Researchers used a qualitative descriptive phenomenological design to examine students’ experiences of midwifery practices in online education. They selected participants through criterion sampling, a type of purposive sampling. To be eligible, students had to have received online education for at least one month and have taken practice courses during that period. The team prepared a semi-structured interview form after reviewing the literature and seeking expert opinions. Face-to-face interviews were audio-recorded with participants’ permission, transcribed and analyzed using directed qualitative content analysis supported by descriptive analysis.

The analysis was supported by the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model as a complementary theoretical framework. Codes, categories and themes were developed from the students’ responses and then interpreted within that framework. The analysis identified problems with technological infrastructure, restricted access to practical-training materials and too few opportunities to perform clinical applications. Students were also concerned about their ability to connect theoretical knowledge with practice. The study reports these as interview findings, rather than as measured effects on clinical competence or educational outcomes.

The sample was small and drawn from a single Turkish university: 12 students who met the criteria for participation. As a qualitative study, the research was designed to characterize experiences rather than estimate how frequently the reported difficulties occur among all midwifery students. The findings do not establish that online or hybrid education necessarily causes inadequate preparation, nor do they test whether particular teaching arrangements would resolve the problems reported. Instead, the interviews document how this group of students experienced practical components of an online midwifery program.

Based on the reported barriers, the authors called for stronger practical learning opportunities in online and hybrid education models. Their proposed approaches included improved technological infrastructure, enhanced instructor support and alternative clinical learning experiences. These suggestions were not evaluated as interventions in the study, so the research does not demonstrate that any one of them would improve students’ clinical skills or professional readiness. What it does show is that the participants perceived a gap between the demands of practice-based midwifery education and the opportunities available to them through online study.

Subject of Research: Student experiences of practical midwifery education delivered online in Turkey

Article Title: Experiences in midwifery practices in online education from the student perspective: a phenomenological study

Article References: Yalçın, E., Bayraktar, E., & Bektaş, O. (2026). Experiences in midwifery practices in online education from the student perspective: a phenomenological study. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10377-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10377-6

Keywords: midwifery education, online learning, distance education, clinical training, student experience, qualitative research, phenomenology, technological barriers, professional readiness, Experiences, midwifery, practices

Researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the students, who were interns, and analysed the data through inductive thematic analysis. Two researchers iteratively coded the material and developed themes. The researchers reported steps intended to support trustworthiness, including detailed description, participant validation, reflexive analysis and an external audit through regular review by a thesis monitoring committee. Because the supplied evidence is limited to the study abstract, the interview guide, detailed sampling procedures and fuller results cannot be assessed here.

Students also described behaviours that they consciously rejected, including neglect of patient needs, avoidance of responsibility, discriminatory actions, inappropriate communication, internal team conflict and hierarchical mistreatment. The analysis identified a role-model spectrum containing positive, negative and anti-role-model features. Students’ responses included imitation, selective conformity and rejection, indicating that professional identity formation was associated with how they interpreted observed conduct rather than with passive imitation alone.

The abstract further reports that some students imitated paternalistic practices they considered pragmatically effective in managing clinical complexity, even when those practices did not fully align with expected professional standards. The authors conclude that professional identity formation can operate as a lived and interpretive process shaped by clinical conditions and students’ efforts to navigate demanding environments. They also argue that role models should be aware of their influence on learners because interactions that are not explicitly examined may remain implicit in clinical training. These conclusions arise from the reported experiences of 17 interns at one Turkish medical faculty, and the abstract does not establish how widely the findings apply to other students, institutions or clinical settings.

Subject of Research: Medical students’ experiences of clinical role modelling and professional identity formation

Article Title: Exploring medical students’ experiences of role modelling in clinical training: a phenomenological study of professional identity formation

Article References: Mergen, M., Akpınar, A., & Kavas, M. V. (2026). Exploring medical students’ experiences of role modelling in clinical training: a phenomenological study of professional identity formation. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10483-5

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DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10483-5

Keywords: medical education, role modelling, professional identity, clinical training, medical students, phenomenology, qualitative interviews, Türkiye, Exploring, medical, students, experiences

Researchers used a phenomenological qualitative design and conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the 14 nurses. The participants worked at a tertiary hospital that was operating during the initial major earthquake. The interview data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, and the researchers said the study adhered to the Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist. The study was published in BMC Nursing as an accepted, open-access article subject to further editorial revision.

The first theme concerned the psychosocial repercussions experienced by nurses during the earthquake. The second, described as “sustaining care amid chaos,” addressed the challenges surrounding the continuation of nursing care under earthquake conditions. The third theme captured lessons that nurses drew from the experience. The abstract does not provide further details about particular actions, circumstances or experiences within these themes, so they cannot be characterised more specifically from the supplied evidence.

