Journal of Qualitative Research in Health Sciences
Volume:12 Issue: 4, Winter 2023

Clinical evaluation in medical sciences is one of the important components of education. One of these evaluations is the clinical assessment for final-year nursing students when they are going to graduate and start their profession. To this end, this study aimed to explore the experiences of nursing professors and students regarding the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

This qualitative study was conducted using a content analysis approach on 7 nursing professors and 21 nursing students who completed OSCE in 2019 at the Nursing and Midwifery School of Guilan University of Medical Sciences in northern Iran. The participants were selected using purposive sampling and the data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. The collected data were analyzed using the content analysis approach proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. The credibility of the findings was checked using the criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln.

The data analysis revealed 3 main categories and 10 subcategories: OSCE as a highly efficient test(the requirement for reviewing the courses, student benchmarking, and randomly arranged questions), OSCE challenges (the low assessment ability of the test, the influence of the nursing instructor’s prior knowledge, and having little practical experience), the solutions to improve OSCE (diversification of evaluation techniques, shortening the distance between theory and practice, the effectiveness of the OSCE scores for graduation, and the application of stress reduction methods).

Despite some problems such as its stressful nature and its unknown format for students, OSCE seems to be effective for the clinical assessment of students before their graduation. Taking advantage of the professors’ and students’ perspectives can eliminate or reduce the problems and improve the positive points for planning and conducting the OSCE in the future.

Emotional eating is harmful to health and is highly prevalent in obese women. Hence, an awareness of factors underlying emotional eating is important for weight management and maintaining women’s health. Research evidence indicates that several factors contribute to emotional eating behavior. The present study aimed to explore obese young Iranian women’s lived experiences of social and linguistic factors shaping emotional eating behavior. This qualitative and hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted on 17 young women living in Kermanshah or Karaj, Iran who experienced emotional eating and had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and higher. The participants were selected using purposive sampling with maximum variation in terms of demographic characteristics. The data were collected through in-depth individual and face-to-face interviews and analyzed using Dickelman et al’s seven-step phenomenological approach. The data analysis revealed that social and linguistic factors underlying emotional eating behavior can be explained by two themes including social influence and linguistic culture. Social influence further accounted for compensating for the stigma of thinness, relieving the stigma of obesity, group conformity, and following taboos to cope with sexual and emotional desires. In addition, linguistic culture was explained by two subthemes including associating grieving with eating and the metaphor of swallowing anger. Following the findings of the study, psychotherapy interventions can be planned to address emotional eating and weight management with a focus on the role of social influence and the effects of spoken language in the development of emotional eating behavior.

Transgender people and those who have an undifferentiated gender identity face various personal and social challenges due to their dissatisfaction with the gender role and the desire to behave differently from the gender role. Thus, focusing on this group of people is one of the issues in health and psychology. To this end, the present study aimed to explore more deeply the challenges and problems faced by this group of people. This qualitative study was conducted based on the grounded theory proposed by Corbin and Strauss on 15 members of social networks and the Association of People with Gender Dissatisfaction. The participants were selected through purposive sampling from among those with undifferentiated gender identities from childhood to adulthood. The data were collected via individual in-depth interviews with the participants. The collected data were analyzed using the systematic grounded theory approach to extract related categories and codes and develop a conceptual model. The analysis of the data revealed 54 themes that were grouped into 9 subcategories and 5 main categories. Gender affirming was extracted as the core phenomenon. The causal factors included the feeling of living in another person’s body and problems in social relationships. Contextual factors were divided into 4 subcategories including family challenges, positive and negative public reactions, peer relationship problems, and economic challenges. The intervening factors were school problems and the role of media. In addition, the consequences were the positive and negative experiences of life in another body. Finally, the extracted strategies were support and individual coping strategies. Social factors and family and school play an important role in aggravating the problems of people with gender dissatisfaction. Focusing on empowering these people can help them adopt effective coping strategies. Besides, given the lack of recognition for people with gender dissatisfaction, raising public awareness of the challenges faced by these people is particularly important.

