Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong.
Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
PLoS One. 2024 Nov 14;19(11):e0313751. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313751. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted advanced practice nurses' practice and posed great challenges in patient care delivery.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the practice of advanced practice nurses in mainland China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). Methods A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted March 2021 and January 2022. Advanced practice nurses were invited to participate in an online survey. The questionnaire described the socio-demographic characteristics, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on advanced nursing practice, patient outcomes, education needs about COVID-19, and the challenges, support, and concerns related to the advanced practice nurse practice during the pandemic. Wilcoxon signed-rank test or McNemar test were applied to measure the practice of APNs before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Respondents (N = 336) were from mainland China (n = 234) and Hong Kong SAR (n = 102). Participants reported increased practice-related workload during the pandemic. The proportions of advanced practice nurses focused on disease prevention (36.9%) and psychosocial well-being (15.5%) for patient-focused outcomes during the pandemic were higher compared to before the pandemic. Key challenges and concerns during the pandemic included heavy workloads and health concerns for themselves and their families. Despite difficulties, there were reports of positive changes since the outbreak including implementation of innovative measures to facilitate the advanced practice nursing and education about COVID-19.
The study findings highlight that advanced practice nurses' work and responsibilities have changed in response to the pandemic. Providing education about COVID-19, innovative measures to facilitate advanced practice nursing, and understanding advanced practice nurses' concerns and challenges in providing patient care may inform future developments for improving their professional practice.
COVID-19 大流行对高级实践护士的实践产生了重大影响，并在患者护理提供方面带来了巨大挑战。
本研究旨在调查 COVID-19 大流行对中国大陆和香港特别行政区（SAR）高级实践护士实践的影响。
采用横断面描述性调查，于 2021 年 3 月至 2022 年 1 月进行。邀请高级实践护士参加在线调查。问卷描述了社会人口统计学特征、COVID-19 对高级护理实践的影响、患者结局、关于 COVID-19 的教育需求以及与大流行期间高级实践护士实践相关的挑战、支持和关注点。Wilcoxon 符号秩检验或 McNemar 检验用于衡量 COVID-19 大流行前后 APN 的实践。
受访者（N=336）来自中国大陆（n=234）和香港 SAR（n=102）。参与者报告称，在大流行期间，与实践相关的工作量增加。与大流行前相比，大流行期间专注于疾病预防（36.9%）和患者为中心的心理社会健康（15.5%）的高级实践护士比例更高。大流行期间的主要挑战和关注点包括自身和家人的工作量大以及健康问题。尽管存在困难，但有报道称自疫情爆发以来发生了积极变化，包括实施创新措施以促进高级实践护理和 COVID-19 教育。
研究结果表明，高级实践护士的工作和职责因大流行而发生了变化。提供 COVID-19 教育、促进高级实践护理的创新措施以及了解高级实践护士在提供患者护理方面的关注点和挑战，可能为改善他们的专业实践提供信息。