The study’s scope was limited to nurses who had worked at one tertiary hospital in one affected province during the initial major earthquake. Its qualitative design and sample of 14 participants also mean that the findings should not be assumed to represent all nurses, hospitals or affected provinces. The authors said the results may help guide nurses who encounter an earthquake while on duty and inform nurse managers and health policymakers developing relevant training programmes. The abstract does not provide detailed information about the content, delivery or evaluation of any such training, and the available evidence does not establish whether the study assessed clinical outcomes or compared nursing care before and after the earthquake.

Subject of Research: Nurses’ experiences of working at a tertiary hospital during the initial major February 6 earthquake in Türkiye

Article Title: Experiences of nurses working at the hospital during the initial major one of the February 6 earthquakes in Turkiye: a qualitative study

Article References: Aşkar, S. E., Ovayolu, Ö., & Ovayolu, N. (2026). Experiences of nurses working at the hospital during the initial major one of the February 6 earthquakes in Turkiye: a qualitative study. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05279-3

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DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05279-3

Keywords: earthquake nursing, Türkiye, qualitative study, phenomenology, semi-structured interviews, nurses’ experiences, disaster preparedness, nursing care, psychosocial effects, Experiences, nurses, working

Researchers used a hermeneutic phenomenological design to examine the lived experiences of women at different stages of breast cancer. Participants were 40 to 59 years old, with a mean age of 49.27 years and a standard deviation of 6.72. The sample included women at stages spanning surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and survivorship. Data were collected through semi-structured bedside interviews lasting 20 to 55 minutes.

The analysis followed the method attributed to Diekelmann and colleagues, while the authors said they ensured rigor using the criteria of Lincoln and Guba. Sampling was purposive and used maximum variation, with data collection continuing until saturation. Within the first theme, engulfment in suffering, the abstract reports disquietude following the cancer diagnosis, an uncertain future and an avalanche of calamity. The second theme, metastasis into life, comprised an end to dynamism and fragmentation of relationships. The third theme, transitioning through uncertainty and doubt, included regaining self through reclaiming life, adaptation and clinging to a rope of hope.

The study reports qualitative observations rather than measured effects or clinical outcomes. Its scope was limited to 11 women in Iran, and the abstract does not establish whether the themes represent the experiences of breast cancer patients in other countries, larger populations or all treatment stages. The authors state that understanding the transition from health to illness may help healthcare professionals recognize patients’ needs and provide more comprehensive and compassionate care throughout the disease trajectory. This is a potential application of the findings, not evidence that a specific care intervention has been tested or shown to improve outcomes.

Subject of Research: Qualitative study of Iranian women’s experiences transitioning from health to illness with breast cancer

Article Title: The transition experience of breast cancer patients from health to illness in iran: from engulfment in suffering to passing through uncertainty and doubt – a hermeneutic phenomenological study

Article References: Mardanian Dehkordi, L., Hadian Jazi, Z., Hashemi, N., & Khoshkesht, S. (2026). The transition experience of breast cancer patients from health to illness in iran: from engulfment in suffering to passing through uncertainty and doubt – a hermeneutic phenomenological study. BMC Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-16943-x

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DOI: 10.1186/s12885-026-16943-x

Keywords: breast cancer, Iran, qualitative research, phenomenology, patient experience, uncertainty, psychological distress, adaptation, social relationships, survivorship, transition, experience

Participants were purposively selected, and data were gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews and field notes over three weeks between May and June 2025. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically using Colaizzi’s phenomenological framework. The researchers described member checking, peer debriefing, reflexivity and detailed documentation as measures used to support the rigour of the analysis.

This design was intended to explore experiences in depth rather than compare groups, test an intervention or calculate rates of clinical outcomes. Four major themes emerged from the interviews: participants’ perception and understanding of end-of-life care; recognition and clinical identification of the dying phase; religious and cultural influences on care delivery; and nurses’ emotional and psychological experiences. The first theme centred on end-of-life care as a holistic responsibility involving physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual support, with an emphasis on preserving patients’ dignity and comfort.

Families were also identified as recipients of support in the study’s description of nurses’ role in providing care to terminally ill patients and their relatives. For identifying the dying phase, nurses relied on both clinical indicators and experiential judgement. In other words, their accounts combined observable clinical information with the professional knowledge developed through previous experience of caring for dying patients.

The findings are also limited in scope because the participants came from one tertiary hospital and included 17 nurses. Accordingly, the study cannot establish how common these experiences are among Nigerian nurses generally or determine whether they differ across hospitals, specialties or regions. Religious and cultural influences were central to how care was delivered.

