Sarath Rathnayake

• RN, BScN, MScN (Res), PhD
• Senior Lecturer at University of Peradeniya

Providing effective care for older people is affected by nurses' attitudes toward older people. Kogan's Attitudes Toward Older People scale (KAOP) is widely used in determining attitudes toward older people. A culturally adapted tool that assesses attitudes toward older people is unavailable in Sri Lanka. This paper reports the cross-cultural adapt...

Ensuring patient safety and quality care are very important aspects in health and social care globally. A lack of knowledge, attitudes, and skills towards quality improvement among health professionals has been identified as one of the major barriers to improving patient safety and quality care. Despite this, a gap remains in the literature regardi...

Background Informal carers face difficulties and challenges when dealing with the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) of their family members or friends residing at home. Mobile health (mHealth) applications are promising for educating and supporting carers. However, needs analysis studies have not been conducted in Sri Lanka...

Background: Informal carers of dementia face challenges in managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). mHealth applications are sustainable solutions to help them. Nevertheless, mHealth applications concerning dementia are not available in Sri Lanka, and little is known about carers’ challenges in providing care for BPSD an...

Introduction: Dementia is a global health problem. Providing care for people with dementia is challenging since they present with other comorbidities, declining functional and cognitive abilities and personality deterioration. Nurses should have good knowledge and attitudes toward the provision of care for people with dementia. This study aims to s...

Background: mHealth applications are an effective mode of delivering educational and supportive information in managing chronic diseases of older people. Informal carers of people with dementia manage complex clusters of behavioural and psychological symptoms with dementia (BPSD). However, the specialised information needs of carers in managing BPS...

Background: Limited community-based geriatric and mental healthcare services are available for the informal carers of people with dementia in Sri Lanka. They require education and support, particularly in managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in home-settings. Objectives: To develop an educational and supportive mHealth...

Background Behavioural and psychological symptoms are common among people with dementia. However, there is no tool to assess these symptoms in Sinhala language, one of the local languages in Sri Lanka. The neuropsychiatric inventory questionnaire (NPI-Q) is a widely-accepted informant-based tool to provide a brief assessment of the "prevalence and...

The pharmacy profession is uniquely positioned to ensure appropriate, safe, and cost-effective use of medicines. Healthcare professionals' accepted views on the role of pharmacists will increase the level of cooperation in the delivery of healthcare. Today, the role of pharmacists is rapidly expanding; however, the expanded role of pharmacists from...

Depression, anxiety, stress among nurses during the covid-19 outbreak in Sri Lanka: A cross-sectional study Herath HMCM1, Jagoda T2, Rathnayake S3 1Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2Department of Nursing, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, 3Departmen...

Objective To review and synthesise the evidence on informal carers’ information needs in managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) of their care recipients and related mobile health (mHealth) applications to inform the design of an mHealth application. Design This is a systematic integrative review guided by Whittemore and...

Background: Considering COVID-19, individuals living with dementia are more vulnerable, and tele-rehabilitation can be incorporated into dementia care. Objective: To analyse the evidence of the availability and effectiveness of tele-rehabilitation interventions for individuals living with dementia in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meth...

Introduction This integrative review aims to synthesise, appraise and analyse the evidence on informal carers’ information needs, features and functions of available mHealth applications, and informal carers’ usability and engagement with mHealth applications for managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Methods and analy...

eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is the most widely used, valid and reliable tool to assess eHealth literacy skills, but no culturally appropriate tool exists to assess these skills among Sinhala-speaking Sri Lankans, including health professionals. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt the original eHEALS from English to Sinhala and evaluate i...

In the wake of COVID-19, nursing education has shifted to eLearning from traditional methods. This reflective analysis addresses the impact of COVID-19 on the development of competencies among nursing students in Sri Lanka. Four themes were identified: the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing education; the role of eLearning in nursing...

Background: Social media is defined as internet services where the users of the service generate its online content. In healthcare, social media is used as an alternative platform to communicate health-related information among people. Objective: To explore information sharing behaviours through Facebook among nurses during COVID-19 outbreak in Sri...

