Background: Cancer is widely recognized as a global public health problem. Breast, prostate, and cervical cancer are among the most frequent types in developing countries. Assessing their incidence and mortality by regions and municipalities is important to guide evidence-based health policy. Our aim was to describe the incidence and mortality trends for breast, cervical, and prostate cancer across regions and municipalities in Colombia during 2018.Methods: We performeda cross-sectional analysis with data from people with breast, prostate, or cervical cancer, reported to the National Administrative Cancer Registry during 2018. A descriptive analysis was performed. Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates were estimated at national, regional, and municipal levels. Finally, we identify the regions and municipalities with significantly higher or lower incidence and mortality rates compared to national estimations.Results: Breast cancer was the most frequent type among all new cases and deaths in Colombia. Breast, prostate and cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates per 100,000 were: 18.69 (CI 95%: 18.15–19.25) and 10.48 (CI 95%: 10.07–10.91); 11.34 (CI 95%: 10.90–11.78) and 7.58 (CI 95%: 7.22–7.96); 5.93 (CI 95%: 5.62–6.25) and 4.31 (CI 95%: 4.05–4.58), respectively. Eastern region had both, incidence and mortality rates, significantly lower than national for all types of cancer. By municipalities, there was a heterogeneous pattern. Nonetheless, Agua de Dios (Cundinamarca), had one of the highest incidence rates for all types.Conclusions: We observed clear differences in cancer incidence and mortality across regions and municipalities, depending on each type of cancer. Our findings are important to improve screening coverage, early detection, and treatment in the country.

PURPOSE: The National Cancer Information System (NCIS) has been operating since 2014, including information reported by health care insurers and providers on people with cancer diagnosed and treated within the Colombian health system. Its main purpose is to identify barriers to an effective access to cancer diagnosis and treatment across the country. We aimed to describe the methodology, scope and results in terms of access to health services with real-world data provided by the NCIS.METHODS: Reporting of all cases of cancer by insurers and providers is mandatory by law. Data gathered include demographic and clinical information about new and old cases of cancer who receive health services. Over the years, the reporting process has been automated and it is currently performed in real time. Data quality is ensured through a standardized data-monitoring process. Access to health services is monitored by quality measures defined by consensus.RESULTS: Since 2015, prevalent cases of invasive cancer have increased from 163,776 to 331,021 in 2020 (increment of 102.12%). Regarding quality measures, the proportion of people staged at diagnosis has increased over the years, especially in breast cancer. Meanwhile, early diagnosis is still concerning for breast and prostate cancer. Time to diagnosis and treatment have not consistently reached the expected goals in breast, cervical, and prostate cancer, whereas they have shown a better level of compliance for stomach and colon and rectum tumors, still not reaching the highest performance.CONCLUSION: The real-world information approach provided by the NCIS may be complementary for cancer control planning in Colombia, emphasizing better management processes of health insurers and providers by identifying barriers for timely access to health care.

• Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Colombia. • Delays in time to treatment initiation have been associated with poor prognosis. • Only 12.41% of women were treated within the 30 days from diagnosis. • Median time to treatment initiation was longer in women under chemotherapy. • Social disparities were associated with delays in time to treatment initiation.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical and construct validity of the nursing diagnosis “decreased cardiac output” (DCO) in patients with chronic heart failure. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. RESULTS: A total of 200 people were studied. The defining characteristics with the highest prevalence were as follows: arrhythmia (62.5%) and fatigue (61.5%). Adjustment measures such as infit and outfit were maintained between 0.50 and 1.56 and the total variance explained by the measures was 29.3%. CONCLUSIONS: This study determined the clinical validity of the nursing diagnosis DCO. Regarding construct validity, adjustment of the defining characteristics to the Rasch model was observed. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: This study improves the evidence-based practice of nursing and strengthened the role of the nurse who leads care to this population. OBJETIVO: Determinar la validez clínica y de constructo del diagnóstico de enfermería “Disminución del Gasto Cardíaco” en pacientes con falla cardíaca crónica. MÉTODOS: Estudio de corte transversal. RESULTADOS: Un total de 200 pacientes fueron estudiados. Las características definitorias con las mayores prevalencias fueron: arritmia (62.5%) y fatiga (61.5%). Medidas de ajuste como el infit y outfit se mantuvieron entre 0.50 y 1.56. El total de la varianza explicada por las medidas fue de 29.3%. CONCLUSIONES: Este estudio determinó la validez clínica del diagnóstico de enfermería “Disminución del Gasto Cardíaco”. En cuanto a la validez de constructo, se observó que 19 de las 21 características definitorias se ajustaron al modelo Rasch. IMPLICACIONES PARA LA PRÁCTICA DE ENFERMERÍA: Este estudio mejora la práctica basada en la evidencia de enfermería y fortalece el rol de las enfermeras que lideran el cuidado en esta población.

Introduction: The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, should be an opportunity to ensure greater visibility of nursing in health systems and society worldwide. Objective: Review and synthesize the patterns on COVID-19 and nursing research, identifying the main journals, country of origin, language, topics, designs, and area of applicability of the results. Materials and Methods: Systematic review. Searches in PubMed, CINAHL, LILACS, and EMBASE databases (from the inception of the pandemic to May 15, 2020) were performed. Articles of any language related were related to SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 disease and nursing in any of its roles (care, management, education, among others) and using any epidemiological design or a scientific report were included. Two reviewers independently selected the studies and extracted the data. The main findings from the included studies were summarized through narrative synthesis and descriptive tables. The characteristics of the studies were presented as absolute values and proportions. Results: Three hundred and sixty-five articles were assessed for eligibility. Thirty-eight were included, published in 28 journals. Of those, 53.57% (n=15) were nursing specific. Most articles were “narrative reviews”, accounting for 23.68% (n=9). Most studies were conducted in China (n=18, 47.37%), followed by the United Kingdom and the United States. Thirty-four (89.47%) articles were published in English, followed by Portuguese and Chinese. We identified five areas of application of the results, and the most frequent was the “clinical” setting with 47.00% (n=18). Discussion: These findings are crucial to give visibility to nursing work during the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health was the main research topic, while the clinical setting concentrates the major number of articles. This pattern was aligned with the challenges of the initial phase of the pandemic. Conclusion: Future research should explore the current state of evidence in the main topics identified in this review and continue to give visibility to work carried out by nursing in the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. How to cite this article: Rojas LZ, Hernández Vargas JA, Trujillo-Cáceres SJ, Romero Guevara SL. Contribution of nursing research to fighting against COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic review. Revista Cuidarte. 2022;13(2):e2545. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.2545