Li Zhang

To explore the barriers faced by early-career nurses in practicing narrative nursing, covering individual competence, patient cooperation, institutional support, and sociocultural factors, aiming to provide theoretical and practical references for enhancing nurses’ humanistic care ability, optimizing nurse-patient relationships, and improving care quality. A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted using purposive sampling to select seven early-career nurses from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University between March and June 2024. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were performed, and data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step method to extract themes. Four major themes and ten subthemes were identified: (1) weak narrative competence among early-career nurses, manifested as the gap between theory and practice, insufficient communication in complex situations, and difficulty in emotional regulation; (2) limited patient understanding and cooperation, including communication barriers and lack of trust; (3) constrained objective conditions, such as high workload, lack of training, and insufficient humanistic atmosphere; (4) sociocultural factors affecting narrative nursing implementation, including imbalance between treatment and humanistic needs and reduced nurse-patient interaction willingness due to negative events. Insufficient narrative competence of early-career nurses and low patient cooperation are the main obstacles to promoting narrative nursing. Targeted training, improving patient awareness, strengthening institutional support, and fostering a positive humanistic environment can effectively enhance nurses’ humanistic care abilities and optimize nurse-patient relationships. Not applicable.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of barriers and facilitators to the implementation of narrative nursing by junior nurses. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from October 2023 to February 2024. Data were thematically analyzed using the Colaizzi seven-step method. Five barriers and 3 facilitators to the implementation of narrative nursing by junior nurses emerged in the study. Relevant barriers include lack of practical skills related to narrative nursing, neglect of the concept of humanistic care, negative events, high workload for junior nurses, restricted implementation environment. The facilitators contain patients’ and family members’ trust, training related to knowledge and skills, as well as harmonious and cooperative working atmosphere. There is still room for improvement in the implementation of narrative nursing for junior nurses, and the systematic training of narrative nursing knowledge and skills should be enhanced; the medical humanistic environment should be optimized; and the psychological resilience of junior nurses should be improved, so as to encourage them to actively implement narrative nursing at the early stage of their careers, and to deepen the high-quality development of nursing humanism.

Purpose: One of the current challenges facing cancer gene therapy is the tumour-specific targeting of therapeutic genes. Effective targeting in gene therapy requires accurate spatial and temporal control of gene expression. To develop a sufficient and accurate tumour-targeting method for cancer gene therapy, we have investigated the use of hyperthermia to control the expression of a transgene under the control of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter and eight heat shock elements (8HSEs). Materials and methods: Luciferase reporters were constructed by inserting eight HSEs and the hTERT promoter (8HSEs-hTERTp) upstream of the pGL4.20 vector luciferase gene. The luciferase activity of the hTERT promoter and 8HSEs-hTERT promoter were then compared in the presence and absence of heat. The differences in luciferase activity were analysed using dual luciferase assays in SW480 (high hTERT expression), MKN28 and MRC-5 cells (low hTERT expression). The luciferase activity of the Hsp70B promoter was also compared to the 8HSEs-hTERT promoter in the above listed cell lines. Lentiviral vector and heat-induced expression of EGFP expression under the control of the 8HSEs-hTERT promoter in cultured cells and mouse tumour xenografts was measured by reverse transcription polymerase (RT-PCR), Western blot and immunofluorescence assays. Results: hTERT promoter activity was higher in SW480 cells than in MKN28 or MRC-5 cells. At 43 °C, the luciferase activity of the 8HSEs-hTERT promoter was significantly increased in SW480 cells, but not in MKN28 or MRC-5 cells. Importantly, the differences in luciferase activity were much more obvious in both high (SW480) and low (MKN28 and MRC-5) hTERT expressing cells when the activity of the 8HSEs-hTERT promoter was compared to the Hsp70B promoter. Moreover, under the control of 8HSEs-hTERT promoter in vitro and in vivo, EGFP expression was obviously increased by heat treatment in SW480 cells but not in MKN28 or MRC-5 cells, nor was expression increased under normal temperature conditions. Conclusions: The hTERT promoter is a potentially powerful tumour-specific promoter and gene therapy tool for cancer treatment. Incorporating heat-inducible therapeutic elements (8HSEs) into the hTERT promoter may enhance the efficiency and specificity of cancer targeting gene therapy under hyperthermic clinical conditions.