Background: Nursing students' and educators' experiences with e‐learning during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic are unknown in most countries. Aim: To (1) describe and compare Egyptian nursing students' and educators' experiences with e‐learning during the COVID‐19 pandemic and (2) elicit participants' preferences for responding to online versus paper questionnaires. Methods: This is a cross‐sectional online survey of nursing students (undergraduate and postgraduate; n =580) and nursing educators (n = 95) in one faculty of nursing in Egypt. The survey assessed participants'characteristics, preferences for online versus paper surveys, and 11 dimensionsrelated to the e‐learning experience, such as perceived competency, satisfaction, cognitive presence, and the preferred platforms for e‐learning. Results: About 91% of students and 80% of educators received either no or inadequate training on e‐learning before the pandemic. Students' and educators' experiences significantly differed (p‐value < 0.001) in most of the examined dimensions, with educators having better experiences. About 71% of the students and 76% of the educators preferred responding to online surveys. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis) of e‐learning were mapped. Conclusion: Students are in more need of training on e‐learning than educators, and this training is a must before any attempt to undertake online exams. The online survey is a preferred methodology among Egyptian nursing educators and students. The provided SWOT analysis may help administrators best implement and support e‐learning during infection outbreaks.

Background: Respiratory tract infections are heterogeneous and complex group of diseases that require pharmaceutical interventions with undesirable side effects. Thus, integration of acupressure in the care of children with respiratory problems may be effective with regard to management of respiratory distress and prevention of medicinal treatment side effects. Aim: To investigate the effect of applying acupressure on the clinical outcomes of critically ill children with respiratory tract infections. Method: Quasi-experimental, pre-posttests, research design was carried out at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of El-Shatby University Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. Subjects were 60 eligible children who were assigned into two equal groups. The control group received the routine care of the unit only whereas the study group received acupressure in addition to routine care. Findings: Degree of dyspnea decreased dramatically among the study group after three days of acupressure as 56.7% were not troubled at all by dyspnea compared to only 3.3% of children in the control group. Regarding degree of respiratory impairment, all children in study group experienced mild respiratory impairment in the 2 nd and 3 rd days of the study period (100% in each) compared to the control group (23.3% and16.7% respectively) with significant statistical differences (p= 0.000 in each day). Conclusion and recommendations: Integrating acupressure with conventional medical therapy could decrease the severity of dyspnea and enhance pulmonary functioning. In that sense, acupressure was proved to be promising in improving respiratory problems among children with respiratory tract infections. Accordingly, pediatric intensive care nurses can accelerate the improvement of those children using such non-pharmacological approach with the pharmacological one.

Background and objective: Electrolyte disturbances remain a common lifesaving issue in the intensive care units. They are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. They are mostly resulted secondary to critical illness itself or associated treatment modalities. Therefore, electrolytes repletion should be done effectively and timely. This could be ensured using nurse driven protocols rather than traditional methods of repletion. These protocols are nurse initiated and collaboratively developed. They have been shown to improve patient care outcomes through the provision of high quality care. They are increasingly being used in the critical care setting. Objective: Determine the effect of applying nurses driven electrolytes repletion protocol on electrolytes disturbance control among critically ill patients.Methods: Quasi experimental research design was used. Sixty two critically ill patients with electrolytes loss were enrolled in the study at Alexandria Main University Hospital intensive care units, Egypt. All episodes of electrolyte loss were evaluated. Repletion of electrolyte loss was done according to unit routine for the control group and nurses driven electrolytes repletion protocol for the study group. Episodes of electrolyte disturbances, adverse events and timing of repletion were evaluated.Results: Neurological disorders represent the most encountered diagnosis. The most common cause of electrolyte loss in was the use of diuretics. Furthermore, there was a highly statistical difference between the two groups as regard electrolytes levels, effectiveness and timing of replacement.Conclusions: Application of nurses driven electrolyte repletion protocol resulted in improvements in the effectiveness and timeliness of electrolyte replacement.

Background Most mechanically ventilated patients will be exposed to some asynchrony with the ventilator. Inability to detect and manage patient-ventilator asynchrony (PVA) as early as possible may lead to poor outcomes, including, but not limited to, prolonged mechanical ventilation, extended ICU stay, and higher mortality. Critical care nurses as primary health care providers may achieve significant participation in the timely detection of PVA. Waveform monitoring is a non-invasive and reliable method, but it is also regarded as a challenging task even for skilled clinicians. The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge level and attitude of critical care nurses in Egypt regarding the use of ventilator waveform monitoring to detect PVA. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was carried out in three intensive care units in three hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt. The questionnaire comprised four parts to evaluate critical care nurses' level of knowledge and attitude regarding ventilator waveform monitoring and assessed their ability to detect PVA. Results Most nurses (88.1%) have poor knowledge levels and negative attitudes (93.1%) toward using waveform monitoring to detect PVA. A significant relationship was found between nurses' knowledge of ventilator waveform monitoring and previous training programs on mechanical ventilation (P = 0.031). In addition, a significant relationship between nurses' attitude toward ventilator waveform monitoring and their level of education (P = 0.002), and their attendance in previous courses containing waveform analysis (P = 0.020) was noted. A highly significant relation (P = 0.000) was detected between nurses' level of knowledge and their attitude toward ventilator waveform monitoring. Conclusions The majority of the critical care nurses have poor knowledge and negative attitudes regarding using ventilator waveform monitoring to detect PVA. Previous training on mechanical ventilation and attendance of courses on ventilator waveform analysis was found to be significantly correlated with nurses' level of knowledge and attitude regarding ventilator waveform monitoring.