is an important part of the duties of school nurses in Sweden.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to describe the experiences of school nurses regarding the identification of mental illness among pupils in primary school.

Methods: In this inductive qualitative study, interviews were conducted with 11 school nurses in southern Sweden and analyzed using content analysis.

Results: The results indicate three major themes: (1) the need for shared responsibility, (2) feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy in school nurses, and (3) the importance of establishing relationships.

Conclusion: This study indicates that school nurses feel responsible for their pupils' well-being, but also feel that they need support. A lack of guidance in identifying mental illness emerged from the interviews.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate mothers’ levels of satisfaction with distraction as a post-operative pain management intervention for their child.

Background: Although the number of studies on paediatric pain management has increased over time, research into non-pharmacological post-operative pain management remains inadequate, indicating that more research is required.

Design: A posttest-only control group design was adopted to measure mothers’ levels of satisfaction with distraction as a non-pharmacological post-operative pain management intervention for their child.

Methods: The study included 160 mothers and their children undergoing elective surgery in a paediatric surgical unit. Mothers and children were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups (80 intervention, 80 control). The children in the intervention group received age-appropriate distraction interventions for three post-operative days along with the usual care. Children in the control group received only usual care. Data on parental satisfaction with pain management interventions was assessed on the day of discharge using a parental satisfaction questionnaire.

Results: In the intervention group 48 mothers (60%) were ‘very satisfied’ and 22 mothers (40%) were ‘moderately satisfied’ with pain management interventions for their child. In the control group 27 mothers (34%) were ‘very satisfied’ and 53 (66%) were ‘moderately satisfied. The mean and standard deviation of mother’s satisfaction in the intervention group and control group was 42 ±5.23 and 34 ± 6.64 respectively. The present study identified that there was a significant difference in the level of mother’s satisfaction between the intervention and control groups (p<.05).

Conclusion: The level of satisfaction with pain management intervention for their child was higher for mothers in the intervention group that the control group. The distraction intervention provided for the children during the postoperative period improved the mothers’ satisfaction level.