Initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on time Japanese nursing faculty devote to research: Cross-sectional survey

Interventions to enhance the research productivity of academic staff in higher education schools of nursing: A systematic review

AIM

Synthesize and present peer-reviewed evidence of interventions that enhance the research productivity of academics in Schools of Nursing in Higher Education Institutions.

BACKGROUND

Pressures on academics in Schools of Nursing worldwide to increase or maintain high research productivity persist and numerous Higher Education Institutions across the world have developed interventions to increase productivity. Given evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a withdrawal from research, understanding which interventions best support and improve research productivity is urgent. Increasing research capacity is crucial but only one element in increasing productivity. No recent attempt has been made to synthesise the knowledge gained from these more wide-ranging initiatives.

DESIGN

A mixed-methods systematic review, registered in PROSPERO, searching four academic databases (CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycINFO) from 1/01/2010-20/04/2022. All primary research studies of relevant interventions were included if they described the intervention, reported its outcomes and were published in the English language in peer-reviewed journals.

RESULTS

1637 studies were assessed against eligibility criteria, resulting in 20 included studies. No studies were excluded based on quality. Data pertaining to understandings of 'research productivity', barriers to research productivity, interventions and outcomes of interventions were extracted. The most often used measures were the frequency or staff-output ratio of funding, publications and presentations, while the less commonly used were the number of conference abstracts submitted/accepted and awards. Subjective measures were less commonly used. Barriers to research productivity fell into three broad categories: resource constraints, lack of priority for research and barriers related to the attitudes, knowledge and skills of School of Nursing academics. Interventions covered nine broad areas. Half of the interventions were multi-stranded, including a wide range of components to increase research productivity while the other half comprised one component only, such as writing groups and mentoring. All interventions had a positive impact on research productivity, however, heterogeneity in the measurement of impact, the duration of interventions, sources of comparative data and research design made comparison of interventions challenging.

CONCLUSIONS

The review identified a need for future research to explore the barriers among under-represented groups of academics in Schools of Nursing across a broader geographical area; and what works for various sub-groups of academics. It also identified a need for a valid, standardised tool to assess the effectiveness of interventions to increase research productivity of academics in Schools of Nursing.

Nurse Educators' Perceptions and Self-efficacy in Response to COVID-19: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurse educators had to adapt quickly to required changes in nursing education following isolation mandates. Educators worked diligently to provide a quality remote/online educational experience with limited resources.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this review was to explore nurse educators' perceptions and self-efficacy toward the transformation from the traditional face-to-face teaching to remote/online teaching and simulation/laboratory modifications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

A scoping review, informed by PRISMA-SCR guidelines, was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL Complete, OVID MEDLINE, and Google Scholar.

RESULTS

There were 34 articles included in the final review, with 7 themes identified: teaching pedagogy, technology challenges, online teaching role, learning environment, leadership, clinical education, and well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

The review is relevant to nursing faculty across the globe. Planning for future pandemics should include self-care, use of evidence-based practices, protocols, and increased communication.

Pressures in the Ivory Tower: An Empirical Study of Burnout Scores among Nursing Faculty

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated incidents of burnout among academics in various fields and disciplines. Although burnout has been the subject of extensive research, few studies have focused on nursing faculty. This study aimed to investigate the differences in burnout scores among nursing faculty members in Canada. (2) Method: Using a descriptive cross-sectional design, data were collected via an online survey in summer 2021 using the Maslach Burnout Inventory general survey and analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. (3) Result: Faculty members (n = 645) with full-time employment status, worked more than 45 h, and taught 3-4 courses reported high burnout (score ≥ 3) compared to those teaching 1-2 courses. Although education levels, tenure status or rank, being on a graduate committee, or the percentage of hours dedicated to research and services were considered important personal and contextual factors, they were not associated with burnout. (4) Conclusions: Findings suggest that burnout manifests differently among faculty and at varying degrees. As such, targeted approaches based on individual and workload characteristics should be employed to address burnout and build resilience among faculty to improve retention and sustain the workforce.

Prediction models for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on research activities of Japanese nursing researchers using deep learning

AIM

This study aimed to construct and evaluate prediction models using deep learning to explore the impact of attributes and lifestyle factors on research activities of nursing researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

A secondary data analysis was conducted from a cross-sectional online survey by the Japanese Society of Nursing Science at the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1089 respondents from nursing faculties were divided into a training dataset and a test dataset. We constructed two prediction models with the training dataset using artificial intelligence (AI) predictive analysis tools; motivation and time were used as predictor items for negative impact on research activities. Predictive factors were attributes, lifestyle, and predictor items for each other. The models' accuracy and internal validity were evaluated using an ordinal logistic regression analysis to assess goodness-of-fit; the test dataset was used to assess external validity. Predicted contributions by each factor were also calculated.

RESULTS

The models' accuracy and goodness-of-fit were good. The prediction contribution analysis showed that no increase in research motivation and lack of increase in research time strongly influenced each other. Other factors that negatively influenced research motivation and research time were residing outside the special alert area and lecturer position and living with partner/spouse and associate professor position, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Deep learning is a research method enabling early prediction of unexpected events, suggesting new applicability in nursing science. To continue research activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and future contingencies, the research environment needs to be improved, workload corrected by position, and considered in terms of work-life balance.

Characteristics of early-career nurse researchers negatively impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to identify typical patterns and determinants of early-career nurse researchers (ECNRs: age ≤45 years) who reported that their research activities were negatively impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a data mining methodology. To gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics of these ECNRs, we compared them with the characteristics of senior nurse researchers (SNRs: age ≥46 years).

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS

1532 nurse researchers.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

We conducted an anonymous online questionnaire survey that assessed individual and professional attributes of nurse researchers and their experiences from April to June 2020. We analysed the association between the impact on research activities and the individual and professional attributes using cross-tabulation, and employed the chi-square automatic interaction detection technique to perform population segmentation.

RESULTS

We found that difficulties in research management, an increased burden of student education and organisational management, and organisational management position were relatively important factors for determining the negative impact of COVID-19 on the research activities of ECNRs (p<0.05). For both ECNRs and SNRs, the most relevant determinant of disrupted research activities was 'difficulties in research management' (χ²=34.7 and 126.5, respectively, p<0.001 for both). However, only ECNRs yielded 'position in organisational management' and was extracted only for ECNRs (χ²=7.0, p=0.008).

CONCLUSIONS

Difficulties in research management and an increased burden of student education and organisational management had an unfavourable impact on the research activities of ECNRs. To ensure quality of nursing care and nursing science development during and after the COVID-19 era, it is important to support ECNRs in their nursing research activities and career development. Our findings could contribute to the prioritisation of interventions and policymaking for ECNRs who are particularly at risk of being negatively affected by the pandemic.