Objectives During a pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) are essential to the health system response. Based on our knowledge, little information is available regarding the psychosocial impact on HCWs or interventions for supporting them during pandemics. Therefore, the study aimed to assess available literature on perceived stress and psychological responses to influenza pandemics in HCWs and identify implications for healthcare practice and future research. Methods This is a rapid review of the literature. The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Results Across all the studies—both qualitative and quantitative—HCWs working during the epidemic reported frequent concerns regarding their own health and the fear of infecting their families, friends and colleagues. Moreover, social isolation, uncertainty, fears of stigmatization and reluctance to work or considering absenteeism were frequently reported. Moreover, many studies highlighted a high prevalence of high levels of stress, anxiety and depression symptoms, which could have long-term psychological implications in HCWs. Conclusions This rapid review offers an overview of the major concerns regarding HCWs’ psychosocial well-being and possible preventive strategies, which could be useful for the current COVID-19 outbreak and similar future pandemics. Studies suggested to invest on preventive psychological, social, family and physical support and to guaranteeing reasonable work conditions and others in order to protect HCWs from the long-lasting psychological effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Few studies describe the nursing students' patient safety competencies and exactly what they need to learn. In addition, studies describe only briefly which clinical learning environments facilitate the development of patient safety competencies in nursing students. Further research is needed to identify additional pedagogical strategies and the specific characteristics of the clinical learning environments that encourage the development of nursing students' patient safety competencies.

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Background: During the Covid-19 pandemic, nurses experienced increased pressure. Consequently, ethical concerns and psychological distress emerged. This study aimed to assess nurses’ ethical conflict, resilience and psychological impact, and compare these variables between nurses who worked in Covid-19 wards and nurses who did not. Methods: Design—Multicentre online survey. Setting—Multi-site public hospital; all nursing staff were invited to participate. The survey included validated tools and a novel instrument to assess ethical conflict. Spearman’s rho coefficient was used to assess correlations between ethical conflict and psychological distress, logistic regressions to evaluate relationships between nurses’ characteristics and outcome variables, and the Mann–Whitney/t-test to compare groups. Results: 548 questionnaires out of 2039 were returned (275 = Covid-19; 273 = non-Covid-19). We found a low–moderate level of ethical conflict (median = 111.5 [76–152]), which emerged mostly for seeing patients dying alone. A moderate and significant positive correlation emerged between ethical conflict and psychological distress rs (546) = 0.453, p < 0.001. Nurses working in Covid-19-ICUs (OR = 7.18; 95%CI = 3.96–13.01; p < 0.001) and Covid-19 wards (OR = 5.85; 95%CI = 3.56–9.6; p < 0.001) showed higher ethical conflict. Resilience was a protective factor for ethical conflict. Conclusions: Ethical conflict was significantly linked to psychological distress, while a higher level of resilience was found to be a protective factor. These results can be informative for nursing management in future similar crises.

Background: International studies have shown that laboratory training, particularly through the application of the principles of simulation learning, is an effective means of developing the communication and gestural skills of healthcare professionals. At the Advanced Simulation Center of the University of Genoa we have therefore established the first clinical skill laboratory with medical school students and an interprofessional team of trainers, as the first step towards developing simulation training of both medical and nursing students at our University. The aim of this study was to assess student satisfaction with laboratory training in an Advanced Simulation Center. Methods: All of the third-year students of the Medical School (n = 261) were invited to participate in the laboratory sessions at the Advanced Simulation Center. They were divided into groups and attended the Center for one week. The team of trainers included medical doctors and nurses involved in teaching at the University Medicine and Nursing programs. At the end of the week, the students were administered an anonymous questionnaire made up of two sections: the first one was on the content of individual laboratory sessions; the second on the training methods, materials used and the trainers. A five-point Likert scale was used to measure satisfaction.

Burnout negatively affects nurses’ health and performance. Healthcare managers have an ethical duty to create healthy organizations that reduce burnout, especially within critical settings such as oncology. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to measure the presence of nurses’ burnout to formulate organizational strategies to prevent the syndrome onset, and (2) to evaluate the effect of recent organizational changes on the burnout phenomenon. A descriptive, cross-sectional design supported by a systemic organizational analysis was conducted in a Swiss Oncology Institute in 2013. Of 103 nurses working in the Institute, 52 (51.4%) completed the Burnout Potential Inventory (BPI) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests. Burnout risk levels were low to moderate. Only 2 nurses out of the 52 showed moderate burnout risk levels. Inpatient nurses showed a higher risk of burnout than outpatient nurses, particularly due to ambiguity and feelings of powerlessness. Nurses with post-basic education showed a higher risk when considering poor teamwork values and ambiguity in the workplace. Poor middle-management was found to negatively influence worker wellbeing. The working environment set by management resulted in low burnout risk levels. Managers must carefully select middle-management because inappropriate leadership might promote the onset of burnout.