Religious belief provided emotional support for many participants, whereas cultural taboos surrounding death complicated communication with patients and families. The interviews therefore show that end-of-life care in this hospital involved more than clinical assessment and symptom-focused support: it also required navigating social and religious understandings of death. The researchers recommended culturally sensitive communication strategies as a response to the difficulties described, but the study did not test a particular communication strategy or measure whether one would improve patient, family or nursing outcomes.

The findings do not quantify the prevalence of specific cultural practices or religious beliefs among participants. Repeated encounters with death also produced a substantial emotional burden. Participants described emotional exhaustion, grief, helplessness and moral distress, demonstrating these experiences through the study’s thematic analysis of interview and field-note data.

At the same time, the results portray a strong commitment to compassionate care rather than withdrawal from the responsibility of caring for terminally ill older patients. Religious belief was identified as one potential source of support, and the authors called for greater attention to nurses’ emotional experiences and coping resources in resource-limited settings. The qualitative evidence does not establish that religious support prevents distress, nor does it estimate the prevalence or causes of burnout among Nigerian nurses.

Subject of Research: Nurses’ perceptions and lived experiences of end-of-life care for terminally ill older patients at a Nigerian tertiary hospital.

Article Title: Perceptions and lived experiences of nurses on end-of-life care for terminally ill geriatric patients: a phenomenological study in a Nigerian tertiary hospital

Article References: Fatukasi, B. M., Olubiyi, S. K., Fatukasi, A. O., Adeniyi, Y. E., Ayanbeku, J. K., Abdulmumeen, I. O., Ibrahim, A. O., Yakub, A., & Kolo, S. (2026). Perceptions and lived experiences of nurses on end-of-life care for terminally ill geriatric patients: a phenomenological study in a Nigerian tertiary hospital. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05541-8

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DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05541-8

Keywords: end-of-life care, geriatric nursing, nurses, Nigeria, qualitative research, phenomenology, palliative care, cultural taboos, religious support, emotional distress, Perceptions, lived

Researchers conducted the study with a phenomenological design to examine how individuals living with cancer understood the biopsychosocial dimensions of their experience and the meanings they attributed to spirituality and spiritual coping. The participants were recruited from a public hospital through criterion sampling, described in the study as a purposive sampling strategy. Data were gathered through individual, face-to-face, semi-structured in-depth interviews.

The researchers used Colaizzi’s seven-step phenomenological analysis method, and the sample size was determined through data saturation. Analysis produced three main themes: perceptions of cancer and reactions to the illness process, biopsychosocial effects of the disease, and coping with cancer and spiritual resilience. Nine subthemes further organized participants’ accounts: initial perception of cancer, changing perception over time, starting treatment, recurrence experience, physical effects, psychological effects, social effects, spiritual coping methods, and perception of coping.

Within this account, spiritual coping emerged as one way some participants responded to living with cancer. Their accounts associated spirituality with meaning-making, hope and endurance, but the study did not present it as a uniform experience shared by all 13 participants. Because the investigation was qualitative and centered on interviews with 13 patients, it describes the experiences reported within this sample rather than measuring how common spiritual coping is or establishing effects on clinical outcomes.

The authors concluded that the changing biopsychosocial needs and personal coping resources of people living with cancer point toward an individualized and holistic approach to supporting them.

Subject of Research: Qualitative study of biopsychosocial cancer experiences and spiritual coping among 13 patients

Article Title: Biopsychosocial dimensions of cancer and spiritual coping strategies: a phenomenological study of patient experiences

Article References: Aydın, E., Uzun, S., Karakaş, S., Günay, D., & Büyükçerçi, N. N. (2026). Biopsychosocial dimensions of cancer and spiritual coping strategies: a phenomenological study of patient experiences. Supportive Care in Cancer, 34(11), Article 1126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-026-11391-6

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DOI: 10.1007/s00520-026-11391-6

Keywords: cancer, spiritual coping, patient experience, phenomenology, qualitative research, biopsychosocial effects, hope, meaning-making, supportive care, Biopsychosocial, dimensions, spiritual

The research, conducted by Dhruba Jyoti Gogoi, Jyatsnasree Bora, Himanshu Chaudhary, M. Yousaf, and G. Mustafa, focuses on Freund–Nambu scalar-tensor gravity, a framework first proposed in 1968 by Paul Freund and Yoichiro Nambu. Unlike Einstein’s purely geometric formulation, this theory introduces a dynamical scalar field that actively participates in gravitational interactions alongside the spacetime metric. The scalar field is not merely an auxiliary ingredient but an active geometric component that modifies the gravitational configuration itself, making it possible to investigate how scalar-induced corrections affect the background geometry, particle dynamics, and potentially observable strong-field phenomena.

