Background/Objectives: Digital communication systems may streamline hospital requests without eliminating nurses’ responsibility for coordinating responses. Little is known about how nurses’ experience of successive workplace technologies informs their assessment of this redistribution of work. This study explored how Brazilian female nurses over 40 perceived a digital interaction tool, without assuming effects specific to age or gender. Methods: We conducted a secondary qualitative analysis of 10 interviews with female nurses aged 41–55, selected from 20 interviews conducted at a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Following Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis, we examined accounts of technological learning, request management, interdepartmental coordination and patient contact. The original interviews were not designed to investigate age- or gender-specific mechanisms. Results: Four themes were developed: (1) learning again without starting from scratch; (2) no longer the go-between for every request; (3) when a digital request still needs a phone call; and (4) making work visible without losing personal contact. Participants described easier request initiation and greater team autonomy, alongside learning demands, duplicated communication and unresolved requests. Across themes, digital delegation of request entry did not necessarily transfer responsibility for follow-up and resolution. Conclusions: Participants appraised the technology in relation to existing work practices and continued professional accountability. Its perceived benefits depended on usable interfaces, ongoing support and timely interdepartmental responses. This analysis offers a context-specific account of the distinction between digitizing requests and redistributing coordination responsibilities; it does not demonstrate reduced workload, improved patient outcomes or age- or gender-specific effects.
Background: Empathy is widely recognised as a core professional value in nursing, underpinning high-quality, person-centred care and therapeutic relationships in a profession characterised by sustained interaction with patients and families. However, few studies have followed the same nursing students throughout their entire undergraduate programme. Objectives: To examine longitudinal changes in clinical empathy and its dimensions among Spanish nursing students throughout the four-year undergraduate nursing degree and to explore associations between empathy scores and selected sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: A prospective longitudinal cohort study included four annual assessments (2020–2023) at a Spanish public university. Clinical empathy was measured with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy–Health Professions Students (JSE-HPS). Spearman rank correlations assessed score stability; adjusted linear mixed-effects models evaluated changes over time and sociodemographic associations, followed by Tukey-adjusted comparisons. Results: Of 150 eligible students, 126 participated at baseline (84.0%). The mean total score fell from 117.37 at the first assessment to 87.75 at the second and remained relatively stable thereafter. Assessment time was significantly associated with the total score and all three dimensions (all p ≤ 0.003). Total, Compassionate Care, and Standing in the Patient’s Shoes scores were higher at the first than at all subsequent assessments; Perspective Taking differed only between the second and fourth assessments. Age was positively associated only with Compassionate Care (β = 0.15; p = 0.039), but this finding should be considered exploratory given the number of outcomes examined; other covariates showed no associations. Conclusions: Self-reported empathic orientation declined mainly between the first and second academic years and changed little thereafter, although the dimensions followed distinct trajectories. These findings support monitoring empathy and suggest attention to educational support early in nursing education.
Background/Objectives: Burnout is a multidimensional occupational-health concern in nursing, yet post-pandemic evidence from Ecuador remains limited. This exploratory study aimed to identify sociodemographic and work-related characteristics independently associated with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment among nursing professionals, using separate adjusted models. Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed primary data from 462 nursing professionals participating in a national Ecuadorian research project. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). Separate multivariable ordinary least-squares models with HC3 robust standard errors were fitted for each dimension, with Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction across 24 non-intercept coefficients. Results: Mean scores were 17.09 (SD = 11.28) for emotional exhaustion, 6.61 (SD = 6.06) for depersonalization, and 30.99 (SD = 11.61) for personal accomplishment; using historical descriptive thresholds, 19.0% scored in the high emotional-exhaustion range, 32.2% in the high depersonalization range, and 52.7% in the low personal-accomplishment range. Older age was associated with lower emotional exhaustion (B = −0.211; 95% CI, −0.347 to −0.074; padj = 0.012), lower depersonalization (B = −0.122; 95% CI, −0.191 to −0.054; padj = 0.005), and higher personal accomplishment (B = 0.238; 95% CI, 0.098 to 0.377; padj = 0.005). Male sex was associated with higher depersonalization (B = 3.068; 95% CI, 1.499 to 4.637; padj = 0.003). Moderate (B = 4.134; padj = 0.014) and little/none (B = 6.958; padj = 0.005) institutional resource availability were associated with higher emotional exhaustion compared with full availability. Conclusions: Older age was associated with lower emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and higher personal accomplishment; male sex was associated with higher depersonalization, and lower perceived institutional resource availability with higher emotional exhaustion. These cross-sectional associations do not establish causation. Longitudinal research directly measuring organizational demands and resources is warranted.
