SARS, COVID-19 and Changing in Nursing Practice

SARS was a serious outbreak worldwide, resulting in studies in infection protocol and delivery of nursing care. This study compared conventional nursing practice with a modular design of nursing delivery by measuring the nature and frequency of nursing activities, efficiency, infection control practice, namely hand hygiene, as well as satisfaction levels among nurses and patients [1]. A descriptive and quasi-experimental study with modular nursing as the intervention, it consisted of a pre-intervention (T0) and two post-intervention phases (T1 and T2) in one medical and two surgical wards [1]. Several focus group meetings were conducted with senior nursing staffs from the three wards to enable the research team to acquaint staff with the model design and to solicit their input regarding proposed structure changes [1]. A series of educational sessions was provided to the staff. The data collection tools used to evaluate the modular nursing practice included: a work sampling, observation, checklist, focus interview with nurses, questionnaires to gauge nurses’ perceived competency and caring attributes, patient satisfaction questionnaires and a hand hygiene audit. The data was collected and analyzed from observations and responses to the questionnaires. No significant changes in direct care were reported but there was an increase in patient/family education due to continuity of care [1]. Also, results showed a general increase in nurses’ hand washing and personal break activities. However, due to time constraints on the nurses, a lapse on handwashing also was noted [1]. Increasing time in caring for patients showed a positive result in preventing urinary tract infection and reducing infection control. Handwashing was especially important in infection control. A stable nurse-patient ratio needs to be addressed to facilitate infection control.