Purpose: This study aimed to explore young adult donors’ experiences of living donor liver transplantation. Methods: A phenomenological research method was used. The participants were two women and six men. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews from November 25th, 2019 to June 10th, 2020 and analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method. Results: Five theme clusters extracted from the young adult donors’ experiences were painful decision of a liver donation, the agony of both mind and body that overpowers youth, the bitter and bare face of reality that a young donor encounters, feeling the power of love that fills up the space of the organ removed, and liver donation becoming priming water for maturity. Conclusion The results of this study provide a deeper understanding of the lives of young adult donors who have experienced unexpected difficulties as well as self growth from the donation. It is expected that the results can be of use for developing and applying customized nursing interventions for management before and after liver donation among young adult donors.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand the care experiences of the family of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) patients where the donation had occurred within the family. Methods: Participants were eight family caregivers who cared for recipients and donors of LDLT. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews from November, 2020 to April, 2021. Data analysis was performed through a cyclical process of data collection and analysis by applying Giorgi’s phenomenological research method. Results: The five main components extracted from the experiences of the family caregivers were: "A double-edged choice to save the family", "The harsh daily life of liver transplantation care", "The yoke of double care on both shoulders", "The power to withstand the adversity of caring", and "The recovery and growth of life pursued by trusting each other". Conclusion The participants tried to do their best in their daily lives, while providing reassurance and care to the LDLT patients in the family; however, they expressed some worry and hardship while doing so. The results of this study provide a deeper understanding of the caring experience of the family caregivers, which may contribute to the development of nursing interventions that will aid these caregivers in providing care to their LDLT family members. Furthermore, the development and application of an integrated management program for LDLT patients in the family is required.

Purpose: This study was performed to explore and describe the overall clinical practice adaptation experiences among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This qualitative study applied the grounded theory method by Corbin and Strauss. Data were collected from May to August 2021 through individual in-depth interviews with 14 nursing students from three universities in B metropolitan city. Results: From open coding, 20 sub-categories and 10 categories were identified. Analysis revealed that the core category was the process of “keeping the place of learning while adhering to the restrictions of the era of pandemic” and that it consisted of four phases: confusion, withdrawal, adjustment, and growth. Through this process, participants utilized various action/interactional strategies such as “shifting to positive thinking,” “building a shield to protect oneself,” and “focusing on learning.” The consequences of these strategies were “adapting to the reality of the infectious disease situation” and “strengthening a foothold to grow as a future nurse.” Conclusion An in-depth understanding of nursing students’ experiences of adapting to clinical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic will guide nursing educators to promote effective teaching strategies to better support nursing students in a time of infectious disease crisis.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand the lived experience of illness among older females with cancer in South Korea. Methods: Data were collected from May to December of 2019 through individual in-depth interviews with eight older females with cancer who have undergone thorough cancer diagnosis and treatments. Transcribed data were analyzed using the hermeneutic phenomenological method developed by van Manen. Results: Six essential themes emerged: old body physically devastated through the fight against cancer; tug of war for symbiosis between cancer and the old body; home that does not provide comfort anymore; twilight years with no regrets even with cancer; womanhood to keep for a lifetime even in old age; and putting pieces together of the relationships around oneself. Conclusion Based on the participants’ illness experience, efforts need to be made to develop and implement effective strategies to improve nurses’ understanding of the life experiences of illness among older females with cancer in the Korean socio-cultural context, and to provide patient and family-centered nursing interventions that reflect patients’ age and gender characteristics.

PURPOSE: In the presence of interferon, proteasome subunits are replaced by their inducible counterparts to form an immunoproteasome (IP) plays a key role in generation of antigenic peptides presented by MHC class I molecules, leading to elicitation of a T cell‒mediated immune response. Although the roles of IP in other cancers, and inflammatory diseases have been extensively studied, its significance in breast cancer is unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated the expression of LMP7, an IP subunit, and its relationship with immune system components in two breast cancer cohorts. RESULTS: In 668 consecutive breast cancer cohort, 40% of tumors showed high level of LMP7 expression, and tumors with high expression of LMP7 had more tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in each subtype of breast cancer. In another cohort of 681 triple-negative breast cancer patients cohort, the expression of LMP7 in tumor cells was significantly correlated with the amount of TILs and the expression of interferon-associated molecules (MxA [p < 0.001] and PKR [p < 0.001]), endoplasmic reticulum stress-associated molecules (PERK [p=0.012], p-eIF2a [p=0.001], and XBP1 [p < 0.001]), and damage-associated molecular patterns (HMGN1 [p < 0.001] and HMGB1 [p < 0.001]). Patients with higher LMP7 expression had better disease-free survival outcomes than those with no or low expression in the positive lymph node metastasis group (p=0.041). CONCLUSION: Close association between the TIL levels and LMP7 expression in breast cancer indicates that better antigen presentation through greater LMP7 expression might be associated with more TILs.
Antigen Presentation ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Cohort Studies ; Disease-Free Survival ; Endoplasmic Reticulum ; HLA Antigens ; HMGB1 Protein ; Humans ; Immune System ; Interferons ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Peptides ; Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex ; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms