No abstract

Introduction The majority of newly graduated nurses are not prepared to work at the bedside; therefore, they may not have the appropriate self-confidence. Objective(s) The present qualitative study aimed to explain the novice nurses’ experience of weak professional confidence. Design This qualitative study was performed using a content analysis method. Methods Content analysis was utilized to identify themes from interview transcripts. They were included in the study by purposeful sampling. Participants were interviewed through face-to-face and unstructured interviews. All data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed based on the Graneheim and Lundman method. Results Thirteen nurses participated in interviews. After data collection, all interviews were implemented and reviewed and the categories and subcategories were extracted. Three main categories containing turbulence in working life, unpleasant interactions, and lack of knowledge were extracted. Conclusion According to the study findings, most novice nurses experienced turbulence in their working life, unpleasant interactions, and a lack of knowledge that affected their self-confidence. Therefore, educational and support programs are suggested to improve novice nurses’ professional confidence. Relevance to Clinical Practice According to the results of the study, the lack of self-confidence in novice nurses reduces the quality of care. Therefore, taking into account the experiences of the participants, nursing education managers should plan in such a way as to improve the self-confidence of the graduates. In addition, novice nurses need to be supported by their managers and colleagues to develop their professional confidence to provide more effective care.

Background Iran has experienced an increasing number of earthquake in the past three decades. Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers that play an important role in responding to disasters. Based on previous studies, they experienced challenges providing care in the previous disasters. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the nursing challenges to provide care to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake, Iran. Methods This is a qualitative study with conventional content analysis using Granheim and Landman approach. In this study, 16 nurses involved in providing care to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake were selected by purposeful sampling method. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln were used to ensure the validity of the study. Results Data analysis led to the emergence of 453 primary codes, 14 subcategories, and 5 categories. The five categories were as follows: (a) organizational and managerial challenges; (b) human resources; (c) infrastructure; (d) educational preparations; (e) and ethical. Conclusions The results of this study showed that nurses faced several challenges in providing care to earthquake victims. Based on these findings, better educational management and planning, infrastructure reform, and establishment of a crisis nursing national team seem necessary.

Missing data is a challenge in many applications, including intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In this paper, we study traffic speed and travel time estimations in ITS, where portions of collected data are missing due to sensor instability and communication errors at collection points. These practical issues can be remediated by missing data analysis, which are mainly categorized as either statistical or machine learning (ML)-based approaches. Statistical methods require the priori probability distribution of the data which is unknown in our application. Therefore, we focus on an ML-based approach, Multi-Directional Recurrent Neural Network (M-RNN). M-RNN utilizes both temporal and spatial characteristics of the data. We evaluate the effectiveness of this approach on a TomTom dataset containing spatio-temporal measurements of average vehicle speed and travel time in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). We evaluate the method under various conditions, where the results demonstrate that M-RNN outperforms existing solutions, e.g., spline interpolation and matrix completion, by up to 58% decreases in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE).

Background: Iran has experienced an increasing number of earthquake disasters in the past three decades. Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers that play an important role in responding to disasters. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the nursing challenges to provide cares to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake, Iran. Methods: The present study was conducted as a qualitative conventional content analysis, and data collection was carried out through 16 semi‑structured and in‑depth interviews with the nurses involved in providing cares to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake.The data were analyzed following Graneheim and Lundman’s approach. Results: Data analysis led to the emergence of 453 primary codes, 14 subcategories, and 5 categories. The five categories were as follows: (a) organizational and managerial challenges; (b) human resources; (c) infrastructure; (d) educational system; (e) and ethical. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that nurses faced with several challenges in providing care to earthquake victims. Based on these findings, better educational management and planning, infrastructure reform, and establishment of a crisis nursing national team seem absolutely necessary.

Background: The Relative Value Unit (RVU) is a value scale and plays a key role in the physician reimbursement system. The health sector has faced challenges such as providers’ dissatisfaction, income disparities, and reduced service quality which is said to be due to improper RVUs. Always there are debates about it. This study aims to identify the challenges of the RVU experience in Iran from the perspective of the service providers, payers and, policymakers. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in 2020. Data were collected from November 2019 to February 2020. Thirty experts participated in the study and were categorized into four groups: insurance organizations’ managers, surgeons, health economists, and health policymakers. Focus Group Discussions and semi-structured interviews were held to collect data. Content analysis was conducted to analyze data. Results: According to the expert, the challenges of RVU in Iran are classified into five scopes. Financial, payment, macro-organization, regulation, and persuasion scope. Each scope’s result was categorized into main themes and relevant sub-themes. Conclusions: The RVU has an important impact on the health system, provider behavior, and even patients. Paying attention to required infrastructures, decision- makers’ conflict of interests, decrease the Ministry of Health and Medical Education’s authority, and expanding the active role of involved organizations to increase their commitment to the successful implantation of RVU is necessary. Keywords: Relative Value Unit, Challenge, Expert opinion, Qualitative study, Iran.

Background: in Iran, it has experienced an enormous number of earthquake disasters during the past three decades. Nurses are the largest group of health systems that play a crucial role in handling disasters. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore the nursing challenges to provide care to the injured patients of the earthquake of Kermanshah-Iran. Methods: This study was conducted as a qualitative content analysis. Data collection was carried out through 16 semi‑structured and in‑depth interviews with the nurses involved in the care of the earthquake victims. Data were managed using MAXQDA software and analyzed by Graneheim and Lundman’s approach.Results: in this study, fourteen subcategories, and five categories have emerged from 453 codes. The categories were: (a) organizational and managerial challenges; (b) human resources; (c) infrastructure; (d) educational system; and (e) ethical challenges.Conclusion: The results showed that nurses confronted with several challenges in the care of earthquake victims. It appears better educational management and planning of nurses, infrastructure reform, and establishment of a crisis team among national nurses are necessary to overcome the challenges.

Background: Iran has experienced an increasing number of earthquake disasters in the past three decades. Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers that play an important role in responding to disasters. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the nursing challenges to provide care to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake, Iran. Methods: The present study was conducted as a qualitative conventional content analysis, and data collection was carried out through 16 semi‑structured and in‑depth interviews with the nurses involved in providing care to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake. The data were analyzed following Graneheim and Lundman’s approach.Results: Data analysis led to the emergence of 453 primary codes, 14 subcategories, and 5 categories. The five categories were as follows: (a) organizational and managerial challenges; (b) human resources; (c) infrastructure; (d) educational system; (e) and ethical.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that nurses faced several challenges in providing care to earthquake victims. Based on these findings, better educational management and planning, infrastructure reform, and establishment of a crisis nursing national team seem necessary.