Background The concept of career identity is integral to nursing practices and forms the basis of the nursing professions. Positive career identity is essential for providing high-quality care, optimizing patient outcomes, and enhancing the retention of health professionals. Therefore, there is a need to explore potential influencing variables, thereby developing effective interventions to improve career identity. Objectives To investigate the relationship between moral distress, moral courage, and career identity, and explore the mediating role of moral courage between moral distress and career identity among nurses. Design A quantitative, cross-sectional study. Methods A convenient sample of 800 nurses was recruited from two tertiary care hospitals between February and March 2022. Participants were assessed using the Moral Distress Scale-revised, Nurses’ Moral Courage Scale, and Nursing Career Identity Scale. This study was described in accordance with the STROBE statement. Ethical consideration Research ethics approval was obtained from the researcher’s university and hospital where this study was conducted prior to data collection. Findings Moral distress is negatively associated while moral courage is positively associated with career identity among nurses. Moral courage partially mediates the relationship between moral distress and career identity ( β = −0.230 to −0.163, p < 0.01). Discussion The findings reveal a relationship between moral distress, moral courage, and career identity among nurses. Conclusion By paying attention to nurses’ moral distress and courage, healthcare providers can contribute to the development of effective interventions to improve career identity, and subsequently performance, among nurses.

Objective To identify factors associated with high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy failure in patients with severe COVID-19. Methods We retrospectively examined clinical and laboratory data upon admission, treatments, and outcomes of patients with severe COVID-19. Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores were also calculated. Results Of 54 patients with severe COVID-19, HFNC therapy was successful in 28 (51.9%) and unsuccessful in 26 (48.1%). HFNC therapy failure was more common in patients aged ≥60 years and in men. Compared with patients with successful HFNC therapy, patients with HFNC therapy failure had higher percentages of fatigue, anorexia, and cardiovascular disease; a longer time from symptom onset to diagnosis; higher SOFA scores; a higher body temperature, respiratory rate, and heart rate; more complications, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock, myocardial damage, and acute kidney injury; a higher C-reactive protein concentration, neutrophil count, and prothrombin time; and a lower arterial partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2). However, male sex, a low PaO2/FiO2, and a high SOFA score were the only independent factors significantly associated with HFNC therapy failure. Conclusions Male sex, a low PaO2/FiO2, and a high SOFA score were independently associated with HFNC therapy failure in patients with severe COVID-19.

Methods: In this single-center, retrospective, observational study, we enrolled patients with confirmed severe COVID-19 admitted to Renmin Hospital of Wuhan university (Wuhan, China) from 1 February 2020 to 26 March 26 2020. Epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory data, and treatments and outcomes upon hospital admission, were obtained from electronic medical records. Sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores were calculated.Results: Of 54 patients with severe COVID-19, HFNC was successful in 28 (51.9%) and unsuccessful in 26 (48.1%). HFNC failure was seen more commonly in patients aged ≥60 years and in men. In addition, compared with patients successfully treated with HFNC, patients with HFNC failure had the following characteristics: higher percentage of fatigue and anorexia as well as cardiovascular disease; increased time from onset to diagnosis and SOFA scores; elevated body temperature, respiratory rate, and heart rate; more complications including ARDS, septic shock, myocardial damage, and acute kidney injury; increased neutrophil counts and prothrombin time; and decreased arterial partial pressure of oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2) (all P < 0.05). However, binary logistic regression analysis showed that only male gender and PaO2/FiO2 were independent risk factors significantly associated with HFNC failure (both, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Patients with severe COVID-19 had a high HFNC treatment failure rate. Male gender and decreased PaO2/FiO2 were independent risk factors associated with HFNC failure in severe COVID-19 patients.