A qualitative exploration of barriers to narrative nursing practice among early-career nurses

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.