Background/Objectives: Despite recommendations that all hospitalized older adults receive tailored fall-prevention education, studies suggest that many patients at risk of falling do not receive such education. Furthermore, some patients may not recognize having received fall-prevention instructions, potentially limiting their effectiveness. This study examined the proportion of older patients who reported recognizing that they had received fall-prevention instructions from nurses and the characteristics associated with this recognition. Methods: A nationwide online survey was conducted among Japanese adults aged ≥60 years who were currently hospitalized or had been discharged within the previous year. Fall-risk recognition and recognition of fall-prevention instructions received from nurses were assessed by self-report. Latent class analysis identified two fall-risk profile groups, and logistic regression was used to examine factors associated with reported receipt of these instructions. Results: Among 3608 participants, more than 40% reported that they had not recognized receiving fall-prevention instructions. After excluding 395 participants without identified fall-risk factors, fall-risk profile and age were associated with self-reported recognition. Participants with mobility impairment and other risk factors more frequently reported recognizing receipt of instructions than those with other risk factors but no mobility impairment. Conclusions: Whether participants’ reports reflect a lack of instruction provision or poor recall remains unclear. Failure to recognize or receive fall-prevention instructions may limit patients’ ability to implement preventive behaviors. Enhancing nurses’ awareness of fall-risk profiles and providing consistent patient education may improve recognition of fall-prevention instructions and support fall prevention in hospital settings.
Background/Objectives: Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a core competency in undergraduate nursing education, yet how it is taught remains poorly mapped. This scoping review aimed to synthesise the evidence on curricular integration, pedagogy, learning resources, assessment, and outcomes of EBP teaching in undergraduate nursing programmes. Methods: This review followed JBI methodology and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines; the protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework (No. d3jsq). Eligible sources addressed undergraduate nursing students in higher education, regardless of study design, language, or publication date. PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched on 1 March 2026, complemented by grey literature and reference-list screening; extraction was conducted independently by two reviewers and complemented by the AI tool Elicit. Methodological quality was appraised using JBI checklists without influencing study selection, and findings were synthesised narratively into five thematic axes. Results: Fifty-five sources (47 primary sources and 8 evidence syntheses), mostly published from 2015 onwards and originating chiefly from North America and Europe, met the inclusion criteria. EBP was most often delivered as a standalone course or embedded within research-methods or clinical-placement courses, with the reported teaching most often delivered late in the curriculum and rarely underpinned by a theoretical framework. Active strategies were widely reported but generally supplemented, rather than replaced, didactic teaching, with learning resources centred on bibliographic databases, followed by librarian support and digital tools. Assessment and outcomes relied predominantly on validated self-report instruments, with performance-based measures used considerably less often. Of the 34 appraised studies, most were rated low–moderate to moderate in quality, and heavy reliance on self-report measures together with a North American/European concentration of sources limits the certainty and generalisability of these findings. Conclusions: The mapped evidence suggests that EBP teaching has diversified without a matching theoretical grounding or assessment capable of verifying its translation into practice, pointing to the potential value of progressive curricular sequencing, explicit alignment between pedagogical choices and competencies, and assessment capturing demonstrated rather than self-reported reasoning. This review received no external funding.
