Background: The nursing work environment can be compromised due to workload, stress and many other issues. A good nursing work environment is needed to for the health and wellbeing of nurses and therefore measures are developed to improve nursing work environment.Aim: To determine whether measures designed to improve the work environment for nursing professionals are effective.Methodology: Online research in the Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, CINHAL, PsycINFO, and American Doctoral Dissertations databases, along with manual search, was carried out. Primary experimental studies made up of intervention and control groups were included, with pre‐/post‐measure evaluation in the nursing team, based on the effects of the interventions. Risk of bias was calculated using the Cochrane tool.Results: A total of 1997 studies were examined; 19 clinical trials met the inclusion criteria. A total of 1427 nurses participated in the selected studies. The fields of application of the interventions were personal and environmental. Out of the fields targeting individuals, three methodologies were identified: cognitive‐behavioral techniques, stress management, channeling anxiety and physical well‐being; and those aimed at environmental fields: aromatization and organization. The most evaluated characteristic was teamwork, and the most analyzed symptom was stress. Most of the interventions concluded with at least one significant improvement.Conclusions: Interventions aimed at enhancing the work environment are effective ways of increasing job satisfaction. The heterogeneity of the data did not allow us to determine which intervention is the most effective. The combination, type, and duration are variables that affect efficacy.Implication for nursing and nursing policy: This systematic review provides resources for improving the work environment that affects nursing staff, other professionals, and patients. Encouraging a healthy atmosphere leads to excellence in care and improved safety.

Measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is important for a chronic disease, such as dementia, which impairs the quality of life of affected patients in addition to their length of life. This is important in the context of economic evaluations when interventions do not (only) affect HRQoL and these other factors also affect overall quality of life. To validate the Spanish translation of the ICECAP-O’s capability to measure Health-related quality of life in elderly with dementia who live in nursing homes. Cross-sectional study. For 217 residents living in 8 Spanish nursing homes, questionnaires were completed by nursing professionals serving as proxy respondents. We analyzed the internal consistency and other psychometric properties. We investigated the convergent validity of the ICECAP-O with other HRQoL instruments, the EQ-5D extended with a cognitive dimension (EQ-5D+C), the Alzheimer’s Disease Related Quality of Life (ADRQL) measures, and the Barthel Index measure of activities of daily living (ADL). The ICECAP-O presents satisfactory internal consistency (alpha 0.820). The factorial analysis indicated a structure of five principal dimensions that explain 66.57% of the total variance. Convergent validity between the ICECAP-O, EQ-5D+C, ADRQL, and Barthel Index scores was moderate to good (with correlations of 0.62, 0.61, and 0.68, respectively), but differed between dimensions of the instruments. Discriminant validity was confirmed by finding differences in ICECAP-O scores between subgroups based on ADL scores (0.70 low, 0.59 medium, and 0.39 high level care), dementia severity (0.72 mild, 0.63 medium, and 0.50 severe), and ages (0.59 below 75 years and 0.84 above 75 years). This study presented the first use of a Spanish version of the ICECAP-O. The results indicate that the ICECAP-O appears to be a reliable Health-related quality of life measurement instrument showing good convergent and discriminant validity for people with dementia.

Background: High-fidelity simulation is being considered as a suitable environment for imparting the skills needed to deal with end-of-life (EOL) situations. The objective was to evaluate an EOL simulation project that introduced communication skills to nursing students who had not yet begun their training in real healthcare environments. Methods: A sequential approach was used. The “questionnaire for the evaluation of the end-of-life project” was employed. Results: A total of 130 students participated. Increasing the time spent in high-fidelity simulation significantly favored the exploration of feelings and fears regarding EOL (t = −2.37, p = 0.019), encouraged dialogue (t = −2.23, p = 0.028) and increased the acquisition of communication skills (t = −2.32, p = 0.022). Conclusions: High-fidelity simulation promotes communication skills related to EOL in novice nursing students.

The objective of this systematic review was to determine the characteristics of the interventions conducted by nurses that attempt to improve the health related quality of life (HRQoL) of people over 18 years of age with chronic diseases. This systematic review with meta-analysis summarizes 24 studies, conducted in 10 countries, that evaluated HRQoL through the Short-Form Health Survey (SF). Five databases were accessed to find the available studies from December 31^st, 2000 to May 22^sd, 2017. Selected studies were coded according to the characteristics of the sample and the intervention. A model of random effects was adopted for the overall estimation and to explain the heterogeneity. Twenty-four studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis providing a sample of 4324 chronic patients aged 63.4 years. Among the 8 subscales and two summary measures that comprise the SF-36, only an overall significant effect size (ES) index was found in the Mental Health Component summary score (ES = 0.14; 95% CI:0.03 − 0.26; I² = 44.6, p = 0.042) and the Mental Health subscale. This improvement on HRQoL was associated to interventions on “Case Management” and “Treatments and Procedures”, which were based on a theory, were of shorter duration, and had a follow-up period. Interventions targeting people with chronic diseases resulted in a slight increase in the HRQoL that was not always significant, which suggests that there is a need for their continuous improvement.

Objetivo principal: Conocer los sentimientos sobre la muerte en estudiantes de grado de enfermería que aún no han iniciado su prácticum en entornos asistenciales reales. Metodología: Estudio observacional de tres cohortes con análisis de pregunta abierta. La Escala de Miedo a la Muerte de Collet-Lester, el Cuestionario de factores para ayudar a morir en paz y un cuestionario con 6 preguntas abiertas fueron completados por 197 estudiantes de segundo curso de Grado de Enfermería. Resultados principales: Los estudiantes reconocen tener miedo de enfrentar la muerte en el prácticum, principalmente temen que les afecte personalmente, la reacción del paciente, el contacto con la muerte y el no saber qué hacer. Conclusión principal: Los estudiantes consideran que la muerte es algo muy presente en su profesión, expresan temer enfrentarse a ella en el prácticum, mayoritariamente reconocen no tener suficientes estrategias de afrontamiento y les gustaría recibir más formación para saber cómo afrontarla.