Background: Understanding the experiences of nursing students in pediatric oncology clinics is important for lecturers. It helps in developing targeted educational strategies that may influence the students’ future career choices.

Aim: This study aimed to explore the experiences and expectations of nursing students during their first encounter with pediatric cancer care.

Methods: This study employed a descriptive qualitative research design. The participants were 14 nursing students undergoing their first clinical training in pediatric oncology at a nursing faculty in Türkiye. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews conducted between April and June 2021. Content analysis was utilized to analyze data.

Results: The participants included 10 females and four males, aged between 21 and 23 years, with an average age of 21.4 years (Standard Deviation, SD=0.64). The analysis revealed three main themes and seven sub-themes related to the students’ experiences and expectations: ‘Encountering Challenges in the Clinical Environment,’ ‘Nursing Students’ Pathways Toward Coping with Difficulties,’ and ‘Expectations and Wishes Regarding Clinical Training.’

Conclusion: The study found that nursing students felt they lacked the necessary communication skills and care behaviors required in the pediatric oncology clinic. These students recognized the importance of individual effort, willingness to learn, and maintaining a positive perspective when facing challenges. Moreover, the study highlighted the need for strong support from both lecturers and practicing nurses. Achieving optimal outcomes in nursing education programs can be facilitated by addressing the students’ needs and supporting them.

Background: Emotional intelligence and positive mental health have been identified as protective mechanisms for nurses.

Aim: This study aims to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and positive mental health among nurses in an acute care setting and to compare these results with prior research to assess the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Methods: Survey data were electronically collected 20 months post-declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic. Participants were volunteer nurses employed during the pandemic. Study data included self-disclosed demographic information and responses on the Emotional Intelligence Assessment Scale and the Positive Mental Health Scale. Subgroups based on age, level of education, and years of experience were developed to examine their effects on the results. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed on all demographic data, including means, ranges, percentages, and standard deviations.

Results: Emotional intelligence was reported as medium or high among all participants and varied slightly among the study subgroups. Positive mental health was also ranked medium or high by all participants, though the percentage of participants rating their positive mental health as high was lower compared to their emotional intelligence; only 31.25% of those with less than five years of experience rated their positive mental health as high.

Conclusion: Emotional health is consistently present among nurses, regardless of age, level of education, or years of experience. Positive mental health, while present, was reported to be less robust. If there is indeed a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and positive mental health, these data suggest that a population could benefit from targeted emotional support specific to their career.

Background: Concerns that the diseases of individuals with non-coronavirus disease 2019 (non-COVID-19) conditions will progress, their symptoms will worsen, their treatments will be prolonged, and morbidity and mortality will increase due to fears of disease transmission or contagion during the pandemic have affected all individuals. It is important to recognize the death anxiety of oncology patients, especially those who may have high levels of death anxiety, and to support their spiritual care.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on death anxiety and the level of spirituality and spiritual care in oncology patients, as well as to identify the relationship between these variables.

Methods: In this study, 204 patients diagnosed with cancer were recruited through an online application. Data were collected using an individual identification form, Death Anxiety Scale, and the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS). A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The “Mann-Whitney U” test (Z-table value) was used for comparing measurement values of two independent groups in data not having a normal distribution;
the “Kruskal-Wallis H” test (χ2-table value) was used to compare three or more independent groups. The “Spearman correlation test” was performed to determine the relationship
between scale scores.

Results: The mean age of the patients in this study was 60.72 ± 14.36 years. The mean death anxiety score was found to be 11.19 ± 1.79, and the mean SSCRS score was 30.50 ± 4.65. Statistically significant differences were found in death anxiety and SSCRS scores according to the age groups of the patients and the presence of other chronic diseases (P > 0.05). In addition, a statistically significant difference was found in terms of death anxiety scale scores according to the diagnosis of COVID-19 (P < 0.05). There was a negative, very weak and statistically significant relationship between the patients’ spirituality and spiritual care and death anxiety scale scores (r=-0.157; P = 0.025).

Conclusion: It has been determined that oncology patients have high death anxiety and a moderate perception of spirituality and spiritual care during the COVID-19 pandemic process.

Background: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) is a safe and effective form of noninvasive ventilation for children with respiratory distress. Pediatric high-flow nasal cannula has been successfully implemented in resource-limited settings; however, little is known about the nursing training required to integrate HFNC into care.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of training on nurses’ knowledge levels regarding HFNC oxygen therapy.

