Purpose: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health concern among older adults in South Korea, where more than half of newly diagnosed TB patients are aged ≥65 years. Although medication adherence is essential for successful treatment outcomes, medication-taking experiences of older adults receiving anti-TB treatment remain underexplored. Hence, this study aimed to explore the medication-taking experiences of older adults with TB to understand their treatment-related challenges. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study using focus group interviews was conducted with 17 older adults aged ≥65 years receiving outpatient anti-TB treatment. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling and had been taking anti-TB medication for at least two weeks. Data were collected through five focus group interviews conducted between April and September 2025. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using conventional content analysis. Data collection and analysis were conducted concurrently until no new categories or meanings emerged. Results: Four categories and fourteen subcategories were identified. The first category, "Perceptions of TB and treatment in later life," reflected participants' unexpected diagnosis, negative perceptions of TB, and relief upon learning that TB is treatable. Participants often regarded TB as a disease of the past and struggled to understand why they had developed it in later life. The second category, "Burden of medication treatment endured by an aging body," described the burden of medication, physical side effects, psychological distress, and social withdrawal experienced during treatment. The third category, "Efforts to continue treatment" illustrated how participants adapted to their daily routines, persevered with treatment despite discomfort and side effects, and relied on family support as an important resource to continue treatment. The fourth category, "Information gaps and support needs during treatment", highlighted unmet needs for easy-to-understand information, emotional support, and practical caregiving assistance. Conclusion: Medication-taking experiences of older adults with TB involved changes in their perceptions of TB, enduring the burden of prolonged treatment, adapting to daily life to sustain treatment, and experiencing unmet needs for information and support. These findings highlight the need for age-friendly TB management that provides tailored education, continuous case management, and coordinated family and community support to promote the continuation of treatment.

Purpose: Most of the preceding studies on True Self Meditation (TSM) have been quantitative studies, and various effects have been verified, but there has been a limit to revealing the specific psychological mechanisms of the meditation experience. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the meaning and essential structure of the experience of mental training by grasping the psychological mechanism through which the experience of TSM leads to practical healing and change in life using phenomenological research methods. Methods: Study participants comprised 14 adults (10 women and 4 men) aged≥20 years. They ranged in age from their mid-20s to their 70s and had practiced TSM for at least one year. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling, and data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted between October 26, 2025, and March 26, 2026. Data were collected through interviews, which lasted from 35 min to 4.5 h, with an average duration of approximately 2 h per session. Each participant underwent two to three interviews. The interview data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s method. Results: Data analysis yielded 29 themes grouped into, 9 theme clusters, and 3 categories. The three categories were ‘Confronting the past and experiencing inner purification’, ‘Profound transformation of cognitive structures and changes in self-identity’, and ‘Transcending the Self and Recovering Human Nature’. Conclusion: TSM can be seen as a fundamental healing method that ultimately causes externally revealed symptoms to disappear; rather than merely focusing on those symptoms, it guides practitioners to deeply search for and empty their minds of all the underlying causes and background factors by repeatedly reflecting on their entire past life. It can be utilized as a powerful psychological self-healing mechanism that heals wounds, and at the same time, as a tool for self-development by cultivating potential competencies such as concentration and insight. It can also be regarded as an important methodology that leads to not only individual happiness but also harmony and coexistence within organizations and society by improving the quality of human relationships. In addition, through a continuous process of self-reflection and emptying, TSM can contribute to discovering the nature of a larger consciousness that transcends the individual self.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore in-depth the experiences of nurses placed on unpaid leave following the mass resignation of resident physicians and to interpret the essential structure of these experiences. Methods: Participants included 10 nurses who had been placed on unpaid leave for four weeks or longer due to medical disputes. Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted between November 8 and November 25, 2024. The collected data were analyzed using a conventional content analysis. Results: The study identified 18 themes and five theme clusters: ‘Redefining leave amidst an imposed crisis’, ‘Experiences of exhaustion recovery and emotional recharging,’ ‘Realistic anxiety and tension hindering rest,’ ‘Shifts in organizational and professional perception post-return,’ and ‘Institutionalizing autonomous and stable unpaid leave.’ Conclusion: This study explored the experiences of nurses who were placed on unpaid leave as a measure to mitigate hospital management crisises caused by the unprecedented mass resignation of resident physicians. Participants involuntarily selected unpaid leave in response to the hospital’s situation, utilizing a period of four weeks or longer for personal reasons such as health, childcare, and rest. During this time, they experienced genuine respite and restored their capacity to care for themselves and their surroundings. However, they simultaneously harbored concerns regarding job insecurity and the potential loss of future opportunities for leave. Upon returning to work, they gradually readjusted to their daily duties but expressed a strong desire for future unpaid leave systems to be based on autonomous choice. While this involuntary unpaid leave, implemented during a management crisis triggered by mass resignations of resident physicians, differs from conventional leave, it was found to provide a vital opportunity for nurses to alleviate job stress and achieve comprehensive physical and mental recovery. However, the fact that nurses, essential personnel in patient care, were pressured to take leave to resolve a management crisis led them to experience psychological contract breaches with the hospital organization. As such a breach can increase emotional exhaustion and decrease organizational trust, meticulous policymaking is required to maintain trust without inducing psychological contract violations. To ensure that unpaid leave is perceived as a form of compensation and welfare, securing adequate staffing must be prioritized, and a process for collecting opinions should precede implementation to ensure that nurses’ autonomy is not constrained.