Unmet Needs, Pain, Shame, Regret, and Loss of Identity among Men with Urethral Injuries Resulting from Traffic Accidents; A Qualitative Study.

Abstract

Urethral injuries are the most severe injuries caused by high-energy mechanisms such as traffic accidents, which have significant long-term serious consequences on the quality of life of the injured. Exploration of lived experiences of urethral injury in traffic accident victims is the main goal of this study. This is a phenomenological qualitative study among men suffering from urethral injuries due to traffic accidents and referred to hospitals for urethroplasty in Iran. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted with 15-59-year-old injured men from August 2022 to May 2023 using a semi-structured questionnaire at Shohada Hospital, considering maximum variation and achieving saturation. For data analysis, Colizzi's analysis method was implemented in MaxQDA2020. Lincoln's and Guba's criteria were assessed to achieve the trustworthiness of the study. Five main themes emerged from the interviews: Urethral Injury resulting from traffic accidents as a Complex, Unknown Problem with a general lack of public awareness, Unpleasant Experience with Permanent Suffering from pain, shame, regret, isolation, Urethral Injury Causes Regret and Loss of Normalcy, Impact on Sexual and Social Identity, and its long-term consequences as neglected health and socio-economic issues are the unmet needs of the injured patients. The majority of expressions related to low public awareness and poor infrastructure. There are needs neglected by public services, especially health care services. Alongside wresting with these issues, considering policies to support this vulnerable people, and their well-being, quality of life and prevent further damage in terms of physical, social and mental health is an axiom.