INTRODUCTION: Cervical cancer (CC) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Tanzania, despite being preventable through screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Although national strategies exist, uptake remains low. This study explored awareness of CC screening, care, and vaccination among men and women in both urban and rural areas of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

METHOD: A qualitative descriptive design was conducted from April to May 2024. Four Focus Group Discussions with a total of 31 participants (including men and women) were conducted in both urban and rural communities. Simple random sampling was used to select the participants. A semistructured guide covered CC awareness, vaccination, screening, and community engagement. Transcripts were translated, coded, and categorized. Inductive content analysis was used. The study report used Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research guidelines.

RESULTS: Participants showed limited knowledge of CC, its causes, and the benefits of HPV vaccination and screening. Three main categories with eight subcategories emerged: (1) Low health literacy, (2) Challenges in accessing CC prevention, and (3) Community involvement. Myths (e.g., vaccination causing infertility), healthcare system barriers, financial constraints, and stigma contributed to poor uptake. Male and opinion leader involvement was identified as crucial, but both groups lacked accurate information and were not actively promoting CC prevention.

CONCLUSION: This study highlights limited knowledge and persistent misconceptions about CC and its prevention among men and women in both urban and rural areas of Tanzania. Structural and sociocultural barriers, including low health literacy, financial constraints, gender norms, and misinformation, hinder access to screening and HPV vaccination. Engaging male partners, opinion leaders, and communities through targeted education and improved health communication is essential. These findings provide foundational knowledge to inform policy and design context-sensitive interventions to reduce the CC burden in Tanzania and similar low-resource settings.

Mentorship is crucial for career development in healthcare. This report describes the ESPNIC Mentorship Program, established in 2021, which pairs junior healthcare professionals with senior mentors to support career goals. Over four years, 83 pairs were formed, including diverse participants from various roles and countries. Demographic information and feedback forms from mentors and mentees were collected systematically via online surveys at 12-month intervals at the start and end of the program. These data were thematically evaluated to find important areas of satisfaction and recommendations for development. Participants from low and middle income countries were enrolled in the program as well representing 26% of the mentees (22/83) and 10% of mentors (7/67). Women represented 50% (34/67) of mentors; and 71% (59/83) of mentees. Key areas of collaboration included career development, research, international networking, and clinical support. The program emphasised a voluntary and non-judgemental approach, fostering a positive experience for both mentors and mentees, and Feedback from both mentors and mentees so far has been very positive. The ESPNIC Mentorship Program serves as a model for other professional societies seeking to enhance member support and foster career advancement in paediatric and neonatal critical care.

Purpose: As the group of technology-dependent children with long-term tracheostomy continues to expand, we aimed to explore parents' lived experience of everyday life with a child dependent on long-term tracheostomy.

Materials and methods: Six parents of four children were interviewed and the transcripts analyzed using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenology.

Results: All aspects of everyday life, parent-child interaction, and interaction with the surrounding outside world were affected by technology dependency. Parents played an active role by acting both as a protective shield between the outside world and the child and as an enabling bridge to help the child interact with the outside world. The active and involved role of parents is interwoven in all aspects, levels, and directions of interaction and everyday life. The lived experiences can be described in four themes: caution and risk awareness due to technology, meeting the demands of technology dependence, strained and constrained by technology dependence, and conflicted feelings about technology dependence.

Conclusions: Long-term tracheostomy and technology-dependency affect and shape everyday life. Practical implications from the study suggest that re-design and co-design between all stakeholders involved are needed to support parental well-being, coping and enhance patient safety for this growing population and their parents.

