Dignity-based care and infertility treatment: A qualitative study

The treatment of infertile people is generally time-consuming and requires frequent and long-term visits and providing dignity-based services. Due to the different perceptions and experiences of people and the lack of a specific study to explain the concept of dignity-based care, this study aimed to explain the concept and dimensions of dignity-based care in infertility treatment services. This was a qualitative study with a conventional content analysis approach. Fifty participants (20 infertile women, 16 infertile men, and 14 key informants) were recruited using a purposive sampling method from an educational center of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and a private infertility center in Mazandaran -Iran in 2023. Sampling was continued until data saturation. Data were collected using in-depth and semi-structured individual interviews. The data were also analyzed using the conventional content analysis method and the steps suggested by Grandheim and Lundman. Also, Lincoln and Guba's criteria were used to check the trustworthiness of the data. The content analysis demonstrated 43 codes in 11 sub-categories and 4 categories. These categories are "conserving dignity in providing care", "making the information accessible and obtaining informed consent for care procedure", "providing professional care and standard services", and considering cultural and social aspects of infertility. The categories were used to explain the concept and dimensions of dignity-based care in infertility treatment services which are showing the multidimensional aspects of this concept. Dignity-based care in infertility treatment services means "conserving dignity in providing care services; making the information accessible and obtaining informed consent for care procedure; providing professional care and standard services; and considering cultural and social aspects of infertility." This concept can be used in future policy-making and planning, and appropriate support should be taken into account to improve the quality of infertility treatment services.

BackgroundVolunteers providing nursing services are among the first individuals to arrive at the scene after an incident; therefore, they must use their skills and capabilities to provide necessary care for the injured to prevent problems from worsening and complications from arising. Consequently, having structured empowerment courses for volunteers before disasters seems essential. This research aimed to determine the dimensions and components of empowering volunteer nursing service providers in disasters.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted using a conventional qualitative content analysis approach. Purposeful sampling with maximum variation continued until data saturation was achieved. The participants in this study were 25 individuals. Data collection was performed using semi-structured interviews. The conventional content analysis approach by Graneheim and Lundman was utilized for data analysis. After each interview, the text was entered into MAXQDA software version 2020, and semantic units were identified and coded, with codes categorized based on their similarities. To ensure the data’s trustworthiness, we applied key criteria including credibility, dependability, confirmability, transferability, and Authenticity throughout the research process.ResultsAmong the 25 participants, 16 were male, and nine were female. The Mean age was 45.2 ± 5.6 years, and the Mean work experience was 19.08 ± 4.5 years. After coding the interviews, 253 initial codes were extracted. By merging these codes, 43 subcategories, 15 categories, and six themes were identified. Extracted themes include Infrastructure Initiatives, Effective management, Research development and knowledge management, Cultural Action Measures, Policymaking and legal affairs, Individual Competency Areas.ConclusionsThis study highlights the various dimensions and components that empower volunteers providing nursing services during disasters. Training and coordination between nursing managers and other leaders in health sectors are needed to ensure that these volunteers are equipped to provide frontline care in emergencies. Healthcare managers and policymakers can use this study’s results to create supportive legislation and training programs to enhance the capabilities of volunteer nursing providers in disasters.

Background and objectivePregnancy-related physiologic and psychosocial alterations can impact on the body and cause symptoms which may affect quality of life. Since qualitative studies can provide more in-depth understanding of quality of life and its determining factors, this study was conducted with the aim of exploring factors affecting pregnant women’s quality of life.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study with conventional content analysis approach was made using the conventional content analysis approach on a purposeful sample of sixteen pregnant Iranian women in Hamadan, Iran from May 2015 to December 2015. Sampling was continued until data saturation. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured personal interviews, and were analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach.ResultsData analysis resulted in three main categories, namely, the effects of pregnancy on different aspects of health (including psychological disorders, impaired interactions, disturbances in doing daily activities, disturbed body image, alterations in sexual relationships, physical disorders, and alterations in dietary habits and treatment regimens), pregnancy-related concerns (regarding the gender of the fetus, financial problems, childbirth, health, and the future), and coping with pregnancy (through strategies such as spirituality, positive attitude toward pregnancy, distraction and imagination, and support).ConclusionsThis study showed that different factors can affect pregnant women’s quality of life. Nonetheless, prenatal care services are mainly focused on pregnancy-related physical problems, and other aspects of care are usually taken for granted. Consequently, healthcare professionals need to pay greater attention to pregnant women’s quality of life and its contributing factors.