Methods: This randomized, controlled, experimental study was registered on clinicaltrials. gov under registration number NCT05362279. The study was conducted with 70 nurses working in the pediatric clinics of a public hospital between December 2021 and May 2022. Half of the nurses were assigned to the experimental group (n=35) and the other half to the control group (n=35). Two data collection tools were used: the Sociodemographic Characteristics Questionnaire and the High Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen Therapy Questionnaire. The nurses in the experimental group received training immediately after the pre-test. The training lasted about an hour, and the posttest was administered one month after the training. Descriptive analysis was performed, and the study data were analyzed. Because they were not normally distributed, the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Wilcoxon test were used for data analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: There was no significant difference between the nurses in the experimental and control groups regarding age, sex, education level, length of service in the profession, length of service in the current clinic, the clinic they worked in, and previous training on oxygen administration. The median posttest knowledge score of the nurses in the experimental group increased after the training. While there was no difference between the pretest scores of the nurses in the experimental and control groups, there was a significant difference between their posttest scores.

Conclusion: The training given to the nurses increased their knowledge levels about high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy. Providing such training to nurses can help eliminate their knowledge gaps in clinical practice.

Background: Training nurses in health literacy and improving their communication with patients are crucial for increasing positive health outcomes. Therefore, programs aimed at enhancing the health literacy awareness of nurses and other health professionals, along with developing measurement tools to assess the effectiveness of these programs, should be organized.

Aim: This study aimed to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Health Literacy Training Survey for Healthcare Providers (HLTSHP-T).

Methods: This methodological study was conducted with 230 clinical nurses in Türkiye. The personal information form, the HLTSHP-T, and the Health Literacy Scale were used for data collection. Content validity, item analysis, construct validity, concordance validity, convergent validity, internal consistency, and item-total correlation were used for the analysis of the psychometric properties.

Results: Cronbach's α value for the overall scale was 0.93 and ranged between 0.87 and 0.90 for the subscales, while item-total correlations ranged from 0.56 to 0.83 (P < 0.001). The confirmatory factor analysis results showed that the scale items were compatible with the subscales and that the items could identify the factors to which they were related.

Conclusion: HLTSHP-T is considered a valid and reliable tool for assessing the health literacy education of Turkish nurses.

Background: The care burden on caregivers of elderly surgical patients causes physical, psychological, economic, and social problems arising from the care undertaken by the caregiver. The level of psychological resilience is important in coping with these problems.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between care burden and the psychological resilience status of caregivers of elderly surgical patients.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with caregivers of elderly surgical patients in the surgical clinics of educational research and a state hospital. The study was completed with 151 caregivers representing the population. The data were collected using the Patient Descriptive Characteristics Form, Caregiver Descriptive Characteristics Form, the ZARIT Care Burden Scale adapted to the clinic, and the Brief Psychological Resilience Scale. Statistical analyses were conducted using the Student T-test, the One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test for comparing scale score averages between groups, and Pearson Correlation tests for examining the relationship between variables.

Results: It was found that 52.3% of the patients in the study sample were male, 96.7% were married, and 15.9% were secondary school graduates. The study determined that the mean Care Burden Scale score of the caregivers of elderly surgical patients was 31.53 ± 8.94 at a mild level, and the mean score of Psychological Resilience was 17.29 ± 3.35 at a moderate level. The correlation analysis between the scales found a negative, weak relationship between care burden and psychological resilience, which was statistically significant (P < 0.01) (r=-0.34).

Conclusion: It was observed that the psychological resilience levels of caregivers decreased as the care burden increased and that the psychological resilience levels decreased as the caregiving time per hour per day increased. New studies can be conducted to investigate whether interventions aimed at reducing the care burden are effective in increasing psychological resilience levels.

Background: The goal of obesity management is to enhance health. Like in all chronic diseases, a long-term, multimodal approach is required in obesity management, considering the treatment goals of each individual and the benefits and risks of different therapies. The Health Belief Model is thought to be effective in obesity management.

Aim: The present research was carried out to investigate the effects of the training provided to women with obesity based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) on women’s health beliefs about obesity and obesity management.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted in a family health center in Türkiye between 2017 and 2018. The sample included 128 women with obesity (64 in the control group and 64 in the intervention group) determined by power analysis. The intervention and control groups were determined by simple random sampling. Data were collected using the Descriptive Information Form, Health Belief Model Scale in Obesity (HBMSO), and Anthropometric Measurement Form. The intervention group received 7 weeks of training based on the Health Belief Model. A six-month follow-up was performed after the training. Data were assessed by the chi-squared test, independent samples t-test, repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, Friedman test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Cohen’s d was utilized in effect size calculation.