To isolate the purely gravitational effects of the scalar interaction, the team derived an exact analytical solution in the vacuum limit of the theory, where matter is neglected and the scalar field is taken to be massless. The resulting spacetime generalizes the well-known Janis–Newman–Winicour (JNW) solution, a geometry that describes a naked singularity supported by a non-trivial scalar field profile. Unlike a black hole, which conceals its singularity behind an event horizon, a naked singularity is exposed to the universe — causal geodesics originating arbitrarily close to the singular region can extend to infinity without ever encountering a horizon. This makes the JNW spacetime a compelling theoretical laboratory for probing strong-field deviations from general relativity.

The researchers introduced two key coupling parameters that systematically modify the orbital landscape. The first, denoted q, controls the strength of the non-linear coupling between the scalar field and the spacetime geometry. The second, denoted g_s, governs a direct linear coupling between the massive test particle and the background scalar field, effectively altering the particle’s mass as it moves through the scalar field. Together with the spacetime parameter n — which arises from the presence of the scalar field and controls the scalar modification to the JNW metric — these parameters reshape the effective potential that dictates the allowed regions of motion for orbiting bodies.

Using the effective potential formalism, the team rigorously mapped the parameter space governing stable and marginally bound equatorial orbits. Their analysis reveals that the complex interplay between n, q, and g_s heavily distorts the effective potential barrier, systematically shifting the critical binding energies and the radial location of the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO). Notably, they found that an attractive scalar-particle coupling (g_s > 0) pulls the ISCO deeper into the gravitational well, closer to the central naked singularity. This inward shift holds profound astrophysical implications, as it directly alters the inner edge of potential accretion disks and effectively enhances the radiative efficiency of accreting matter in these environments. Conversely, negative scalar couplings destabilize the orbits, pushing the ISCO outward and shrinking the permissible phase space for bounded oscillatory motion.

Beyond circular motion, the researchers cataloged families of bound periodic trajectories using a rational parameter that establishes a precise taxonomy based on the number of zooms, whirls, and vertices. These zoom-whirl orbits are among the most exotic phenomena in strong-field gravity: during the zoom phase, the particle moves through regions of relatively weak gravitational gradients, corresponding to extended intervals of low-frequency, low-amplitude gravitational wave emission. Conversely, during the whirl phase, the particle plunges deep into the strong-field regime and grazes the unstable circular orbit, where extreme radial acceleration and relativistic velocities trigger intense, high-frequency bursts of gravitational radiation. The team demonstrated that as a particle’s specific energy and angular momentum are tuned toward the separatrix limit, the scalar modifications induce intense periapsis precession, trapping the particle in pronounced zoom-whirl behavior.

To connect these orbital dynamics with observable signals, the researchers applied the Numerical Kludge methodology to synthesize the gravitational wave strains emitted by Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspiral (EMRI) systems — configurations in which a stellar-mass compact object of roughly ten solar masses orbits a supermassive central singularity of one million solar masses. Using the adiabatic approximation, which treats the orbital constants of motion as immutable over individual periodic cycles, the team projected the fully relativistic trajectories onto a pseudo-flat background where they act as source terms in the standard quadrupole formula. Their simulations clearly illustrate that the scalar-tensor corrections leave an indelible, macroscopic signature on the time-domain waveforms.

Crucially, even when the researchers rigorously preserved the spatial topology of an orbit by precisely tuning the orbital energy and angular momentum across different scalar parameters, the localized modifications to the gravitational field induced severe temporal dephasing during the high-frequency whirl bursts. Modifying n, q, or g_s alters the steepness and shape of the effective radial potential, which accelerates the particle differently as it falls into the whirl phase. Consequently, the proper time the particle spends traversing the strong-field region changes, manifesting in the waveforms as a severe and cumulative macroscopic dephasing. The arrival times of the intense high-frequency bursts shift systematically in the time domain as the scalar parameters are varied.

The team acknowledges that in a comprehensive scalar-tensor treatment, an inspiralling compact object would generically emit scalar dipole radiation in addition to tensor quadrupole radiation. Because dipole radiation represents an additional, highly efficient energy-loss channel, the total orbital energy dissipation rate would increase, accelerating the inspiral and enhancing the cumulative temporal dephasing observed in the high-frequency whirl bursts. While the pragmatic neglect of scalar radiation successfully isolated the pure kinematic imprint of the modified background geometry, incorporating dipole losses would make the waveforms even more sensitive to q and g_s, providing an even stronger discriminant for future detectors.