The large-scale spread of COVID-19 affected communities with many deaths worldwide causing significant concerns. Due to being on the front line of fighting against this disease, a great number of healthcare providers lost their lives. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the changes in nurses’ behavior and practice while taking care of COVID-19 patients. The present study was conducted using a qualitative conventional content analysis approach in 2020-2021. The participants were 14 nurses taking care of COVID-19 patients in the infectious diseases wards of a teaching hospital affiliated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through interviews with the nurses, and data collection continued until data saturation. The collected data were analyzed based on the steps proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. After recording and transcribing the interviews, the participants’ statements were categorized into semantic units. Data analysis was performed using MAXQDA-10 software. The majority of nurses reported significant behavioral changes that were categorized into five main themes including intensification of protective measures and increase in concentration, emergence of mental and psychological symptoms, increase in the sense of responsibility towards the family, recourse to prayer and religious rituals, and increased empathy with patients. The most important behavioral changes of nurses as a result of the COVID-19 crisis were the intensification of personal protective measures, the emergence of mental and emotional symptoms, the increase in the sense of responsibility towards the family, resorting to prayer and religious rituals, and increased empathy with patients. Providing material and spiritual incentives as well as support to personnel to increase their motivation and work productivity should be taken into consideration by officials during epidemics. Moreover, actions such as providing free psychological counseling are suggested to calm the personnel.

Clinical education is a critical stage of education and plays a major role in shaping students’ professional competencies. The clinical learning environment has a complex nature and has a significant impact on students, especially newly admitted ones. Thus, the initial experience in clinical settings will significantly affect the student’s performance. To this end, this study sought to explore the experiences of surgical technology students of their first appearance in the operating room. This qualitative study was conducted using a descriptive phenomenological approach. The participants were 15 second- and third-semester students of surgical technology who entered the study through purposive sampling. The data were collected through individual interviews. Data analysis was performed simultaneously with data collection through Colaizzi’s seven-step content analysis method. A total of 101 primary codes were extracted from the collected data. The extracted codes were grouped into 7 subcategories. After removing duplicate codes, 3 main themes were revealed from the participants’ experiences (conflicting perceptions in the learning environment, preparedness before attending the operating room, and feelings and emotions). The students’ experiences of their first appearance in the operating room indicated that their expectations changed compared to what they imagined. The stressful nature of surgical technology and the students’ experiences when starting the internship highlight the need for some necessary measures to prepare students before entering the hospital and to improve the quality of clinical education for these students.

Although the vital role of early diagnosing, and properly controlling hypertension has been emphasized for decades, a large number of hypertension patients still encounter barriers and challenges in accessing qualified cares. This study examined and identified barriers, facilitators, and challenges of providing high-quality care for patients with hypertension in health centers in Tabriz, Iran. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted based on purposive sampling. The participants in this study included health care workers at health centers, patients with hypertension, and health centers managers at official positions (n = 19). Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. Collected data was analyzed thematically. The mean duration of the interviews was 40 minutes (range: 30 to 60 minutes). The barriers were categorized into areas (sub-themes) of patient-related and health-center barriers. Facilitators included patient-related factors, external and environmental activities of health centers, and activities of Iranian health system. Furthermore, the challenges were categorized into (sub-themes) patient-related, environmental, and health system challenges. There are major barriers and challenges in providing qualified and comprehensive services for patients with hypertension. Stakeholders should consider removing these barriers and challenges, and facilitators should be used to provide health services to hypertension patients.

Pediatric nurses are responsible for caring for children and their families; thus, investigating missed care in the pediatric ward is important and helps to improve the quality of care. Accordingly, this study aimed to explain the perceptions of pediatric nurses about missed care. This study was conducted using content analysis on 15 pediatric nurses selected by purposive sampling. The data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. After obtaining informed consent, interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. MAXQDA software (version 10) was used to facilitate coding and thematic analysis. Four main categories emerged from the data analysis, including missed family-centered care, unsafe care, predisposing factors, and adverse outcomes. The findings showed that from the perspective of pediatric nurses, missed care occurs in different dimensions, including psychological support, communication, education, assessment, drug treatment, and infection control, and it can ultimately lead to mother’s dissatisfaction and bring about adverse effects on the child’s recovery besides harming the nurse.

Falling is a significant cause of occupational injuries and fatalities among farmers, and falling from trees is one of the most common causes of injury resulting in a high number of visits to health centers. Despite this, there is limited evidence on the factors associated with falling from walnut trees. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors that contribute to falling from walnut trees from the perspective of farmers and farmworkers. This qualitative study was conducted using conventional content analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 farmers and farmworkers who had experienced falling from walnut trees as recorded in the National Accidents Record Program from September to October 2017 in Tuyserkan county, Iran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. Moreover, data rigor was ensured through participant and external checks. All interviews were recorded and analyzed using content analysis methods. Data analysis led to the extraction of six themes, including psychological factors, physical factors, behavioral and habitual factors, economic factors, factors related to walnut trees, and atmospheric agents, along with 18 subthemes for behavioral, human, and environmental factors. The findings of this study suggest that with appropriate interventions and training, farmers and farmworkers can be guided and assisted so as to prevent the occurrence of falling from walnut trees. In addition to educational interventions, health promotion measures such as providing safety equipment and insurance coverage can be essential in reducing injuries.