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BACKGROUND: Cancer patients experience distress as a result of their health condition, which, in turn, contributes to the progression of the disease. Moreover, their daily activities, well-being, and health status are significantly impacted by pain and other symptoms. In this context, empowering these patients with self-care and pain management skills can greatly contribute to effective symptom control. AIM: To develop and implement an educational approach focused on empowering family caregivers and patients with advanced cancer in effectively managing pain at home. METHOD: An educational program, PECP/C-Pain Management, was developed to empower family caregivers and cancer patients to manage pain at home. A quasi-experimental study involving 52 participants with advanced cancer was conducted to test the program. Participants' skills, behaviors, and knowledge related to self-care and pain management were assessed before and after the intervention using an appropriate instrument, the Pain Management Knowledge and Behavior Scale. RESULTS: Pain was reported as the primary symptom, and following the educational program, participants were able to monitor pain and other symptoms and effectively self-manage their treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the PECP/C-Pain Management intervention was effective in improving participants' knowledge and skills in managing pain, leading to better symptom control. In addition, the Pain Management Knowledge and Behavior Scale is a reliable tool for measuring the outcomes of this intervention.

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Pharmacovigilance stands out for its importance in obtaining existing knowledge about medicine and patient safety and should be recognized as a continuous line of study. It constitutes a highly relevant component in the activities of health professionals, with spontaneous notification of suspected adverse drug reactions being its main emphasis. The underreporting that persists can be overcome through continuous professional development programs, reinforcing theoretical and practical knowledge in the curricular plans of health courses. As a result, more educated professionals will also allow citizens to recognize the importance of pharmacovigilance. The main objective of this study was to describe and characterize the teaching-learning process of pharmacovigilance in Portugal, analyzing the knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of students and health professionals. In total, ninety-three curricular unit forms of the seventeen healthcare courses included were analyzed, among which only three referred to pharmacovigilance as mandatory and thirty-nine did not address any keywords. The questionnaire applied was answered by 650 participants, both students (62%) and professionals (38%). Approximately 84.4% of the students and 54.7% of the professionals affirmed that they had never spontaneously reported an adverse drug reaction. Only 24.6% of the students and 17.8% of professionals referred to the existence of specific course content dedicated to pharmacovigilance in their coursework. In view of these results, it is evident that there is a need for a wider reflection regarding the further training and constant update of practicing professionals as well as in diverse health institutions, investing in the creation of an academic curriculum that integrates pharmacovigilance in healthcare courses.

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BACKGROUND: The morbidity associated with ageing has contributed to an increase in the prevalence of Pressure Ulcers (PUs) in all care settings. The impact of these on people's quality of life and the extent of the associated economic and social burden constitutes today, by their importance, a serious public health problem. This study aims to describe the nursing work environment in Portuguese long-term care (LTC) units and to assess how this environment relates to the quality of PU care. METHODS: A longitudinal study among inpatients with PUs was conducted in LTC units. The Nursing Work Index-Revised Scale (NWI-R) was sent to all nurses in these units. Cox proportional hazard models were used to relate the satisfaction degree with the service (measured by the NWI-R-PT items) to the healing time of the PUs, adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: A total of 165 of 451 invited nurses completed the NWI-R-PT. Most were women (74.6%) and had 1 to 5 years of professional experience. Less than half (38.4%) had education in wound care. Of the 88 patients identified with PUs, only 63 had their PU documented, highlighting the difficulties in updating electronic records. The results showed that the level of concordance with Q28 "Floating so that staffing is equalised among units" is strongly associated with a shorter PU healing time. CONCLUSION: A good distribution of nursing staff over the units will likely improve the quality of wound care. We found no evidence for possible associations with the questions on participation in policy decisions, salary level, or staffing educational development and their relationship with PUs healing times.

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(1) Background: The pandemic context has limited the social and family contacts of institutionalized older adults, and intervention is urgently needed. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the implementation of a "Geriatric Proximity" intervention on the functioning, satisfaction with social support, affective experience, and feelings of loneliness of institutionalized older adults in the times of the pandemic. (2) Methods: This is a pilot study. An experimental group (subject to the "Geriatric Proximity" intervention) and a control group were constituted. Four assessment instruments were applied to both groups: the satisfaction with social support scale; the elderly nursing core set; the positive and negative affect schedule; and the UCLA loneliness scale. (3) Results: The control group shows no differences between the three measurement instants, while the experimental group shows between first and third measurements (all p < 0.05). We observed a reduction in the scores of loneliness scale, negative affect, and cognition functioning and an increase in satisfaction with social support and positive affect. (4) Conclusions: The intervention "Geriatric Proximity" showed a positive contribution by decreasing loneliness and increasing affectivity, satisfaction with social support, and cognitive function during the pandemic period.

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BACKGROUND: Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide and is part of the Portuguese lifestyles. This study aims to describe coffee consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic, the change in consumption, the relation between work and familiar pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic and coffee consumption, and the reasons for this consumption pattern. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study conducted by an online questionnaire (n = 463) between March and June 2020. During the data collection phase, information about coffee consumption and socio-demographic characteristics were gathered. RESULTS: All respondents were and are coffee consumers. The coffee average intake before the COVID-19 pandemic was 2.40 ± 0.84 cups of coffee per day, and the average consumption during the COVID-19 confinement was 2.68 ± 0.88 cups. Consumption increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a correlation between the consumption changes and the familiar or work pressure was not found. The general reasons for the increase in the coffee consumption were "social/cultural" (27%), "the search for energy "boost"" (22.9%), "to feel awake" (22.7%), "to deal with stress" (22.7%) and "the taste" (21.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest the ever-increasing popularity of coffee consumption. Respondents also highlighted that some situations make them more prone to consume coffee consumption, such as when they face stress and the need to control tiredness. The COVID pandemic depleted a change in behaviors.