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore in-depth the lived experiences of infection control nurses by applying Max van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological methodology and to foster a comprehensive and profound understanding of their lives through the interpretation of the meanings embedded within those experiences. Methods: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. As part of the existential investigation, hermeneutic reflection was conducted using diverse phenomenological materials, including vlogs, novels, music, works of art, and photographs provided by participants. Data were collected through in-depth interviews conducted between January and August 2025. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data analysis followed van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological method. The holistic, selective, and detailed approaches to reading the texts were repeatedly employed until the essential meanings of the participants' narratives emerged, from which meaning units, themes, and the essential structure of the phenomenon were derived. Results: The study included 12 participants. Their mean clinical experience was nine years, and their mean experience in infection control was five years. Ultimately, 19 themes and six essential themes were identified. The essential themes were as follows: 'An embodied vigilance at the threshold of invisible infection,' 'A self-sacrificing body devoted to the safety of others,' 'A being in constant reconfiguration along the trajectories of infection,' 'A being that follows the unseen pathways of infection,' 'A time of growth through internalizing the mission of infection prevention,' and 'A relational being negotiating the responsibility for infection prevention between collaboration and tension.' The participants were highly sensitive to signs of infection throughout the hospital and proactively identified and responded to infection risks while maintaining constant vigilance. Although this way of living involves ongoing physical and psychological exhaustion, they continue to work out of responsibility for the safety of patients and healthcare workers. Participants continuously reorganized their physical spaces and work processes to prevent infection transmission, perceiving infection as a flow connecting the entire hospital and tracing its pathways and hidden linkages. Through reflection and accumulated experience, they internalized the mission of infection prevention and developed as professionals. Although they experienced conflict and burden in their relationships with others, they formed professional identities through ongoing negotiations, coordination, and collaboration. Conclusion: Infection control nurses continuously sensed and coordinated the entire hospital environment amid invisible infection risks, exhausting their bodies and lives to protect the safety of others. These findings suggest the need to make the invisible labor of infection control nurses visible, grounded in protection and ethical responsibility toward patients, and to reconceptualize their role as essential agents sustaining infection safety across healthcare organizations.

Purpose: This grounded theory study explored how psychiatric nurses continued working in psychiatric wards after experiencing patient-initiated physical violence and how they interpreted these experiences within their clinical contexts. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 nurses working in psychiatric wards in regions B and G of South Korea between June 21 and August 11, 2023. Data collection and analysis proceeded concurrently until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method and grounded theory procedures described by Strauss and Corbin. Open coding, axial coding, and selective coding were performed, and MAXQDA 10 was used to organize, compare, and manage the interview data. Results: The analysis yielded 34 concepts, 17 subcategories, and 10 categories. The core category was “redefining oneself beyond physical violence,” and the central phenomenon was “facing psychiatric symptoms beyond physical violence.” The causal conditions included experiencing physical violence and continuing to work. The contextual conditions included working in environments where violence was hard to avoid and being swayed by emotions, while the intervening condition involved recharging the capacity to provide care. The nurses used the action/interaction strategies of striving to continue working in psychiatric wards. The consequences included developing practical know-how, growing as a psychiatric nurse, and enduring while pretending to be unaffected. The process unfolded through three phases: acceptance, integration, and expansion. Movement between phases depended on repeated violence, emotional responses, reflection, and available support. The experience of continuing to work was classified into three types: stable, growth, and avoidance. In the stable type, nurses maintained balanced coping; in the growth type, they strengthened their professional competence; and in the avoidance type, they relied on distancing themselves and reducing direct involvement. These patterns demonstrated that continuing to work did not necessarily indicate recovery. Conclusion: Psychiatric nurses continued working after experiencing physical violence by interpreting patient-initiated violence in the context of psychiatric symptoms, regulating their emotions, adjusting their roles, and redefining themselves through balanced coping, enhanced professional competence and a strengthened professional identity, or defensive self-protection. Support should therefore be tailored to nurses’ differing patterns of adaptation, as continuing to work alone may conceal unresolved fear, emotional withdrawal, or reduced engagement in direct patient care after violence. These findings indicate the need for systematic education, ongoing individualized supervision, and organizational support structures for psychiatric nurses who have experienced physical violence.