This cumulative phase shift highlights the exquisite sensitivity of EMRI waveforms to the presence of scalar hair. The distinct temporal dephasing generated by n, q, and g_s ensures that scalar-tensor modifications cannot simply mimic standard general relativistic effects without fundamentally altering the arrival times of the radiation bursts. In the era of precision gravitational wave astronomy, these unique temporal signatures will provide a robust theoretical template for future space-based interferometers, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). By capturing the rich phenomenology of zoom-whirl EMRIs, the results pave the way for utilizing future observational data to stringently constrain scalar-tensor extensions of Einstein’s theory and to search for the definitive hallmarks of naked singularities in the cosmos.

Subject of Research: Equatorial periodic orbits and gravitational wave phenomenology around spherically-symmetric vacuum solution in Freund–Nambu scalar–tensor gravity

Article Title: Equatorial periodic orbits and gravitational wave phenomenology around spherically-symmetric vacuum solution in Freund–Nambu scalar–tensor gravity

Article References: Gogoi, D. J., Bora, J., Chaudhary, H., Yousaf, M., & Mustafa, G. (2026). Equatorial periodic orbits and gravitational wave phenomenology around spherically-symmetric vacuum solution in Freund–Nambu scalar–tensor gravity. The European Physical Journal C, 86(10), Article 1188. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16451-z

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DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16451-z

Keywords: Equatorial, periodic, orbits, gravitational, wave, phenomenology, around, spherically-symmetric, vacuum, solution, Freund, Nambu

Avoidant personality disorder is characterized by pervasive feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to criticism, and habitual social inhibition. Clinicians have long observed that people with the condition often struggle to engage with psychotherapy itself, dropping out or holding back even when they desperately want help. What has been missing, the Norwegian team argues, is a first-person understanding of agency, defined in the study as the capacity to act intentionally and pursue goals, as it is experienced from the inside. Without that understanding, therapists risk misreading withdrawal as resistance, and treatment planning may miss the very mechanisms that keep patients frozen.

To capture that inner terrain, the researchers designed an internet survey with 14 open-ended questions and recruited 56 adults who identified as having current or past avoidant personality difficulties. The choice of format was deliberate. Written, anonymous responses allow people who find face-to-face disclosure threatening to describe their experiences in their own words, at their own pace, without the immediate pressure of another person’s gaze. The team adopted a hermeneutic-phenomenological epistemological stance, meaning they aimed to interpret the meaning of lived experience rather than merely count symptoms, and analysed the dataset using reflexive thematic analysis, an approach in which researchers systematically code the material and iteratively develop themes while remaining aware of their own influence on the interpretation.

Five themes emerged from the analysis, and together they read like chapters in a psychological biography of avoidance. The first, titled A Threatening World: Escaping Judgment, describes a daily existence organized around withdrawal and self-constraint. Participants described scanning social situations for signs of criticism and preemptively limiting their actions to avoid it. Agency here is not absent but constantly curtailed: the person may want to speak, apply, join, or create, yet the anticipated judgment of others acts as a brake applied before the engine even starts. The world itself is experienced as dangerous, and shrinking one’s footprint in it feels less like a choice than a survival strategy.

The second theme, When Boundaries Collapse: Over-Adaptation to Others, reveals a different and paradoxical form of lost agency. Rather than withdrawing, some participants described subordinating themselves to the wishes of others in order to keep relationships intact. Saying no felt catastrophic, so they said yes, again and again, until their own preferences became indistinguishable from the demands of the people around them. This submissiveness is a protective maneuver, but it comes at the cost of authenticity. The person remains in relationships, yet the self that shows up in them is an edited version, shaped by fear rather than desire.

The third theme, Disconnected from Within: Unclear Sense of Self, moves the problem inward. Participants reported losing touch with their own emotions and motivations, describing a fog in which it was hard to know what they actually wanted. This is a technically important finding for theories of agency, because intentional action depends on affective and motivational signals. If you cannot feel what matters to you, the question of what to do has no anchor. The study suggests that chronic avoidance does not only suppress outward behavior; over time it can erode the internal compass that guides it, leaving people estranged from their own preferences and values.

The fourth theme, Longing from a Fortress of Self-Protection: Frozen Dreams, captures perhaps the most poignant dimension of the condition. Participants described aspirations that had been shelved, postponed, or quietly abandoned, not because they lacked ambition but because every step toward a goal passed through territory patrolled by imagined critics. Dreams did not disappear; they froze. The fortress of self-protection keeps out judgment, but it also keeps in the person, who watches life plans gather dust from behind walls built for safety. The researchers emphasize that this foreclosing of aspiration is an active process, a series of small surrenders, rather than a single dramatic decision.

