Hesitancy among Iranian nursing students regarding future career trajectory: a qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: The shortage of skilled nurses is a major concern for health systems worldwide. This may be partly due to the hesitancy of some nurses to enter or remain in the nursing career. This shortage consequently reduces the quality of standard patient care, increases patients' length of stay in a hospital, increases medical costs, and results in patients' dissatisfaction. This study aimed to explore hesitancy among senior undergraduate nursing students to pursue a career in nursing. METHODS: This qualitative study adopted a thematic analysis approach. The population comprised senior undergraduate nursing students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, who indicated that they were hesitant to pursue a career in nursing. The study sampling was performed from May 2021 till February 2022 and continued until data saturation. Twenty-four interviews were conducted with the selected students. The attributes related to hesitancy among senior undergraduate nursing students to pursue a career in nursing were extracted as themes and sub-themes. RESULTS: Four themes were identified: academic idiosyncrasies, individual characteristics, poor nursing market regulations (sub-themes: nursing as a tough and intense career, and unfavorable employment contracts), and the peculiarities of the workplace (sub-themes: conflict within work environment, and barriers to professional nursing practice). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study showed that senior undergraduate nursing students weigh their future career options from various academic, personal, professional, and work environment dimensions. The findings provide new insights for decision makers to design and implement innovative strategies to promote retention in nursing careers. We recommend to provide academic counseling for all students and applicants of nursing before they enter the nursing education. Furthermore, we suggest to improve study and work environments, and to implement incentive programs to enhance enthusiasm of nursing students for pursuing a nursing career.

Quality of life in bladder cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, bladder cancer (BC) has been regarded as the tenth most common cancer with more than 573 000 new cases in 2020. This research presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the quality of life (QOL) among patients with BC. METHODS: The study was designed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A total of 11 articles were extracted from a literature search conducted through electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science from the onset of January 2000 to June 2022. A random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled QOL in patients with BC. RESULTS: We included 11 primary studies in the final meta-analysis. Based on random effect analysis, total score of QOL was 53.92 (95% CI: 47.84 to 60) representing a moderate level of QOL among patients. Based on the analysis, it was found that physical items with a score of 49.82 (95% CI: 45.8 to 53.84) had a lower score in comparison with mental items at a score of 52 (95% CI: 49.54 to 54.47). In addition, the item of role limitations due to physical health with a score of 46.26 (95% CI: 20.11 to 72.41), and social functioning with a score of 46.25 (95% CI: 18.85 to 73.66), respectively, had the lowest QOL in patients with BC. CONCLUSION: Generally, the QOL among patients with BC was in a moderate condition, which can be improved through determining the influencing factors on QOL as a crucial strategy to define future treatment procedures in an effective manner.