LIVES for families psychological first aid training programme to address COVID-19 psychological distress: a mixed methods acceptability and feasibility protocol

Exploring effect of psychological first aid education on vocational nursing students: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND

Psychological first aid (PFA) is an internationally recognized approach to providing initial psychological support to the general public by both professionals and non-professionals. With increasing psychological care needs under frequent global disasters, it is urgent to provide PFA training to community rescuers in resource-limited countries. Vocational nursing students account for the largest proportion of the reserve workforce serving the community. However, they were scarcely educated about PFA in public emergencies.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the impacts of PFA training on knowledge and competency, general self-efficacy, and resilience among vocational nursing students.

DESIGN

A quasi-experimental study with pre-posttest comparison.

SETTING

A provincial vocational college in XXXX.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred and three sophomore vocational nursing students were recruited from a vocational college.

METHODS

The eligible participants were provided with the PFA educational program developed from international and national PFA guidelines. Before and after the intervention, researchers used the PFA of Orientation Pre/Post Test questionnaire, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale to evaluate participants' learning outcomes. The paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to compare the difference in outcomes between the pre- and post-test.

RESULTS

After the PFA educational intervention, the participants' scores on PFA-related knowledge and competence significantly increased (p < .001). There were also statistically significant differences in general self-efficacy, total resilience, tenacity, and optimism scores observed between the pre- and post-test (p < .001). However, there was no significant increase in strength scores after the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

The PFA training effectively improved vocational nursing students' knowledge and competency, general self-efficacy, and resilience. Further studies with a control group and follow-ups are needed to explore the long-term effects of PFA education.

Supporting adolescents' mental health during COVID-19 by utilising lessons from the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake

Historical data can determine how adolescents recover from difficult situations such as the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study analysed 3 years of data obtained from high-school students who had been affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and consequently evidenced the importance of increasing resilience among affected adolescents. This involved identifying factors contributing to resilience through a model that assessed for each tsunami disaster. This model was determined by assessing the correlation between survivors' resilience scores and their measured psychological and lifestyle scores. This approach showed that, in all tsunami damage models, resilience was most affected by the depressed emotions. Thus, our approach suggests that interventions for improving the depressed mood may improve resilience in adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.