The COVID‐19 pandemic has caused health professionals to deal with new situations they have not encountered before. Nurses were forced to cope with increased workloads, seriously ill patients, numerous patient deaths, and unresolved ethical dilemmas. This study aimed to examine the lived experiences of nurses across Europe during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic. This was a qualitative narrative research study. Eighteen nurses from eight European countries (four each from the UK and Israel, three from Portugal, two each from the Netherlands and Ireland, and one each from Belgium, Italy, and Sweden) submitted narratives about their professional experiences during May–June 2020. The narratives were analyzed using thematic analysis. Seven categories across the narratives were condensed and interpreted into three themes: opportunities and growth, care management, and emotional and ethical challenges. The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected nurses emotionally and provided an opportunity to actively develop systems and skills needed to minimize harm and maximize benefits to patients and nurses.
Self-care is an important nursing-sensitive outcome. Reliable and valid measures are needed for therapeutic self-care assessment that may inform the development and evaluation of individualized nursing interventions co-created with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) adults. The therapeutic self-care scale European Portuguese version (TSCS-EPV) is a validated generic measure that may be used to assess self-care in T2DM adults. Aim: To examine the psychometric properties of the TSCS-EP version in T2DM adults, in primary health care. Methods: A cross-sectional pilot study in a convenience sample of 80 adults with T2DM from two primary health care centers in Portugal was conducted. Individuals completed the Portuguese version of the TSC scale. Results: A three-factor solution emerged from the principal component analysis: “Recognizing and managing signs and symptoms”; “Managing changes in health condition” and “Managing medication”, explaining 75% of the total variance. Total scale Cronbach’s alpha was 0.884 and for the three factors ranged from 0.808 to 0.954. Conclusion: the therapeutic self-care scale European Portuguese version is a promising scale for assessing therapeutic self-care abilities in adults with T2DM in primary care settings. More consistent results on its validity and reliability are needed for it to be used in the country.
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