"To do or not to do", male nurses' experiences of providing intimate care to female patients in China, a constructivist grounded theory study.

BACKGROUND: Some studies suggest that female patients have more concerns about receiving intimate care from male than female nurses. Thus, providing intimate care to female patients is a challenging experience for male nurses. The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese male nurses' experiences and process of providing intimate clinical care to female patients. METHODS: A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to develop a theoretical understanding of male nurses' experiences. This study included participants from 3 hospitals in different locations in China. Twenty-five male nurses were recruited using purposive and theoretical sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data analysis was completed using initial coding, focused coding, theoretical coding and memo writing to produce core concepts and categories, and theory development. RESULTS: Chinese male nurses' experiences of providing intimate care to female patients can be constructed as a three-stage process: (1) anticipation of the level of embarrassment, (2) deciding on the process: do it or not do it and (3) protecting both parties and dealing with embarrassment. Additionally, seven themes and associated categories were identified to represent the important factors in the process of male nurses providing intimate care to female patients in China. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese traditional culture may affect the embarrassment in Chinese male nurses providing intimate care to female patients. The embarrassing situation can be divided into three different stages, and male nurses have different main concerns in each stage. Hospital nursing administrators should consider the experiences and needs of male nurses in providing intimate care and provide them with psychological support, education and training.

Oncology nurses' experiences of providing emotional support for cancer patients: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: A high percentage of cancer patients may experience emotional distress. Oncology nurses are expected to play an important role in recognizing emotional distress and planning and delivering care that meets the individual needs of each patient. However, few studies have focused on the experiences of clinical nurses in such cases. This study adopted a qualitative research method to gain an in-depth understanding of the experience of nursing staff in caring for cancer patients with emotional distress. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive design and semi-structured interviews were used in this study. Twenty-one oncology nurses were interviewed, and the qualitative content analysis suggested by Graneheim & Lundman (2004) was used to interpret the data. RESULTS: Six themes were identified, as follows: (1) dictating the abnormality of emotion, (2) soothing and comforting patients, (3) a lack of psychology knowledge and communication skills, (4) negative impacts of a lack of time, (5) managing emotional labor, and (6) reflecting on the experiences. CONCLUSION: Hospital administrators should arrange pre-employment education and training as well as on-the-job education to help nurses in caring for cancer patients with emotional distress. They should also focus attention on the personal emotional states of nursing staff in a timely manner and provide psychological support and emotional counseling as necessary.

What influences newly graduated registered nurses' intention to leave the nursing profession? An integrative review.

BACKGROUND: Newly graduated registered nurses leaving the nursing profession in the early stages of their career have enormous financial and time implications for nursing organizations and affect the quality of nursing care. OBJECTIVE: To identify the factors influencing newly graduated registered nurses' intention to leave the nursing profession over the past 10 years. METHODS: The framework developed by Whittemore and Knafl was used to conduct this integrative review. An electronic search was conducted for English articles to identify research studies published between 2011-2022 using the following databases of PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus. Eligible publications were critically reviewed and scored using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program Checklist and the Center for Evidence-Based Management appraisal. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were analyzed. The main factors affecting newly graduated registered nurses' intention to leave the nursing profession included demographic factors (age, educational level, year of experience, professional title, employment status, health status, shift, hospital location and size), supervisor and peer support, challenges in the workplace, cognitive and affective response to work, work environment (collegial nurse-physician relations, insufficient staffing level, person-work environment fit), gender stereotypes, autonomous motivation, role models, and resilience. CONCLUSIONS: The factors affecting newly graduated registered nurses' intention to leave the nursing profession are multifaceted and should receive continuous attention from nurse managers. The findings provide more comprehensive for nurse administrators to develop intervention strategies to mitigate newly graduated registered nurses' turnover intention.

Dealing With a Stressful Extra Duty: The Intrapersonal Conflict Experiences of Nurses Caring for Survivors of Suicide Attempts on Medical-Surgical Wards.

Nurses are the frontline professionals caring for patients who have attempted suicide. When clinical nurses learn from medical records or nursing handover, or are proactively informed by patients or family members, that the patients they are caring for have suicidal tendencies, they often experience pressure and face challenges. However, little attention has been given to the experiences of the nurses caring for patients with suicidal intent on medical and surgical wards. We aimed to address this knowledge gap. The purpose of this study was to explore medical and surgical nurses' experiences, especially the internal conflicts they might experience while caring for patients who have a history of attempted suicide. A qualitative descriptive design and semi-structured interviews were used in this study. Twenty-three nurses were recruited and interviewed individually. Data were analysed by qualitative content analysis. The focus of this paper is to examine the emergent theme of intrapersonal conflict experienced by the participants. Nurses' experiences can be clustered into two themes: (1) Pity and annoyance and (2) Hard work does not necessarily pay off. Intrapersonal conflict was identified by participants as considerable fear and anxiety about the possibility of a patient's suicide, as well as a mixture of pity for and annoyance with the patients. Nurses feel sorry for such patients, but they are also annoyed by the extra work required to prevent suicide attempts in the ward. Additionally, having limited time and ability, they see that their hard work does not necessarily pay off and may sometimes lead to punishment. Our findings raise serious concerns about the adequacy of the knowledge of the nurses, their competence and their difficulties in caring for such patients. In addition, there is a need to provide them with appropriate on-the-job education and immediate emotional support relevant to caring for survivors of suicide attempts.

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase genetic polymorphism and the risk of diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetic patients.

BACKGROUND: As indicated by numerous studies, there exists a relationship between the polymorphism of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy (DN) in various populations; nonetheless, the findings remain inconsistent. Therefore, we carried out a meta-analysis to determine the relationship between the MTHFR gene polymorphism and DN susceptibility. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Related studies were identified from PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database (time period: from building the library to October 2019). The strength of the association was examined using odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). RESULTS: The findings illustrated that the C677T gene polymorphism was significantly associated with an enhanced susceptibility to DN compared to that with diabetes mellitus in allelic (OR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.34-2.00, P < .001), dominant (OR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.40-2.46, P < .001), codominant (heterozygote: OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.27-2.21, P < .001; homozygote: OR = 2.55, 95% CI = 1.82-3.57, P < .001), and recessive (OR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.50-2.38, P < .001) models of the overall population. Moreover, as compared with the healthy controls, a significantly augmented susceptibility to DN was found in all 5 genetic comparison models (allelic: OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.58-2.67, P < .001; dominant: OR = 2.52, 95% CI = 1.73-3.69, P < .001; codominant: OR = 3.78, 95% CI = 2.50-5.70, P < .001; recessive: OR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.96-2.97, P < .001). Furthermore, stratifying data by ethnicity revealed substantially augmented vulnerability to DN in not only Caucasian but also Asian populations. CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that the C677T polymorphism was associated with an augmented susceptibility to DN.