Results: After the training, women in the intervention group had higher mean scores on all subscales except perceived disability. The mean perceived disability score was significantly lower, showing that the training was effective (P < 0.001). The impact size of the intervention was large (d = 1.86, d = 3.81, d = 1.14, d = 2.16, d = 2.02, respectively). The mean body weight values of the women in the intervention group (pre-test 86.90 ± 12.23, post-test 76.26 ± 12.34) decreased after the training based on the Health Belief Model (P < 0.001), with a small effect size (d = 0.20). In the control group, the mean body weight values (pre-test 82.53 ± 9.80, post-test 83.73 ± 9.50) increased, with no statistically significant change detected (P = 0.370). Body Mass Index (BMI) values (pre-test 35.72 ± 6.33, post-test 30.82 ± 4.27) decreased after the training in the intervention group (P < 0.001), with a medium effect size (0.36). Conversely, the values for the control group (pre-test 33.26 ± 2.99, post-test 35.39 ± 9.95) increased (P < 0.001), with a large effect size (d = 1.12). Waist circumference values decreased after the training in the intervention group (pre-test 102.85 ± 10.44, post-test 96.37 ± 10.67) (P < 0.001), with a medium effect size (d = 0.25). Waist circumference values also decreased in the control group (pre-test 93.06 ± 10.34, post-test 92.29 ± 14.38); however, the change was not statistically significant (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: The HBM-based training provided to women with obesity positively affected women’s beliefs about obesity.

Background: Currently, devices and pillows are used to provide abduction between the lower extremities after total hip replacement. However, the pillows used are not individually adjustable, are too large for short patients, and are not large enough for tall patients. This can prevent hip abduction at the recommended angle of 15°-20°, leading to complications such as prosthesis slippage and delayed healing.

Aim: The Adjustable Lower Extremity Abduction Apparatus was developed as an innovative, adjustable device designed to prevent dislocation and assist with walking in patients who have undergone total hip replacement surgery.

Methods: A new apparatus was planned to improve the present system, increase patient comfort, develop a product that minimizes the risk of dislocation, and increase the effectiveness of post-operative care. A literature review was conducted, and the researchers created the Adjustable Lower Extremity Abduction Apparatus, a novel invention. The researcher then carried out the drawing and design phase of the device. Patenting procedures were completed (Patent Application No: 2021/021259). The prototype processes and evaluation stages of the designed device were also carried out.

Results: The research and development (R&D) process for the Adjustable Lower Extremity Abduction Apparatus was conducted. Following the evaluation of the extracted protopin on both healthy and sick individuals, it was determined that the apparatus is an innovative product that supports dislocation and walking, stabilizes the angle between the legs, mitigates risks to patient safety and financial losses, and enhances healthcare quality and patient satisfaction. This apparatus has not yet been commercially used either abroad or in Türkiye.

Conclusion: Upon evaluating the results of the R&D process, it was determined that an innovative product has been created to eliminate situations that may pose a risk to patient safety and financial loss, and to improve the quality of care.

Background: Nursing students, who resumed face-to-face education with the decline in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic effects, face difficulties adapting to clinical environments, which impacts their care behaviors.

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between nursing students’ proactive personality traits and care behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 193 nursing students studying at a university in Türkiye between March 21 and June 1, 2022. Data were collected using a personal information form, the Caring Behaviors Inventory-24, and the Proactive Personality Scale. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data.

Results: The mean age of nursing students was 21.1 ± 1.77 years, and 70.5% of them were female. Mean scores on the total Proactive Personality Scale and Caring Behaviors Inventory-24 were 54.8 ± 10.7 and 5.01 ± 0.80, respectively. The variables examined for the Caring Behaviors Inventory-24 explained approximately 29% of the total variance (R2=0.29, F=11.213, P < 0.001). It was determined that the level of proactive personality traits varied according to factors related to vocational education such as “role model instructor” and “choosing the profession willingly”.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that proactive personality traits were effective in caring behaviors. Although maintaining optimal care is related to the proactive aspects of nurses, the impact of policies on the quality of care provided by nurses should not be forgotten, and ways to develop and implement policies that will support their professional service should be sought.

Neuroplasticity is expressed as the brain's ability to change and adapt. The brain, as part of the nervous system, integrates with its environment and allows for healing by altering its function. It has been documented in the literature that the structure of neurons can be renewed throughout one's lifespan. Consequently, neuronal changes and healing persist throughout life. Individuals encounter numerous positive or negative situations throughout their lives. In these processes, the ability of individuals to cope, adapt, and provide flexibility is termed psychological resilience. Additionally, factors such as regular physical exercise, meditation, and learning can assist in maintaining both physical and mental health while also enhancing brain plasticity to support psychological resilience. Both neuroplasticity and psychological resilience are dynamic processes. Individuals collaborate with the organism while attempting to adapt to or cope with challenges they face. As the brain forms new neural connections to cope with and heal from the situation, psychological resilience also develops adaptation and effective coping skills. Each individual is unique, and these interactions vary from person to person. Further research is necessary to clearly elucidate the effects between neuroplasticity and psychological resilience.