An exploration of the psychological impact and support needs of nurses during a pandemic: A qualitative systematic review

Abstract

A pandemic is an epidemic disease outbreak that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population, causing tremendous suffering, disruption of normal life and even death (Madhav et al., 2017). Since December 2019, the world has experienced the rapid spread of novel pandemic disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (World Health Organization 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2020d. The familiar rhythms of daily life have been completely disrupted owing to the threat of infection and death, with case numbers increasing worldwide. However, humanity has faced more than one pandemic in this era. Since 2003, outbreaks of infectious diseases have become increasingly serious, for example, the pandemics of severe acute respiratory syndrome ( 2003), H1N1pdm influenza (2009), Middle East respiratory syndrome (2012), chikungunya (2014) and Zika virus (2015). The rapid spread of a pandemic, as in the case of COVID-19, and the potential for relatively high mortality rates associated with the pandemic have contributed to the current crisis, which has a tremendous effect on the well-being of individuals, societies and economic and public activities worldwide