BACKGROUND:Education development centers (EDCs) have a vital role in improving the quality of medical education. This study was conducted with the aim of discovering educational leadership characteristics in EDCs.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This study was carried out with a qualitative approach and using a conventional content analysis method. The sampling was purposive. Twenty-four faculty members, managers, and experts of EDCs in the universities of medical sciences included 13 males and 11 females participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were utilized for data collection. The conventional content analysis approach was utilized to analyze the data.RESULTS:From the data analysis, two categories included “personality characteristics” and “job characteristics” and six subcategories included reliabilism, humanness and altruism, accountability, decisiveness, dynamism and perfectionism, and knowledge, experience, and expertise and 24 codes were extracted.CONCLUSION:Results obtained in the present study will help to increase the awareness of the educational leaders of the EDCs in improving their personality and job skills and this will lead to the qualitative development of educational leadership.

Living with multiple sclerosis (MS) often needs attention combined with receiving the holistic care. Attention to spiritual care dimension is one of the most important aspects of care for these patients. This study aims at exploring and explaining dimensions of spiritual care for MS patients in care system of Iran. This study is conducted to explore the concept of spiritual care in care system of Iran during 2015-2016. Purposive sampling is done on 25 participants through unstructured interviews and observation of obtained data through conventional content analysis approach. Four themes of participants' experiences in spiritual care include restoration of identity essence and nature; disease as a factor for nearness to God; giving meaning to life; and disease as a facilitator for self-purification. Clear understanding of spiritual care dimensions and promoting knowledge in MS nurses as the caregivers play important roles in achieving the goals of health among patients in different cultures and religions. Given the results of this study, the themes such as the restoration of identity essence and nature, the disease as a factor for nearness to God, giving meaning to life and the disease as a facilitator for self-purification play important roles in explaining the concept of spiritual care in patients with MS. Therefore, the MS nurses and other health professionals need to effectively and successfully integrate the concept of spiritual care with their professional performance by deep understanding of this concept and try to provide holistic care to respond to MS patients' intertwined needs.

BackgroundGiven the high-stakes environment of intensive care units, understanding how nurses navigate moral challenges and engage in ethical decision-making is critical for maintaining patient safety and care quality. One important process in this field is moral disengagement, which is growing in the nursing literature. However, there is a lack of foundational and qualitative studies addressing this issue. This study presents a qualitative content analysis aimed at exploring moral disengagement among nurses working in intensive care units.MethodThis qualitative study employed conventional content analysis from June to December 2024 in Tehran, Iran. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants. Data were collected using in-depth, unstructured interviews at the beginning, followed by semi-structured interviews. Sampling continued until data saturation was reached, resulting in 30 interviews with 25 eligible intensive care unit nurses. The conventional qualitative content analysis approach developed by Graneheim and Lundman was employed.ResultsThree main categories with eight subcategories were identified from the initial 765 codes. The findings revealed three main categories: “cognitive justification of unethical behavior,” “protective strategies for personal security,” and “normalization of unconventional practices.” These categories include subcategories such as “externalization of responsibility,” “moral-cognitive justification,” “positive reframing of the event,” “preservation of job position and security,” “psychological stabilization,” “strategic violation of regulations for survival,” “reduction of emotional and psychological pressure,” and “protective framing of behavior.”ConclusionThis study reveals various aspects of moral disengagement among critical care nurses, which can pave the way for future studies to better understand the phenomenon, its related factors, and help with the development of preventive measures.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12910-025-01282-6.

One of the global crises that people are dealing with today is the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak of this disease as a social phenomenon has affected all aspects of life. This study aimed to identify adult people's experiences during the COVID-19 outbreak. This qualitative research was performed with a conventional qualitative content analysis approach in Mashhad, Iran, from April to November 2020. twenty-five participants were selected through a purposeful sampling method with maximum diversity until data saturation was reached. Data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews with open-end questions and analyzed with MAXQDA10 software. Two main categories were extracted (1) difficulties in multiple domains (psychological and informational problems, social challenges, spiritual and religious challenges, and economic problems), (2) adaptation to the epidemic (purposive self-care, ignoring the disease and health instructions, faith in God and optimism). The participants faced extensive challenges, which were made worse by the confusion and ambiguity about the information, quarantine, and social isolation. To continue living, the participants tried to adapt to situations. These results provide a guiding framework for policymaking and intervention.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis, and health systems worldwide have faced numerous challenges in containing it. This study aimed to identify the challenges faced by the Iranian health system in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA conventional content analysis approach was employed in this qualitative study. The research sample included experts responsible for managing, making decisions about preventing COVID-19, and caring for and treating patients. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants. Data saturation was achieved after 29 interviews. Additionally, conventional content analysis was applied for data analysis.ResultsThe participants in this study identified the most significant challenges faced by Iran's health system in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, including issues related to human resources, physical and organizational structures, financial resources, inter-sectoral collaboration, personal protective equipment (PPE), social responsibility, and information services.ConclusionsIdentifying these challenges can help health system managers prioritize the most critical issues. Addressing these challenges requires more than just the efforts of health systems; cooperation at the macro governance level is essential. Governments should start planning to formulate appropriate strategies.

