1. Health and well-being of military nurses in high-reliability, high-stress environments : a qualitative study in the slovenian armed forcesZlatko Kvržić, Mirko Prosen, 2026, original scientific article Abstract: Aim: To investigate how female military nurses experience high-reliability, high-stress environments and how these conditionsshape their well-being.Background: Military nursing involves complex demands that extend beyond clinical care, including dual professional roles,operational unpredictability, and gendered expectations. These pressures can undermine physical, psychological, and social well-being, yet the lived experiences of military nurses, particularly women, remain underexplored.Design: A qualitative descriptive design was used.Methods: Ten female military nurses were recruited through purposive sampling and interviewed individually in semi-structuredonline interviews. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Trustworthiness was ensured through reflexive coding,an audit trail, and adherence to COREQ guidelines.Results: Five overarching categories captured the factors shaping well-being: organisational and structural demands; high-stressoperational environments; emotional and psychological burden; coping and resilience; and gendered identity and work–familybalance. Participants described constrained autonomy, communication gaps, and role ambiguity within hierarchical structures.Psychological pressures were heightened by moral tensions, responsibility for colleagues, and expectations of emotional control.Coping relied mainly on informal peer support, as formal services were rarely used due to stigma. Gendered norms and familyresponsibilities further influenced well-being and career decisions.Conclusion: Military nurse well-being is shaped less by individual resilience and more by organisational culture, operationaldemands, and gendered expectations. Addressing these systemic factors is essential for sustaining the military nursing workforce.Implication for Nursing: Strengthening leadership support, communication, psychological safety, and professional autonomymay improve working conditions and support nurses’ well-being in demanding operational contexts.Implications for Health Policy: Policies should promote supportive organisational cultures, reduce stigma around help-seeking,and facilitate work–family reconciliation to sustain and retain the military nursing workforce.
Keywords: military medicine, occupational health, psychological stress, qualitative research, work–family conflict, work environment
Published in RUP: 17.04.2026; Views: 270; Downloads: 8
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2. Experiences and perceptions of a 12-week combined exercise and dietary supplement program for individuals with knee osteoarthritis : a qualitative focus group studyTina Čeh, Jernej Završnik, Nejc Šarabon, Mirko Prosen, 2026, original scientific article Abstract: Background Exercise program and dietary supplements are commonly used in the conservative management of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and have both been shown to reduce pain and improve physical function. Combining these approaches may offer additive benefits or introduce specific adherence challenges from the patient perspective. The combination of structured exercise with dietary supplements remains underexplored, especially through qualitative approaches. This study aims to investigate the lived experiences, perceived benefits, challenges, and motivational factors among participants of a targeted exercise program combined with dietary supplementation. Methods A qualitative study design with three focus group was used to explore participants overall experiences, motivational factors, and barriers to participation immediately after program. The sample included 16 older adults with KOA (Kellgren–Lawrence grade 1–3, 14 women and 2 men). Two moderators facilitated each focus group using topic guide. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Results Six main themes were identified: (1) recognized effects of exercise, (2) motivators and barriers to exercise, (3) group exercise and its impact on daily life, (4) recognized health care limitations, (5) experiences and practices of dietary supplement use, and (6) perspectives on program continuation and expansion. Conclusions Participants’ experiences with the combined exercise and dietary supplementation program for KOA highlighted the importance of social support, professional guidance, and self-motivation. Barriers included physical limitations, time constraints, and psychological challenges, while reported benefits included reduced pain, improved mood, and enhanced social engagement. Participants’ tendency to perceive exercise and supplementation as separate components indicates that, in practice, combined interventions may function as parallel rather than integrated strategies unless explicitly framed and supported as a unified approach
Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, exercise program, dietary supplements, qualitative study, physical rehabilitation, patient experience, motivation
Published in RUP: 21.02.2026; Views: 340; Downloads: 1
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3. Qualitative control learning can be much faster than reinforcement learningDomen Šoberl, Ivan Bratko, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: Reinforcement learning has emerged as a prominent method for controlling dynamic systems in the absence of a precise mathematical model. However, its reliance on extensive interactions with the environment often leads to prolonged training periods. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to learning control policies that focuses on learning qualitative models and uses symbolic planning to derive a qualitative plan for the control task, which is executed by an adaptive reactive controller. We conduct experiments utilizing our approach on the cart-pole problem, a standard benchmark in dynamic system control. We additionally extend this problem domain to include uneven terrains, such as driving over craters or hills, to assess the robustness of learned controllers. Our results indicate that qualitative learning offers significant advantages over reinforcement learning in terms of sample efficiency, transferability, and interpretability. We demonstrate that our proposed approach is at least two orders of magnitude more sample efficient in the cart-pole domain than the usual variants of reinforcement learning.
Keywords: qualitative modeling, qualitative reasoning, qualitative control, transfer learning
Published in RUP: 07.08.2025; Views: 821; Downloads: 25
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5. The valorisation of olive mill wastewater from Slovenian Istria by Fe[sub]3O[sub]4 particles to recover polyphenolic compounds for the chemical specialties sectorKelly Peeters, Ana Miklavčič Višnjevec, Esakkiammal Sudha Esakkimuthu, Matthew Schwarzkopf, Črtomir Tavzes, 2021, original scientific article Keywords: polyphenolic compounds, olive mill wastewater, extraction techniques, Fe3O4 particles, magnetic collection, adsorption and desorption, quantitative and qualitative analysis
Published in RUP: 24.11.2021; Views: 2984; Downloads: 63
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9. Parents' experiences of suicide-bereavement : a qualitative study at 6 and 12 months after lossVictoria Ross, Kairi Kölves, Lisa Kunde, Diego De Leo, 2018, original scientific article Keywords: suicide-bereavement, parents, sense-making, meaning-making, coping, qualitative
Published in RUP: 21.01.2019; Views: 3837; Downloads: 125
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10. Interactions between youth and mental health professionals : The Youth Aware of Mental health (YAM) program experienceCamilla Wasserman, Vita Poštuvan, Dana Herta, Miriam Iosue, Peeter Värnik, Vladimir Carli, 2018, original scientific article Keywords: mental health, youth, suicide, qualitative, interaction
Published in RUP: 21.02.2018; Views: 6779; Downloads: 80
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