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases worldwide. The presence of diabetes among the older population is increasing and is associated with a higher risk of diabetes-related complications. Medication non-adherence is an essential clinical and resource-intensive concern and older people are at an increased risk. This...

Insufficient knowledge among nurses limits their ability to provide optimal dementia care. Therefore, the assessment of knowledge among nurses towards dementia is essential. But, a culturally adapted dementia knowledge assessment scale (DKAS) is unavailable in Sri Lanka. This paper reports the findings of stage one of a study that aimed to develop...

An assessment tool measuring electronic health literacy is lacking for Sinhalese-speaking Sri Lankans, including health care professionals. This study aimed to develop a Sinhalese version of the eHealth literacy scale (Si-eHEALS) from its original English version. In the first stage, we translated and cross-cultural adapted the original version int...

Nurses face different challenges and difficulties when caring for dying patients, and it has an impact on both the work environment and the outside environment of nurses. Hence, they need special preparation for caring for dying patients. Nursing students need to be prepared with adequate knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide quality care for...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic. Its clinical manifestations can vary from asymptomatic to severe symptoms. Therefore, identifying the clinical characteristics of the disease is essential. A retrospective analysis was carried out to identify epidemiological and clinical factors and nursing documentation of patients diagnose...

Objective Recent evidence demonstrates that obesity is associated with developing cognitive impairment. However, evidence related to the assessment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in people with obesity is limited. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to examine evidence concerning the screening of MCI in people with obesity from the general...

The pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought significant pressure on nurses globally as they are the frontline of care. This study aimed to explore the experiences and challenges of nurses who worked with hospitalised patients with COVID-19. In this qualitative study, a purposive sample of 14 nurses participated in in-depth telep...

Introduction: COVID-19 has become a crisis in Sri Lanka, where prevention is the priority. A lack of knowledge about the virus, however, has resulted in some Sri Lankans not complying with health regulations established to control the spread of COVID-19. Newspaper cartoons are an effective means of communicating important social concerns and have b...

Background A negative learning environment is associated with the development of stress among nursing students. Aim To examine stress and learning environment among nursing students. Methods A convenience sample of 340 nursing students from a School of Nursing, Sri Lanka, participated. A sociodemographic questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale 10 (...

Background: Nursing students are at high risk for developing stress, and stress is associated with dietary habits, and dietary self-efficacy. The impact of dietary habits and dietary self-efficacy on perceived stress has been poorly examined in Sri Lanka. Objective: To assess the association between dietary intake habits, and dietary self-efficacy...

Background: Nurses have faced different challenges during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as they are the frontline of care. Objective: To explore the experiences of nurses who worked with patients with COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. Method: A phenomenological study was conducted among a purposive sample of 14 nurses who cared for patie...

Introduction & Objectives: Newspaper cartoons are viewed as an effective means of communicating important social concerns through text, audiovisual or online media. This study investigates different perspectives of newspaper cartoons during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sri Lanka. Methods: This study is an exploratory content analysis of newspaper carto...

Introduction & Objectives: The novel Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has become a global health problem. University students are at high risk of getting infected and spreading the infection due to living in a limited space and closed proximity. This study aimed to examine knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) towards COVID-19 among undergradu...

Background: Nurses need to have skills in finding, understanding and applying health information available online platforms into their practice. The development of these skills among nursing students is an essential component of nursing education. Objective: To examine the use of internet and eHealth literacy skills among nursing students in a sele...

Background: Learning environment includes classroom learning, skill practice and clinical learning, could be identified as one of the key sources of perceived stress among nursing students. Objective: To assess the association between learning environment and perceived stress among nursing students Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted amo...

The co-design of a mobile health (mHealth) application for family caregivers of people with dementia to address functional disability care needs is presented. Participants included family caregivers of people with dementia, aged care nurses, physicians, occupational therapists, and information technology (IT) experts. The co-design process involved...

Introduction: Functional impairment is a major problem for people with dementia. In most cases, family carers often provide this care without adequate knowledge and training. Smartphone technology is one means to provide education and support for carers. This study aimed to design and develop a smartphone application for family carers of people wit...