Background: Medical professional identity is how an individual perceives him/herself as a doctor. Formation of professional identity includes development, advancement, and socialization through social learning of specific knowledge, skills obtained while performing professional roles, practicing, and new attitudes and values. A qualitative study was performed to examine live experience of undergraduate medical science students with regards to obtaining professional identity.Methods: This qualitative study was performed using a conventional content analysis method. Participants were students who were studying medicine at Iran University of Medical Sciences. Sampling was done based on a purposeful sampling method. A total of 23 students took part in semi-structured interviews until data saturation was reached. The interviews were transcribed verbatim. Also, to develop themes, data were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Moreover, data management was done using MAXQDA software.Results: Based on data analysis, 2 main themes were as follow: meaningful medical practice" and "professional medical practice". The first theme had 3 categories: (i) self-insight; (ii) manner; and (iii) values and beliefs. The second theme had 2 categories: (i) professionalism; and (ii) holistic view of medicine.Conclusion: Certain individual characteristics and personality type were factors that affected participants’ choice of their field of study. The participants’ understanding of their profession was formed, not only by studying in the university through learning relevant knowledge, skills, and practice, but also by perceived attitude, views, and values in their profession.

Couples’ tendency towards voluntary single-childedness and childlessness (VSCC) has turned into a major challenge in all societies and led to different problems such as population aging. A key step to VSCC management is to determine its contributing factors through valid and reliable instruments. This exploratory sequential mixed method study (qualitative-quantitative) was conducted in 2020–2021. Phases of qualitative consists of all couples aged 15–49 in Babol, Iran, who were single or childless. Sampling is based on the purpose, and the number of samples is 20 couples. To collect data, face-to-face and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. Sampling continued until data saturation. The data were analyzed by the conventional content analysis method and quantitative phase. Initially, a qualitative study was conducted on twenty couples, and were analyzed through conventional content analysis. Findings were used to develop QFT-VSCC and then, the face, content, and construct validity as well as reliability were assessed. Construct validity was assessed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability was assessed through internal consistency and stability assessments. The results of the qualitative part analysis consist of 140 codes, 30 primary categories, and nine main categories and two themes (individual limitations and social limitations). The primary QFT-VSCC had 78 items. Fifty-eight items were omitted during validity assessment and the remaining twenty-two items were loaded on five factors during factor analysis. These factors were threatened priorities, inappropriate familial context for childbearing, sense of occupational and social insecurity for the child, social modeling of childlessness, and tendency towards change or stability in marital life. The five factors explained 52.56% of the total variance. All model fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis were acceptable and the Cronbach’s alpha values of QFT-VSCC and all its factors were more than 0.70. The results of convergent validity analysis revealed that all factors had an AVE value greater than 0.5, and the HTMT index for all factors was less than 0.85. This indicated that discriminant validity had been achieved. QFT-VSCC is a simple valid and reliable instrument for VSCC assessment among both men and women.

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease with no specific and definitive drug treatment. With the COVID-19 outbreak, traditional and folk methods were used for its treatment. This study was conducted to explore people's experiences of using traditional and folk medicine for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in Iran. This qualitative study was conducted on 37 people in Arak (Iran) from May to November 2020 using a conventional content analysis approach. The participants were selected using cluster sampling and interviewed using semistructured telephone interviews. After transcribing the interviews, they were analyzed using content analysis. Accordingly, semantic units were identified, related codes were extracted and placed in subcategories and categories based on similarities, and themes were formed. The interviews continued until data saturation. After analyzing the collected data, 116 different codes were extracted and classified into two subcategories of pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. Then, each of the subcategories was classified into two categories: conventional medicine and traditional medicine. Finally, two main themes were obtained, including prevention methods and self-treatment methods for COVID-19. People use various traditional and folk methods for COVID-19 prevention and treatment. Such methods can be either useful or lack the necessary effectiveness and have side effects. Thus, necessary training should be provided to the public about using these methods and avoiding unapproved treatments.

