Article 1
General Information
The first article ‘A qualitative study on the psychological experience of caregivers of COVID-19 patients’ is completed by Sun et al. It is a major article that is published by the American Journal of Infection Control and available online. The primary topic of the paper is the mental well-being of the medical personnel in the realities of the pandemic. The authors aim to investigate the psychological state of caregivers. The literature review is not explicitly allocated; however, the background information and necessary terminology are appropriately cited.
Design and Process
The article concerns qualitative research and implements a phenomenological approach. The phenomenological method is an analytical framework that emphasizes the experiences and sensations of the informants. The sample comprises 20 nurses that have provided direct treatment to patients with COVID-19 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University. The research was conducted via an interview that consisted of 5 questions concerning the pandemic and experience of the nurses. The ethics committee of the aforementioned hospital stated that there were no ethical or legal violations. The objectives of the interview were explicitly explained to the informants. Each interview was transcribed and consequently analyzed utilizing the phenomenological method.
Concluding Remarks
All participants have indicated the presence of negative emotions in the early stage of work; all informants have developed defensive and coping mechanisms; all participants have appreciated the support from family and coworkers. Despite the harsh conditions, nurses have noted the prevalence of positive emotions and a sense of accomplishment after a week of rest. The results, particularly physical and psychological complications, align well with the findings from other studies (Jackson et al. 2020). The authors conclude that while stress and fatigue are among the expected factors, the findings of positive emotions and reinforcement are contradictory to some of the previous studies. The number of references is 31.
Article 2
General Information
The second article ‘exploring the perceived factors that affect self-medication among nursing students: A qualitative study’ is completed by Soroush et al. It is a research article in open access that is published by BMC Nursing. The scope of the study is the usage of self-medication among nursing students in Iran. The purpose of the work is to establish the perceived factors that affect self-medication. The literature review is not present explicitly, but the data are properly cited.
Design and Process
The design of the research is qualitative, and the primary method of data collection is semi-structured interviews. The sample consists of students who frequently utilize self-medication. The 11 informants have been identified in the previous research and asked to participate in the current qualitative study. The interviews comprise four primary questions and additional unstructured inquiries concerning self-medication and the attitude toward it. Data analysis is conducted simultaneously with the interviews utilizing the content analysis approach. The Ethics Committee of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences has not identified any legal or moral violations.
Concluding Remarks
The findings demonstrate that the primary perceived factors include educational background, practical medical experience, universal access to media, and a better understanding of diseases. Additional studies reveal that the main reasons for self-medication among nursing students are stress from exams and uncertainty concerning the future (Al Rasheed et al. 2017). The authors also discuss the primary means of self-medication and their correspondence to perceived factors. Furthermore, Soroush et al. recommend the integration of self-medication related topics in the educational program to increase the awareness of students. Nevertheless, they do specify that the research is limited due to the relatively small sample. The number of references is 30.
Article 3
General Information
The last article “nursing students’ socialisation to emotion management during early clinical placement experiences: A qualitative study” is written by McCloughen et al. The work is published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing. The subject of the article concerns emotion management of first-year students in the clinical environment. The purpose of the paper is to examine the experiences of the students and to discuss their strategies for coping with stress. The article attempts to contribute to the global clinical community by critically evaluating the fundamental aspects of emotion management among first-year nursing students. The literature review is thoroughly discussed in the ‘Background’ section.
Design and Process
The authors implement both quantitative (surveys over the course of two years) and qualitative (personal interviews) types of research. The total amount of participants is 19; the informants were interviewed before and after the clinical placement. The qualitative data is processed via content analysis and is classified into five primary categories of emotion management. The Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Sydney has approved the study concerning legal-ethical issues.
Concluding Remarks
The authors have established that, in most cases, nursing students enter the clinical placement without proper instructions or prepared emotion regulation strategies. As a result, the complex context of clinical treatment might overwhelm the students causing diverse types of emotional challenges. Another research provides additional evidence that immersion in clinical placement without sufficient training might cause burnout and affect the ambitions and aspirations of the students (Hunt, Denieffe & Gooney, 2017). The authors recommend that educational providers address the aforementioned issues and prepare the students for clinical placement step by step. The number of references is 54.
References
Al Rasheed, F., Naqvi, A. A., Ahmad, R., & Ahmad, N. (2017). Academic stress and prevalence of stress-related self-medication among undergraduate female students of health and non-health cluster colleges of a public sector university in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Journal of Pharmacy & BioAllied Sciences, 9(4), 251-258. Web.
Hunt, P. A., Denieffe, S., & Gooney, M. (2017). Burnout and its relationship to empathy in nursing: a review of the literature. Journal of Research in Nursing, 22(1-2), 7–22. Web.
Jackson, D., Bradbury-Jones, C., Baptiste, D., Gelling, L., Morin, K., Neville, S., & Smith, G. D. (2020). Life in the pandemic: some reflections on nursing in the context of COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29, 2041-2043. Web.
McCloughen, A., Levy, D., Johnson, A., Nguyen, H., & McKenzie, H. (2020). Nursing students’ socialisation to emotion management during early clinical placement experiences: A qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29, 2508-2520. Web.
Soroush, A., Abdi, A., Andayeshgar, B., Vahdat, A., & Khatony, A. (2018). Exploring the perceived factors that affect self-medication among nursing students: a qualitative study. BMC Nursing, 17(35). Web.
Sun, N., Wei, L., Shi, S., Jiao, D., Song, R., Ma, L., Wang, H., Wang, C., Wang, Z., You, Y., Liu, S., & Wang, H. (2020). A qualitative study on the psychological experience of caregivers of COVID-19 patients. American Journal of Infection Control, 48, 592-598. Web.