Introduction A growing number of parents are navigating parenthood influenced by medical complexity and technological dependency as the group of children with long-term tracheostomy grows. However, little is known regarding the parental experiences of parenthood for this heterogeneous group of children now surviving through infancy and intensive care.Objective This study aimed to analyze how parents of children who have received a tracheostomy adapted to parenthood.Methods Interviews were conducted and analyzed following a constructivist grounded theory approach. Ten parents of seven children living with a tracheostomy in Sweden were recruited via the long-term intensive care unit (ICU).Results The core variable of parenthood "Stuck in survival" was explained by two categories and six subcategories. The category "Unaddressed previous history" describes the experiences from being in the ICU environment and how the parents are not able, due to insufficient time and resources, to address these stressful experiences. The category "Falling through the cracks of a rigid system" describes how the parents found themselves and their children to be continuously ill-fitted in a medical system impossible to adapt to their needs and situation. Parents placed the starting point of parenthood with the birth of the child, whilst the tracheotomy only constituted a turning point and would lead to the loss of any previously held expectations regarding parenthood.Conclusion This study identified a previously undescribed period prior to tracheostomy placement, which may have long-lasting effects on these families. The care provided in ICUs following the birth of a child who will require tracheostomy may not be tailored or adapted to accommodate the needs of these families leading to long-lasting effects on parenthood.

Introduction: Substance withdrawal is one of the most common advert events in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), as the administration of potent opiates and sedative drugs is frequently performed several times each day.

Objectives: The present study explored the challenges in nursing care of children with substance withdrawal syndrome inthe PICU.

Method: The study has an explorative and descriptive semi-structured qualitative interview design, with a strategic selection of informants. It was conducted at one out of three pediatric intensive care units in Sweden.

Results: Three different main themes were identified describing the different challenges regarding withdrawal symptoms: monitor the child’s interest, work with structured support, and understand the observation.

Conclusions: There is a discrepancy between the medical perspective and the nursing care perspective regarding children in PICU suffering from withdrawal syndrome. The lack of joint guidelines, language, and nursing diagnoses may lead to subjective evaluations and increase suffering for these children.

Introduction: The field of geriatric psychiatry has in recent decades developed into an independent discipline, incorporating elements of psychiatry, neurology and internal medicine. In view of demographic changes, this field is becoming increasingly relevant for primary care and undergraduate medical training. So far, however, there is little educational guidance for instructional design of geriatric psychiatry in undergraduate medical education.

Project description: A narrative literature review of medical education studies in the field of geriatric psychiatry was conducted. Student evaluations of a geriatric psychiatry clerkship seminar were analyzed, followed by a target group analysis. Results informed the iterative development of new clerkship seminar content and structure. This was implemented and evaluated over several academic cycles. Learning material was made available via the open-source learning management system “ILIAS”.

Results: A total of 29 medical education articles were identified and evaluated. The previous seminar in geriatric psychiatry at our university hospital was rated below average (Likert item overall rating of 4.3/6 compared to other seminars with an average overall rating of 5.2, p<0.001). An evidence-oriented revision of the content and instructional design was implemented. Activation of learners, self-reference effect, and audience questioning were used during the lecture. Additionally, two geriatric psychiatry case scenarios were adapted for discussion. We saw continuous improvement of student evaluations of the revised course, reaching a rating improvement of 5.3 out of 6 (p<0.01, U=135.5 Cohen’s d=1.28).

Conclusion: A systematic approach was used to develop a geriatric psychiatry clerkship seminar, based on medical education evidence, for undergraduate medical students, resulting in better student evaluations. The teaching materials can be adapted for local implementation at other teaching hospitals. Future studies should also explore effects regarding higher learning outcomes.

AIM: To describe how children in Sweden accessed and perceived information about SARS-CoV2 and Covid-19 during the first phase of the outbreak.

METHODS: This study is a substudy of an international cross-sectional online mixed methods survey examining elements of children's health literacy in relation to Covid-19. The survey included multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions and drawings and collected information from 50 Swedish children (7-12 years). Data were analysed concurrently on a descriptive level using statistics and content analysis. Quantitative and qualitative data, including the drawings, were considered equally important and resulted in six categories, illuminating how children accessed and perceived information about the pandemic.

RESULTS: The survey showed that children accessed information mainly from school but also from TV. They preferred information from reliable sources. Children reported the information they accessed as easy to understand and it prompted them to ask new questions. They reported they knew a lot about the pandemic, for example, the potential danger to themselves and others and how to act to protect themselves and others. They perceived the pandemic as an intrusion on their lives.

CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that Swedish children between 7 and 12 years old were well informed about SARS-CoV2 and Covid-19 during the first phase of the pandemic. School was shown to be an important source of information. The children could explain how to act to protect themselves and others from becoming infected by the virus.