Background:Effective first aid and transportation influences injury-induced mortality. But few qualitative studies have been conducted so far in this area.Objectives:The aim of this study was to identify the content of the first aid and patient transportation course based on experience gained from the Iran-Iraq war.Patients and Methods:This was a conventional qualitative content analysis study; a purposeful sample of 14 first aid and transportation experts who had worked during the Iran-Iraq war was recruited. We collected and analyzed the study data by using the semi-structured interview method and the conventional content analysis approach respectively. Each interview transcript was reviewed several times. Words, sentences, and paragraphs were labeled with codes. Codes were compared with each other and categorized according to their similarities. Similar sub-categories and categories were also grouped together and formed themes.Results:Study participants’ experiences of wartime first aid and transportation (FAT) education fell into two main themes including ‘the congruence of education and educational needs’ and ‘managers’ engagement in FAT education. The four main categories of these two themes were use of appropriate educational facilities, adopting effective teaching strategies, universal FAT education and specialized training skills.Conclusions:The two key requirements of the first aid and transportation courses are practicality and managerial engagement. We developed and provided specific guidance of FAT curriculum by using the study findings. This curriculum is recommended for educating FAT staffs, paramedics, emergency technicians, and military nurses.

BackgroundLove of the profession has significant relationship with nurses’ job motivation and care quality. However, there is limited information about organizational and environmental factors affecting love of the profession among nurses.AimThis study aimed at exploring nurses’ experiences of the role of organizational and environmental factors in the development of love of the profession.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted in 2020–2021 using the conventional content analysis approach. Participants were Fifteen Iranian nurses with deep love of the profession, nursing instructors, and nursing managers purposefully selected from different healthcare and academic settings in seven large cities of Iran. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews and were analyzed via the conventional content analysis method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman.ResultsOrganizational and environmental factors affecting the development of love of the profession were grouped into three main categories: The social context of the profession (with two subcategories), family support (with two subcategories), and organizational health (with four subcategories). Subcategories were respectively historical context of the profession, the evolving context, emotional family support, instrumental family support, quality of interpersonal relationships in the organization, level of organizational justice, level of authority delegation to nurses, and level of organizational support.ConclusionDifferent organizational and environmental factors can affect nurses’ love of the profession development. Improving public image of nursing, providing nurses with stronger support, improving organizational climate, and strengthening interpersonal relationships in healthcare settings are recommended to develop nurses’ Love of the profession.

Background:Nursing education is currently facing challenges related to the application of nursing knowledge in clinical environments and inability of students in application of nursing procedures in clinical settings. Nursing students themselves represent the best means of identifying these challenges. This study was conducted aimed to understand the nursing students’ viewpoints and experiences concerning the challenges and deficiencies of the nursing education system.Methods:This qualitative study that has been carried out adopting conventional qualitative content analysis approach, 40 senior nursing students with sufficient experience of educational situations participated through purposive sampling. Eight focus group discussions were done with volunteer nursing students from School of Nursing and Midwifery in Zahedan (Iran). All of the interviews and discussions were recorded and then analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach.Results:Three themes were emerged from data analysis including theoretical education, clinical skills, and the gap between theoretical education and clinical skills.Conclusions:The students’ views and experiences of nursing education quality (theoretical, clinical, and the gap between theoretical education and clinical skills) demonstrated a need to pay careful attention to the selection and recruitment of clinical teachers, and the assessment and control of their educational performance and clinical skills, as well as to determination of standards and validation of education quality.

Context: Nursing students must have the minimum necessary competencies to enter the nursing profession, and supervision in clinical education is one of the critical strategies to improve students' clinical skills. Clinical supervision in clinical education for nursing students leads to developing the desired standards in patient care. Accordingly, as was the objective of this study, an awareness of the challenges facing nursing instructors' clinical supervision can help improve the effectiveness of clinical supervision. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis approach. The participants were 18 individuals, including 11 instructors, three students, and four experienced nurses, who were selected using purposive sampling. The sampling process continued until data saturation. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed via the conventional content analysis approach. Results: Clinical supervision in nursing education is influenced by a non-constructive setting, which is characterized by (1) student overcrowding, (2) clinical education with limited equipment, (3) negative attitudes in the clinical setting, (4) physician-oriented education, and (5) the inefficiency of the education-treatment system to support students. Conclusions: Non-constructive supervisory settings disrupt the instructor's performance as a supervisor and increase the complexity of clinical supervision. Thus, recognizing the challenges in the environment and solving them by educational managers can pave the way for the effective implementation of clinical supervision in nursing education.