Yet the study is not a portrait of despair. The fifth theme, Finding Space: Conditions for Moving Beyond Constraints, documents how participants gradually reclaimed agency when the relational climate changed. Experiences of being met with understanding rather than evaluation, in friendships, families, or therapy, created what the authors call relational safety, and within that safety participants experimented with small acts of self-expression. The process was gradual and fragile, but it was real: a comment ventured in a group, a boundary asserted with a partner, a wish admitted aloud. The analysis suggests that agency in this population is not a fixed trait that is either present or absent, but a capacity that responds to the interpersonal environment.

The conclusions the authors draw have direct implications for psychotherapy. First, they note that individuals with avoidant personality difficulties actively navigate conflicting motives; they are not passive victims of their symptoms but people constantly weighing the urge to connect against the urge to hide. Second, protective strategies paradoxically constrain authentic self-expression, meaning that the very behaviors that reduce short-term anxiety deepen long-term isolation and self-alienation. Third, and most practically, relational safety appears to foster therapeutic progress by supporting gradual self-expression. For therapists, this implies that establishing a nonjudgmental, understanding relationship is not merely a precondition for technique but is itself the primary mechanism of change, and that treatment should be paced to allow small, tolerable experiments in agency rather than demanding rapid exposure or assertiveness.

The study also carries a broader message about how mental health research is conducted. By using an anonymous internet survey and involving participatory researchers from the Expert Council of the National Competence Service for Personality Psychiatry, the team built a methodology that respects the core difficulty of the condition it studies: the fear of being seen and judged. The work was approved by the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics in Western Norway and funded by the Research Council of Norway. For the millions of people who recognize themselves in these five themes, the findings offer validation that their paralysis is not weakness of character but an intelligible response to a world experienced as threatening, and a reminder that the path out is not a leap but a series of small, safe steps toward being an agent in one’s own life again.

Subject of Research: Lived experiences of agency in daily life and psychotherapy among adults with avoidant personality difficulties

Article Title: Being an agent in daily life and therapy with avoidant personality difficulties: a qualitative internet survey

Article References: Weme, A. V., Dahl, K., & Binder, P. E. (2026). Being an agent in daily life and therapy with avoidant personality difficulties: a qualitative internet survey. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05609-9

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DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05609-9

Keywords: avoidant personality disorder, agency, qualitative research, reflexive thematic analysis, psychotherapy, relational safety, self-expression, mental health, phenomenology, internet survey, personality difficulties, Norway

The study is built on attribution theory, a framework with roots in Fritz Heider’s mid-century work on interpersonal perception and Bernard Weiner’s later formalization of achievement motivation. The core idea is deceptively simple: when people succeed or fail, they instinctively explain why, and the shape of that explanation matters enormously. Attributions vary along three dimensions — locus, whether the cause is internal to the person or external in the world; stability, whether the cause is permanent or fleeting; and controllability, whether the person could have done anything about it. A student who blames failure on low innate ability has made a stable, internal, uncontrollable attribution, which is motivational poison. A student who blames a missing lab session has made an unstable, external one, which leaves room for hope. Zakariya wanted to know which stories Nigeria’s future CS teachers tell themselves.

To find out, he turned to phenomenology — a qualitative methodology designed to capture lived experience in rich detail rather than to count variables. He conducted in-depth individual interviews with eight final-year preservice computer science teachers at a Nigerian university, then subjected the transcripts to thematic analysis, the systematic coding procedure developed by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke. Eight is a small number, and the study makes no claim to statistical generalization; what it offers instead is depth, a portrait of how underachievement actually feels and gets rationalized from the inside. The ethical scaffolding was careful: informed consent was obtained, the protocol was approved by the university’s ethics committee under reference ABUCUHSR/2026/033, and participants were anonymized with pseudonyms.

The analysis converged on seven distinct drivers of underachievement, and the first is one that will resonate with computer scientists everywhere: the curriculum is obsolete. Students described course content that had fallen years behind the state of the discipline, teaching them material that neither reflects modern practice nor prepares them for the classrooms they will soon run. This is not a uniquely Nigerian problem — curriculum lag plagues computer science education globally, because the field moves faster than accreditation cycles — but its severity in this context is compounded by history. Nigeria’s national computer education policy dates back to 1988, and researchers have documented gaps between policy and classroom practice for decades.

