Background: Increasingly frequent global disasters such as coronavirus disease 2019 pose a threat to human health and life. The World Health Organization has called on countries to formulate detailed plans to prepare for disasters. It is critical to investigate and evaluate the disaster preparedness of nurses. Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the disaster preparedness and psychological condition of nurses in China and analyze the significant factors influencing their disaster preparedness. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2020, and 1,313 nurses were enrolled using convenience sampling. The study questionnaires were distributed and collected via a networking platform equivalent to Amazon Mechanical Turk. The disaster preparedness of the respondents was measured using the Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to evaluate anxiety and depression status, and a self-designed questionnaire developed based on a review of the literature was used to explore the potential factors of influence on disaster preparedness. Results: The average score for disaster preparedness among the participants was 186.34 (SD = 40.80), which corresponded with a moderate level, especially in skill (mean score = 42.01, SD = 12.39). Items with higher scores included support for the government, personal protection, and health education, whereas items with lower scores included nursing leadership in the community, capacity to cope with chemical or biological attacks, and assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Disaster preparedness was negatively related with mental health, including depression and anxiety. The main factors affecting disaster preparedness included educational background, nursing specialty, prior disaster training, prior disaster rescue experience, and depression level. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The disaster preparedness of Chinese nurses must be improved. More attention should be paid to disaster preparedness in nurses, and future tailored interventions are urgently needed to promote nursing leadership in the community, the ability to cope with chemical or biological attacks, and posttraumatic stress disorder assessments. Moreover, relieving negative emotions to promote the mental health of nurses should receive greater attention.
Infant temperament characteristics play a critical role in children’s developmental pathways and can predict adulthood psychopathology. The diversity and composition of the gut microbiota are associated with human temperament in both adults and young children. However, the relationship between the gut microbiota and temperament in 12-month-old infants is rarely studied; this developmental period is when temperament reaches a relatively stable stage. We used high-throughput sequencing methods to explore whether temperament characteristics were associated with gut microbiota diversity and composition. Infants’ fecal samples were collected at 12 months of age for the gut microbiota analysis. Based on the primary caregivers’ reports, infants’ temperaments were measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-revised (IBQ-R). This study included 51 infants, including 20 boys and 31 girls, with a mean age of 12.25 months. Results showed that soothability was positively correlated with maternal education level (β = 0.29, p = 0.043, adjust p = 0.025) and the abundance of Bifidobacterium genera (β = 0.62, p = 0.004, adjust p = 0.002). Conversely, cuddliness was negatively correlated with the abundance of Hungatella genera. There was no significant difference in temperament based on gender. This study demonstrated that gut microbiota composition was associated with temperament in 12-month-old infants. These results point to the importance of gut microbiota balance. Future studies on the mechanisms behind the gut microbiota affecting temperament are warranted.
(1) Background: Maternal diet and alcohol consumption can influence both maternal and infant’s gut microbiota. These relationships are still not examined in the Chinese population. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of alcohol consumption and maternal diet during pregnancy on maternal and infant’s gut microbiota. (2) Methods: Twenty-nine mother-child dyads were enrolled in central China. Fecal samples of mothers during late pregnancy and of newborns within 48 h were collected. The V3–V4 regions of 16S rRNA sequences were analyzed. A self-administrated questionnaire about simple diet frequency in the past week was completed by mothers before childbirth. The demographic information was finished by mothers at 24 h after childbirth. (3) Results: Among these 29 mothers, 10 mothers reported alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The PCoA (β-diversity) showed significant difference in maternal gut microbiota between the alcohol consumption group vs. the non-alcohol consumption group (abund-Jaccard, r = 0.2, p = 0.006). The same phenomenon was observed in newborns (unweighted-UniFrac full tree, r = 0.174, p = 0.031). Maternal alcohol consumption frequency showed positive associations with maternal Phascolarctobacterium (p = 0.032) and Blautia (p = 0.019); maternal Faecalibacterium (p = 0.013) was negatively correlated with frequency of alcohol consumption. As for newborns, a positive relationship showed between Megamonas (p = 0.035) and newborns with maternal alcohol consumption. The diet was not associated with both maternal and infant’s gut microbiota. (4) Conclusions: Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy influenced the gut microbiota on both mothers and the newborns. Future research is needed to explore these relationships in a lager birth cohort. Understanding the long-term effect of alcohol consumption on maternal and newborns’ gut microbiota is needed.
(1) Background: The human gut microbiota at early life is shaped by numerous factors, especially factors from mothers, which have huge influence on infants’ gut microbiotas. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of maternal adherence to Chinese traditional postpartum practices of “doing the month” on the development of infant gut microbiota at 6-month postpartum. (2) Methods: A cohort of 62 Chinese women at late pregnancy was recruited from a tertiary general hospital in a central region of China. The participants and their babies were followed up to 6 months postpartum. Finally, 50 mother-infant dyads were enrolled in the study. Women’s adherence to the traditional postpartum practices was measured by adherence to doing the month practices (ADP). Infant fecal samples were collected at six months of age and were analyzed using 16S rRNA V3 and V4 gene region sequences. (3) Results: Ruminococcus gnavus was significantly less abundant in infants whose mothers had a better adherence to the traditional postpartum practices of “doing the month.” Infants receiving Clostridium-butyricum during the first month after delivery had a significant dominance of Escherichia/Shigella. (4) Conclusions: Adherence to the traditional postpartum practices of “doing the month” can impact an infant’s gut microbiota at 6 months of age. Infants receiving probiotics during the first month after delivery had a significant dominance of opportunistic pathogens.
Aim. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of the length of working hours on missed nursing care, quality of nursing care, and perceptions of the nursing practice environment. Methods. A multicenter cross-sectional investigation using online questionnaires was conducted from April 2 to May 10, 2022, in twenty nine hospitals (13 Level-III hospitals and 16 Level-II hospitals). We collected data on the working hours of nurses and nurse-reported outcomes, including missed nursing care, quality of nursing care, and nursing practice environment. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression models were used to examine relationships between the hours per shift and nurse-reported outcomes. Results. We investigated 12,703 nurses with a response rate of 97.33. Nurses worked on average 7.72 (SD=1.16) hours on the day shift and 8.92 (SD=2.20) hours on the night shift, respectively. On the day shift, working 7.5hours shift showed minimal missed nursing care; meanwhile, working 77.5hours were correlated with the highest satisfaction of the nursing practice environment and better quality of nursing care. On the night shift, the highest missed nursing care was found for a working duration of 12hours to the working 7hours, with the lowest satisfaction while better quality was observed. The percentage of nurses who reported working overtime was 30.33. Nurses who worked overtime reported lower satisfaction and poorer quality of nursing care on all shifts; moreover, working overtime showed the positive correlation to missed nursing care on the day shift, while on night shift was not statistically significant. Conclusion. Positive outcomes were observed for nurses who reported working 77.75hours on the day shift and 12hours (no more than 15hours) on the night shift. Implications of Nursing Management. The results reemphasized the need for managers to reduce the working hours, overtime work, and the frequency of the night shift.
With the continuous progress of global breastfeeding promotion, breastfeeding for postpartum returning nurses has become an important topic of medical huma