Background: Family carers of people with dementia face different challenges in providing care for daily living activities of their care recipients. Today, mHealth applications are widely used in healthcare. Aim: To examine the needs of family carers of people with dementia concerning the management of functional disability of their care recipients,...

Background: Dementia is a global health problem. Functional disability is one of the major problems among people with dementia, and family carers often provide care and support without adequate knowledge and skills. Therefore, providing education for carers is a priority need for dementia care. Today, innovative technologies such as smartphone appl...

Aim: To examine the needs, barriers and challenges experienced by family carers of people with dementia concerning the management of their care recipients' functional disabilities, and their experiences and opinions of using mobile health (mHealth) applications in health information seeking. Background: Functional disability is a significant pro...

Background: As nursing students are the future workforce in nursing, they should have the necessary skills to find, understand and apply health information available on electronic platforms into their practice. Objectives: To assess eHealth literacy skills and associated factors among nursing students. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: A...

Use of mHealth applications in health information seeking among carers of people with dementia. Sarath Rathnayake1,2,3 , Wendy Moyle1,2, Cindy Jones1,2 and Pauline Calleja1,2. 1School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Australia. 2Menzies Health Institute, Queensland, Australia. 3Department of Nursing, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lan...

Background Dementia is a global health problem in old age. Functional impairment is a common problem experienced by people with dementia that leads to disability and dependency. In most cases, family carers provide functional disability care to a person with dementia without adequate knowledge. Technology is one means to improve family carers’ know...

Introduction: Family carers of people with dementia (PWD) face a number of challenges in their caregiving role particularly limited knowledge of best practice in the care of PWD. Recently, mHealth applications have been used as a means to improve knowledge and to support for formal and informal carers. Purpose: To identify, appraise and synthesise...

Background: The progressive and complex nature of dementia demands carers have specific knowledge and training. However, often carers do not have adequate knowledge and skills, particularly for functional disability care. Aim: This study aims to develop and test the feasibility of an educational and supportive mHealth/smartphone application that ad...

Family carers encounter several challenges related to caring for people with dementia, and they need support in managing care recipients’ health needs. This study aims to identify, appraise and synthesise the existing evidence on the use of mHealth/smartphone applications as an educational and supportive resource for family carers of people with de...

Depression is a one of the major problems among patients with cancer (PWC) that negatively affects their well-being and quality of life. However, evidence relating to depression among PWC undergoing chemotherapy in Sri Lanka is limited. The purpose of this study is to assess depressive symptoms among PWC undergoing chemotherapy at Teaching Hospital...

Background: Nursing students face tremendous stressors during their student life that lead to physical and mental health problems and poor academic performance. But, evidence relating to stress, anxiety and depression in this population in Sri Lanka is limited. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine depression, anxiety and stress and assoc...

Background: With the increased number of older people globally, caring for older people has become a challenge for many countries. Nurses have a pivotal role in providing quality care for older people and care is affected by their attitudes. The preparation of nurses to deliver quality care needs to be instilled during their studying in the School...

In recent decades, the proportion of people aged 60 years and above has increased rapidly in Sri Lanka. With this unprecedented increase, Sri Lanka faces great challenges in meeting the health and social needs of the older people. There is a paucity of information related to quality of life (QOL) and related factors among elderly in Sri Lanka. Ther...

Background: Chronic medical problems and functional disabilities are common health issues among older people. As Sri Lanka is an ageing society, better understanding of the association between chronic diseases and disability is important for identifying appropriate interventions to improve well-being of older people. Objective: This study aims to...

Objective : We have examined students' class assessment reports of nursing techniques of postural change associated with conducting an international distance-learning program with Sri Lanka. Method : We have connected one university in Sri Lanka with our university in Japan through Skype and have implemented a series of three courses about postural...

【Purpose】Distance education, focused on delivering lectures via Internet has become quite popular, worldwide. However, in medical staff training, not only lectures, but also technique learning are essential. This research explores possibility of training nursing techniques through a live stream delivery. 【Method】Live streaming of advanced nursing t...

It is difficult for university teachers to stay for a long period in developing countries to provide local support for improving the quantity and quality of nursing human resources due to restrictions in terms of time and economy. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, we are developing educational methods concerning important technology in nur...