The second driver is infrastructure, or rather the absence of it. Preservice teachers reported inadequate digital facilities: insufficient computers, unreliable power, and limited internet access that made hands-on practice a scarce commodity rather than a routine expectation. For a discipline whose entire epistemology is built on building, running, and debugging real systems, learning computer science without reliable machines is like studying chemistry without a lab. The third and fourth drivers are pedagogical: students described ineffective teaching methods — lecture-heavy, transmission-style instruction at odds with the active-learning approaches that a growing body of evidence links to better outcomes in computing — and a striking lack of formative feedback. Without regular, low-stakes assessment that tells students where they stand and how to improve, they navigate their degrees by guesswork, discovering their weaknesses only when it is too late to fix them.

The remaining three drivers shift the lens from the classroom to the institution and the individual. Students cited insufficient institutional support, from administrative indifference to the absence of academic advising structures that might catch struggling learners early. They acknowledged limited self-regulatory learning strategies on their own side of the desk — weak planning, poor time management, underdeveloped study habits — and finally, the absence of any recognition mechanism, no awards, no celebration of excellence, nothing to make achievement feel visible and worth pursuing. That last finding is quietly devastating: motivation research has long shown that recognition functions as a signal that effort matters, and its absence teaches students the opposite lesson.

What makes the study more than a catalogue of grievances is how the attributions distribute. The students did not simply externalize everything. While they located most of their struggles in systemic and pedagogical constraints — external, often stable, largely uncontrollable factors — they also recognized the role of their own effort, planning, and peer collaboration in shaping outcomes. This split matters because it maps onto the classic motivational finding that the healthiest attributional profile blends accountability with realism. Students who believe nothing is their fault stop trying; students who believe everything is their fault stop hoping. These preservice teachers, remarkably, held both truths at once, which suggests the raw material for resilience is present even where the system around it is not.

The stakes extend well beyond one cohort of students. These are future teachers, and teacher quality is the single most powerful school-level predictor of student achievement. A preservice computer science teacher who graduates with shallow practical skills, no experience of formative feedback, and a demoralized attributional style does not simply underperform personally — they reproduce the entire dysfunctional pattern in their own classrooms a few years later. Nigeria’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for 2020 to 2030 bets heavily on digital skills as an engine of growth, but the study’s evidence suggests the human infrastructure layer, the teachers themselves, is being built on foundations that cannot yet bear the weight.

Zakariya’s prescriptions are correspondingly structural. He calls for urgent curriculum modernization to drag course content into the current decade, faculty retraining in digital pedagogy so that teaching methods match the subject matter, serious infrastructural investment in computing facilities and connectivity, and learner-centred reform of assessment and motivation systems — formative feedback loops, recognition programs, and supports that catch struggling students before they fail. None of these are exotic interventions. The notable thing is how ordinary they are: the study essentially argues that the fastest way to improve computer science education in Nigeria is to do the unglamorous basics competently, at scale, consistently.

There is also a methodological lesson here for education research more broadly. Quantitative studies can tell you that underachievement exists and correlate it with any number of factors, but they cannot tell you what failure means to the person living it — and meaning is where motivation lives. By listening to eight students describe their own struggles in their own words, this study surfaces mechanisms that a regression coefficient would never reveal: the demoralizing silence after an exam, the absurdity of learning programming without a working machine, the quiet erosion of ambition when excellence goes unnoticed. For a field racing to staff classrooms with digitally competent teachers worldwide, the message travels well beyond Nigeria. Systems that want high achievement cannot merely demand it; they have to build the conditions, curricular, infrastructural, pedagogical, and motivational, under which achievement becomes the rational, rewarded, expected outcome. Until they do, the students closest to the problem will keep telling the truth about it — and the truth, as this study shows, is that they know exactly what is broken.

Subject of Research: Academic underachievement among preservice computer science teachers in Nigeria

Article Title: Unpacking the challenges: investigating the drivers of academic underachievement among preservice computer science teachers in Nigeria

Article References: Zakariya, Y. F. (2026). Unpacking the challenges: investigating the drivers of academic underachievement among preservice computer science teachers in Nigeria. SN Social Sciences, 6(8), Article 349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-026-01640-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43545-026-01640-0

Keywords: computer science education, preservice teachers, academic underachievement, attribution theory, Nigeria, teacher education, qualitative research, phenomenology, thematic analysis, STEM education, digital infrastructure, curriculum reform

The research, published in BMC Nursing, set out to explore the meaning of nurses’ lived experiences of the death of significant others that occurred within their workplace. Unlike conventional surveys that measure burnout or grief on numerical scales, this study used an interpretive phenomenological approach—a qualitative method rooted in hermeneutics, the philosophy of interpretation. Phenomenology of this kind does not ask how often grief occurs or how severe it is on average. Instead, it asks what the experience fundamentally means to the person living it, seeking the deep structure of a phenomenon as it is consciously experienced.

