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Aim: This study aims to identify the working conditions of Brazilian nursing professionals and the risk factors for these professionals to become infected by coronavirus disease. Background: Understanding the factors that affected nursing professionals during the pandemic can support better nursing management. Design: This is a quantitative, cross‐sectional survey study. Methods: Data collection was carried out between February and March 2022 in Brazil. All nursing professionals registered in the national database received by e‐mail the study instrument with the data collection variables: professionals' sociodemographic and comorbid, professional and institutional characteristics, and professionals' health conditions and disease‐related aspects for COVID‐19. Results: Four thousand eight hundred sixty‐two nursing professionals reported a lack of personal protective equipment for patient care, and 4424 were infected by coronavirus disease. The risk factors to become infected were having cardiovascular disease, being under 60 years of age, living in the northern region, using public transportation, working in a hospital, an emergency department or reference institution for COVID‐19, living with an infected person and lack of respirators or waterproof aprons. Conclusion: Multiple risk factors for infection with SARS‐CoV‐2 were demonstrated for the nursing professionals during the pandemic, highlighting current and future pandemics factors that are modifiable in a worthwhile time frame to minimize nurses' infection risks, such as inadequate working conditions associated with lack of essential personal protective equipment. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? The health‐care team is essential in managing COVID‐19, but it has been directly affected by the pandemic. What this paper adds? Multiple risk factors for infection with SARS‐CoV‐2, modifiable or not, were demonstrated for these nursing professionals. The implications of this paper: Strategies to protect the health‐care workers should be implemented during this and any future pandemics, especially providing adequate access to essential personal protective equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Aim of this study is to identify signs and symptoms associated with identifying critically ill patients by rapid triage assessment performed by nurses in an emergency department. Background: In some emergency services, the immediate assessment of critically ill patients occurs before opening the hospital formal registration and it is based on the nurse's experience. Studies on the topic are essential to improve this process. Design This is a cross‐sectional, quantitative study. Methods: This study was conducted in a Brazilian emergency department in 2017. Adult patients who presented potentially life‐threatening symptoms underwent rapid triage to determine the medical urgency. Those identified as being critically ill were classified as high priority and streamed to the emergency room. Results: A total of 154 (84.6%) patients were classified as high priority from the total of 182 evaluations. Altered state of consciousness (35.2%) and altered skin perfusion (25.3%) were frequently identified. Signs and symptoms associated with identifying critically ill patients by rapid triage were alterations in ventilation (OR 6.09; p = 0.028), neurological dysfunction (OR 44.96; p < 0.001) and pain (OR 5.80; p = 0.004). Conclusion: Nurses should value neurological and ventilation alterations and pain in patients during rapid triage, since these signs and symptoms are associated with high care priority. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? Research carried out in different countries highlights the importance of triage and risk classification systems, especially in the context of overcrowding in the emergency department.The time that a critically ill patient waits to receive effective treatment is one of the most significant predictors of unsatisfactory clinical outcomes.There are very few studies which have utilized a simple quick‐look method of triage in relation to other studies which commonly used a five‐level triage system in the emergency department. What this paper adds? In this study, we analysed the rapid triage performed by emergency nurses of patients' self‐reporting severe complaints in the emergency department.The results showed that some signs and symptoms identified by nurses during the rapid triage were associated with identifying critically ill patients in the emergency department.Knowing characteristics of rapid triage is essential to direct strategies for improvement in the early and safe identification of critically ill patients who seek care in the emergency service, enhancing the chances of survival. The implications of this paper for practice: Emergency nurses must remain vigilant for acute alterations in patient neurological, respiratory and pain status, as these may potentially herald critical illness and poor patient outcomes.Early detection of patients with critically illness optimizes utilization of finite resources and stabilizes care flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to the perception of nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU), surgical patients need more nursing care, thus requiring higher nursing workloads for these patients than those admitted as clinical patients. However, some study results on the relationship between the type of admission and the nursing workload are considered contradictory. Aims and objectives: To identify if the type of admission (clinical, emergency surgery or elective surgery) is a predictive factor of the nursing workload required by patients on the first day or throughout their stay in the ICU. Design: This was a quantitative cross‐sectional study comprised of a retrospective analysis of clinical records of critical patients. Methods: Data were collected from 1 May 2015 to 30 September 2015 in a hospital located in São Paulo, Brazil. Nursing workload was measured using the Nursing Activities Score. The type of admission and the demographic and clinical variables of the patients were investigated. Multiple linear regression was used to identify nursing workload predictive factors, with 5% significance level. Results: In the analysed sample (n = 211; mean age of 60·3 ± 18·7 years), there was a prevalence of male gender (56·9%). A statistically significant difference (p = 0·025) was found between the type of admission and the nursing workload required for patients on the first ICU day. The Simplified Acute Physiologic Score (p = 0·009) was a predictor of nursing workload on the first day in the ICU, and the Logistic Organ Dysfunction System (p = 0·026) and mortality (p < 0·001) were predictors throughout the ICU stay. Conclusions: The type of admission was not a predictive factor of the nursing workload required by critical patients. Relevance to clinical practice: Identifying the predictive factors of nursing workload favours the appropriate staffing of the critical unit by nurses. However, nurses should not consider the type of admission in predicting the nursing workload required by patients in the ICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to compare the performance of the rapid triage conducted by nurses at the emergency entrance and of the Manchester Triage System (MTS) in identifying the priority level of care for patients with spontaneous demand and predicting variables related to hospitalization., Method: a cross-sectional study carried out in an Emergency Department (ED) of a university hospital in São Paulo. The priority levels established in the rapid triage performed by nurses were high priority (patients of spontaneous demand directed to the emergency room) or low priority (those referred to the institution's usual flow). Diagnostic accuracy measures were calculated to assess the performance of the indexes., Results: of the 173 patients (52.0% female, with mean age of 60.4 ± 21.2 years old) evaluated, it was observed that rapid triage was more inclusive for high priority and had better sensitivity and worse specificity than the MTS. The probability of non-severe patients being admitted to the emergency observation unit was lower due to the rapid triage. For the prediction of the other variables, the systems presented unsatisfactory results., Conclusion: the nurses overestimated the classification of patients as high priority, and rapid triage performed better than MTS in predicting admission to the emergency observation unit.