Objective: To explore the views and experiences of male nurses in nursing as a profession in Brunei Darussalam. The objectives of the study were to explore the perception of male nurses in Brunei about the nursing profession, to examine motivation to become nurses and to explore the challenges that they have encountered in the profession. Background: More men are now choosing the profession, given the growth of health care needs. Evidence suggests that there are obstacles and barriers to men's career choices of being nurses. Design: A descriptive qualitative study using content analysis. Methods: A descriptive, qualitative approach was used to gain valuable insight into male nurses' views on nursing as a career. Using purposive sampling, a total of 11 male nurses from two state hospitals in Brunei were individually interviewed. Participants were interviewed for between 45-60 minutes and were audio-recorded with prior consent. Recorded interviews were transcribed, coded manually and subsequently thematically analysed. Results: The analysis revealed three broad themes, namely 'making the career choice', 'working as male nurses' and 'being in the profession'.  The first theme indicates the nurses' initial perception of the profession. The second one describes the nurses' experiences once they enter the profession. The final theme illustrates how nurses perceived the challenges of being in the profession. Conclusion: The evidence in the current study suggests although men's entry into nursing is slow and gender disparity continues to affect the profession, the results in this study indicate that, for male nurses, the motivational factors outnumber the barriers to entry. Overall, male nurses reported being positive with their career choice.

No abstract

Purpose: Level of satisfaction is significantly influenced by health-related factors across human life course. Multidimensions of health and other factors such as religion and culture influence life satisfaction that differ across different societies. Prior research shows that there are variations in the relationship between health factors and life-satisfaction between Western and Asian countries. Nevertheless, it is still unknown to what extend health factors are related to life satisfaction in Brunei Darussalam—a country with small population but increasing in proportion of elderly population. This study aimed to explore health determinants of life satisfaction among elderly population in Brunei Darussalam. Methods: A cross-sectional study on a sample of 645 adults aged above 50 years, recruited nationally. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analysis were applied. Results: A robust model (R2=49.3%, alpha>0.7) suggested that life satisfaction in this population could largely be explained by musculoskeletal pain, difficulty to perform daily activities, psychological and emotional issues, and family support. Gender has significant moderating effects on this relationship. Conclusion: Impacts of life satisfaction from health, social, cultural, and related perspectives were discussed. These findings in this research may contribute to ongoing multi-sectorial efforts to design a comprehensive model of elderly care to achieve high quality of life.

Background: The prevalence of poor sleep quality is high among nurses, and affects them physically and psychologically as well as organisational functioning. However, evidence on equipping student nurses with good sleep practices that could mitigate poor sleep as they transition into the nursing workforce is lacking. Aim: This study compared the prevalence and quality of good sleep among hospital nurses and student nurses. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of 130 hospital nurses and 130 student nurses in Brunei was carried out. Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index. Multiple logistic regression was applied. Results: Hospital nurses were 4.29 times more likely to experience poor sleep than student nurses. Those who were overweight were 2.35 times more likely to have poor sleep quality than those with a healthy weight. Although students had significantly good sleep latency, needing less time to fall asleep, they experienced significantly more sleep disturbances, shorter sleep duration and less sleep efficiency. Conclusion: The prevalence of poor sleep quality among nurses in Brunei is higher than global estimates. Stakeholders such as nursing leaders, nursing educators and healthcare policymakers should prepare student nurses and help existing nurses by formulating strategies to promote working schedules and rosters that minimise circadian disruption.