To capture that meaning, the researchers recruited 12 nurses—four men and eight women—who had each experienced the death of at least one significant other in their workplace. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, a technique in which researchers deliberately seek out individuals who have directly lived the phenomenon under investigation. Those willing to articulate their experiences were invited to take part, and data were generated through in-depth, interactive, semi-structured interviews. The interviews allowed participants to narrate their experiences in their own words while the interviewer probed for deeper layers of meaning. Analysis followed Van Manen’s interpretive phenomenological approach, a framework that examines lived experiences through existential themes such as lived body, lived time, and lived relations.

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Semnan University of Medical Sciences under approval code IR.SEMUMS.REC.1401.280 and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants provided written informed consent, were assured of their right to withdraw at any time without consequence, and all data were anonymized to protect confidentiality. Participant quotes in the published manuscript cannot be traced back to any specific individual.

From the interviews, the researchers distilled four main themes and nine subthemes that together map the emotional terrain of losing a loved one at work. The first theme, Endless Suffering, captured how the grief refused to fade. It unfolded through two subthemes: recurring memories, in which the sights, sounds, and routines of the workplace continuously triggered vivid recollections of the deceased, and immersion in compounded grief, in which professional encounters with death layered new sorrow onto the nurse’s personal loss. Because the death occurred in the same environment where the nurse continued to work, there was no physical escape from the reminders—every corridor, every shift, every resuscitation attempt could reactivate the wound.

The second theme, Painful Endurance, described the exhausting performance of carrying on. It comprised three subthemes: pretending to be fine, in which nurses masked their anguish behind professional composure; suppressing emotions, in which sorrow was deliberately pushed down rather than expressed; and enduring and carrying on, in which nurses forced themselves through shifts and duties despite the weight of bereavement. The technical term for this masking is emotional labor—the effort of displaying organizationally appropriate emotions while concealing genuine ones. The study suggests that bereaved nurses engaged in intense emotional labor precisely because their grief occurred in their professional space, where the norms of nursing demand steadiness and competence.

The third theme, Failure to Change Fate, expressed itself through regret and futile efforts. Nurses described replaying the moments before the death, questioning whether different actions—faster recognition, more aggressive resuscitation, different decisions—might have altered the outcome. This retrospective counterfactual thinking, the mind’s habit of simulating alternative versions of past events, appeared to generate persistent regret. The subtheme of futile efforts captured the sense that, however hard nurses tried, fate could not be changed—a realization that brought its own quiet devastation.

Yet the story did not end in darkness. The fourth theme, Empathetic Transformation, revealed how profound loss reshaped the nurses’ professional selves. Through identification with others, bereaved nurses began to recognize their own pain in the suffering of patients and families, and through upgrading sympathy, that recognition deepened into a more authentic, more human form of care. Grief, in other words, became a source of professional growth: the nurses who had endured unending sorrow emerged with a heightened capacity to accompany others through death.

The overall arc of the findings is striking. Emotions such as regret and the sense of futile efforts appeared to lead nurses toward painful endurance and, ultimately, toward empathetic transformation. The suffering resulting from the loss of significant others in the workplace was experienced as unending—there was no clean resolution, no moment when the grief simply closed. But the same unending quality, channeled through endurance, fed into a transformation of sympathy. The researchers argue that understanding this meaning is essential for developing targeted support mechanisms and improving organizational responsiveness to bereaved nurses.

Why does this matter beyond the ward? Because nurses encounter death not only as an integral part of their routine professional responsibilities but, at times, in a far more painful and personal manner through the death of their significant others within the workplace. Organizations that treat such losses as ordinary bereavement miss the compounded nature of the experience: the nurse grieves both as a family member and as a clinician, in the same building, often on the same shift. The study’s phenomenological evidence gives hospital leaders, ethics committees, and nursing educators a vocabulary for that compounded grief—recurring memories, compounded sorrow, emotional masking, regret, and empathetic transformation—and a scientific basis for designing bereavement support that fits the reality of nurses’ lived experiences. The research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors, and the authors declare no competing interests.

Subject of Research: Nursing

Article Title: Nurses’ lived experiences of the death of their significant others in their workplace

Article References: Alamdari, M. P., Raiesdana, N., Fakhr-Movahedi, A., & Peyrovi, H. (2026). Nurses’ lived experiences of the death of their significant others in their workplace. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05289-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05289-1

Keywords: nursing, grief, bereavement, phenomenology, qualitative research, workplace, Nurses, lived, experiences, death, significant, others