A study of character strengths, work engagement and subjective well-being in Chinese registered nurses.

BACKGROUND: Nurses displayed low levels of subjective well-being and high turnover intention. How to enhance the subjective well-being and decrease the turnover rate of nurses is of great importance. However, little is known about whether work engagement mediates between character strengths and subjective well-being. The study aims to explore character strengths, work engagement and subjective well-being in nurses, and to determine whether work engagement plays a mediating role between the relationship. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From December 2017 to December 2018, 450 Chinese registered nurses completed the character strengths scale, work engagement scale, and subjective well-being scale. The relationship between study variables was tested by Pearson correlation. The mediating effect of work engagement was tested by the bootstrap method. RESULTS: The results indicated the following: (1) the 4 elements of character strengths and work engagement were significantly and positively correlated with subjective well-being; (2) character strengths could significantly predict both work engagement and subjective well-being; (3) work engagement played a mediating role in this relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Character strengths affect subjective well-being in Chinese registered nurses, and work engagement plays a mediating variable among the relations. Therefore, nurses are encouraged to foster their character strengths and improve their level of work engagement for their subjective well-being. Following the results, the study recommends that nursing managers be aware of the importance of using character strengths in nursing work, taking actions to excavate nurses' character strengths and encouraging nurses to use character strengths in clinical work to promote engagement and well-being. In the meantime, interventions to improve the level of subjective well-being based on nurses' character strengths should be considered. Med Pr. 2022;73(4):295-304.

Back propagation neural network model for medical expenses in patients with breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer seriously endangers women's life and health, and brings huge economic burden to the family and society. The aim of this study was to analyze the medical expenses and influencing factors of breast cancer patients, and provide theoretical basis for reasonable control of medical expenses of breast cancer patients. METHODS: The medical expenses and related information of all female breast cancer patients diagnosed in our hospitals from 2017 to 2019 were collected. Through SSPS Clementine 12.0 software, the back propagation (BP) neural network model and multiple linear regression model were constructed respectively, and the influencing factors of medical expenses of breast cancer patients in the two models were compared. RESULTS: In the study of medical expenses of breast cancer patients, the prediction error of BP neural network model is less than that of multiple linear regression model. At the same time, the results of the two models showed that the length of stay and region were the top two factors affecting the medical expenses of breast cancer patients. CONCLUSION: Compared with multiple linear regression model, BP neural network model is more suitable for the analysis of medical expenses in patients with breast cancer.

Modulation of Interhemispheric Functional Coordination in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVES: Chemotherapy induces cognitive impairments including memory impairment attention deficit and executive dysfunction in patients with breast cancer (BC) during or after chemotherapy. Previous studies identified brain structural and functional changes in BC patients receiving chemotherapy; however, there are no studies assessing functional connectivity (FC) between homotopic brain regions in BC patients using a voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method. In the present study, we explored cognitive function and whole brain homotopic FC in BC patients receiving chemotherapy compared with healthy controls using the VMHC method. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study included 35 premenopausal women with breast cancer who received chemotherapy, as well as 32 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measured homotopic brain FC, and cognitive neuropsychological assessments evaluating attention, memory, and executive function domains. RESULTS: The BC group had lower VMHC than the HC group in the cingulated posterior, insular and postcentral regions. No region exhibited higher VMHC in the BC group than in HC group. Correlation analysis in the BC group indicated that VMHC values in the cingulated posterior were significantly correlated with executive function tests, and that the VMHC values in the insular were significantly correlated with memory tests. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that VMHC decreased in different brain regions including cingulated posterior, insular and postcentral regions. A significant correlation was observed between the VMHC values in the brain regions and neuropsychological tests. These results suggested that changes in VMHC values in different brain regions may underlie cognitive changes in BC patients receiving chemotherapy.