Purpose: This study aimed to refine the concept of Ikigai among Korean older adults and to identify its attributes and empirical indicators within the Korean later-life context. Methods: This methodological study used Schwartz- Barcott and Kim’s hybrid concept development model. In the theoretical phase, the literature on Ikigai and related concepts was reviewed to identify preliminary attributes and empirical indicators. During the fieldwork phase, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six community-dwelling older adults. Interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, with interpretation supported by team-based analytic review and participant checking. In the final analytical phase, theoretical and fieldwork findings were compared and integrated to refine the concept. Results: Six attributes of Ikigai among Korean older adults were identified: Relational Sense of Place, Continuity of Daily Tasks, Joy and Vitality Through Being Together, Dignity Through Not Burdening Others, Adjusting the Heart and Accepting Life, and Fulfillment of a Well-Lived Life. The participants did not describe Ikigai primarily as an abstract purpose in life. Instead, it was expressed through everyday Korean language and concrete life contexts, including belonging in relationships, continuing daily tasks, enjoying life with others, living independently without burdening others, adjusting one’s heart and accepting life, and feeling proud of having lived well. These attributes indicated that Ikigai among Korean older adults was grounded in relationships, daily routines, embodied limitations, family responsibilities, social participation, self-reliant dignity, emotional adjustment, and retrospective acceptance of life. Conclusion: Ikigai among Korean older adults was defined as the experience of recognizing and sustaining one’s place and share within family, work, relationships, caregiving, and everyday life. It was expressed through six interrelated attributes: Relational Sense of Place; Continuity of Daily Tasks within one’s physical capacity; Joy and Vitality Through Being Together; Dignity Through Not Burdening Others; Adjusting the Heart and Accepting Life; and Fulfillment of a Well-Lived Life. Grounded in this lived experience, Jejarisal-i is proposed as a working Korean conceptual expression that warrants further examination across diverse Korean older adult populations. These findings provide a conceptual foundation for gerontological nursing assessment and community-based care by emphasizing meaningful roles, relational belonging, dignity, life acceptance, and continuity in daily life during later adulthood.

Purpose: This study aimed to synthesize qualitative evidence on Korean nurses’ experiences of returning to work after parental leave and balancing work and childcare, and to identify the integrated meaning structure underlying these experiences. It also examined how personal, relational, occupational, and organizational conditions influenced nurses’ adaptation to the simultaneous demands of professional practice and parenting. Methods: A qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted using Noblit and Hare’s meta-ethnographic approach. Relevant studies were searched in four Korean databases: RISS, DBpia, KISS, and ScienceON. Eight qualitative studies addressing Korean nurses’ return to work after parental leave, childcare, parenting conflicts, and work–family balance met the eligibility criteria. The methodological quality of the included studies was appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. Following the seven phases of meta-ethnography, the researchers repeatedly read the studies, extracted key concepts and metaphors, compared findings across studies, translated the concepts into one another, and developed higher-order interpretations. The relationships among the synthesized themes were then examined to construct an integrated explanatory structure. Results: The overarching synthesis was identified as “negotiating work and childcare while navigating the dual roles of nurse and mother to sustain a nursing career.” Four interrelated themes were derived. The first, “regaining one’s place during the dual transition of returning to work and parenting,” reflected anxiety about readjustment, reduced confidence, and efforts to restore competence and belonging in the workplace. The second, “enduring a sense of parenting deficiency caused by the mismatch between shift work and childcare time,” described guilt, physical exhaustion, disrupted family routines, and conflict between unpredictable clinical schedules and children’s needs. The third, “building a foundation for endurance through family, colleagues, and organizational support,” showed that assistance from spouses, parents, coworkers, and managers provided practical and emotional resources that enabled nurses to remain employed. The fourth, “reconstructing the meaning of career continuity through professional identity and the need for organizational support,” illustrated how nurses understood continued employment as a source of professional identity, economic stability, self-worth, and career development. Across the studies, nurses continuously negotiated priorities, redistributed caregiving responsibilities, and sought recognition for both their professional and maternal identities. Insufficient support intensified emotional distress, work–family conflict, and intentions to leave nursing. Conclusion: Korean nurses’ return to work after parental leave and their efforts to balance work and childcare should not be framed primarily as matters of individual coping or family responsibility. These experiences represent organizational and workforce issues associated with nurse retention, professional sustainability, patient safety, and nursing quality. Healthcare organizations should establish phased return-to-work programs, flexible and predictable scheduling, equitable workload adjustment, accessible childcare support, and manager education to reduce stigma toward parenting nurses. A workplace culture that recognizes childcare as a shared organizational and social responsibility is essential for sustaining nurses’ careers and enabling them to fulfill both caregiving and professional roles.