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Sleep disorders have significant health impacts and affect children's performance and wellbeing. This study aims to characterise the sleep habits of Portuguese primary school children considering socioeconomic factors, daily lifestyle, presence of electronic devices in the bedrooms, and the practice of physical and sports activity (PSA) and to identify clinical factors that may be related to a child's insufficient sleeping time. This study involved 1438 primary students. Sleep habits and problems were assessed using the short version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). The mean sleep duration was 9 h 37 min/ per night (SD = 44 min). The prevalence of global sleep disturbances was 25.8%. The main factors we identified to be positively associated with a child's sleep deficit (i.e., <10 h) were: being older than 7 years, living further away from school, having electronic devices in the bedroom, going to bed and eating dinner later, less daily time of PSA, and having higher scores on the sleep duration subscales. Sleeping and eating habits, electronic devices in the bedroom, and a low level of engagement with PSA are associated with children's sleep disturbance and shorter sleep duration.

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The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the whole world, leading to changes in one's personal and working life. Researchers have undergone extensive changes in their roles, mainly in the area of health care, with research into the virus now the priority. Aim: To assess the anxiety, depression, stress, fears, and coping strategies of Portuguese researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants and Methods: A total of 243 researchers, with an average age of 37.9 ± 9.6, participated in an online questionnaire. The study was performed between 1 June 2021 and 11 August 2021. The questionnaire included depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21), fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), and coping inventory for stressful situations (CISS). Results: The findings suggest being female and younger seem to be related to more significant fears. Singles and younger researchers showed higher values of stress, depression, and anxiety. Research areas, such as medical and health sciences, presented higher levels in the DASS-21 depression and stress scale (p < 0.05). Also, the results showed a moderate or moderate strong significant positive linear relationship between the scales (p < 0.001): DASS-21 stress, DASS-21 anxiety, and DASS-21 depression (r > 0.70); CISS-21 emotional-oriented with DASS-21 stress (r = 0.683), DASS-21 depression (r = 0.622), and DASS-21 anxiety (r = 0.557); and emotional fear and cognitive fear (r = 0.652). Conclusion: The findings of this study support the growing concern for the psychological well-being of researchers and the need for intervention with more extensive and diverse studies.

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(1) Background: Improvement in pressure ulcer care depends both on the dissemination of knowledge and its implementation. This study aims to translate the Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test into Portuguese from Portugal and evaluate the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The second aim is to assess nurses' pressure ulcer knowledge level. (2) Methods: The Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test was translated into Portuguese, and the translated test's internal consistency and content validity were assessed. Further, the authors conducted a cross-sectional survey using the test among 221 nurses working in long-term care units. (3) Results: The Cronbach's alpha internal coefficient of reliability recorded for the 47 items was 0.738, which is higher than the minimum acceptable level of 0.7. The Cronbach's alpha for the subscales was 0.709 for prevention/risk and less than 0.5 for staging and wound description. Only two of the 221 nurses achieved a score of 90% correct answers or more. The nurses scored lower in questions related to prevention/risk (Me = 67.4%, IQR = 60.6-75.8% vs. staging: ME = 85.7%, IQR = 71.4-85.7%, description: ME = 85.7%, IQR = 71.4-85.7%, p < 0.001). (4) Conclusion: The internal consistency of the instrument was acceptable. The instrument can accurately measure Portuguese nurses' knowledge of pressure ulcers, and its information can help improve education and implementation of best practices.

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The functioning and cognition of older adults can be influenced by different care contexts. We aimed to compare the functioning profiles and cognition of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized older adults and to evaluate the effect of sociodemographic factors on the functioning and cognition. This is a cross-sectional study that included 593 older adults. The data were collected using the Elderly Nursing Core Set and Mini Mental State Examination. Women, older adults who did not attend school and those live in Residential Homes are more likely to have a higher degree of cognitive impairment than men, those who attended school and those frequent Day Centre. The chances of an older adult with moderate or severe cognitive impairment increases with age. Older women, older adults who did not attend school, and older adults who live in Residential Homes had a higher degree of functional problem than men, those who attended school and those who frequent a Day Centre, independently to age. It is necessary to promote the health literacy of older adults throughout life. The implementation of social and health responses should allow older adults to remain in their homes, given the influence of functioning and cognition on self-care and quality of life.

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Volunteerism assumes a growing importance in the context of health, due to the significant number of practitioners and to the contribution given by the volunteers in the humanization of health care. However, as the continued interaction with the sick person might also originate negative emotions, we looked up in this article to describe the main results about vulnerability to stress in volunteers. The results revealed that 30.00% of volunteers were vulnerable to stress. We also observed that the civil state, socio-economic level and familiar functionality variables revealed to be protectors of the occurrence of stress. On the other side, the predominance of neuroticism as a personality trace was associated to a higher vulnerability to stress.

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