Articles: pandemics.
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The hospitalist workforce has been at the forefront of the pandemic and has been stretched in both clinical and nonclinical domains. We aimed to understand current and future workforce concerns, as well as strategies to cultivate a thriving hospital medicine workforce. ⋯ Five focus groups were held with 18 participants from 13 academic institutions. We identified five key areas: (1) support for workforce wellness; (2) staffing and pipeline development to maintain an adequate workforce to match clinical growth; (3) scope of work, including how hospitalist work is defined and whether the clinical skillset should be expanded; (4) commitment to the academic mission in the setting of rapid and unpredictable clinical growth; and (5) alignment between the duties of hospitalists and resources of hospitals. Hospitalists voiced numerous concerns about the future of our workforce. Several domains were identified as high-priority areas of focus to address current and future challenges.
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The global healthcare activity including neurosurgical services has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Despite the exceptional stress imposed on our institution by COVID-19, the neurosurgical service managed to maintain comparable activity levels to 2019. The 2021 activity levels were more significantly impacted with 9.4% reduction when compared with pre-pandemic figures in 2019. Institutions need to develop a robust emergency plan to reduce the impact of any subsequent pandemics on healthcare delivery.
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To compare the care provided by primary care emergency services during the COVID19 lockdown (March-June 2020) and the same period in 2019. ⋯ Primary care emergency services offer additional advantages in situations such as the COVID19 pandemic, as they allow channeling part of the health demand.
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Observational Study
Healthcare professionals' beliefs regarding influenza vaccination: What has COVID-19 changed?
Influenza poses a potential public health threat among healthcare professionals since an infected healthcare professional can spread the virus to patients at higher risk as well as his/her own family members and colleagues. Annual influenza vaccination is the most effective way to protect HCPs. ⋯ Although the proportion of healthcare professionals with the intention to be vaccinated for influenza increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still not high enough. Influenza vaccination rates should be promoted by in-service training programs.