Management of the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges, practices, and organizational support

Abstract

Background Health organizations currently face tremendous challenges in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, successful and proven scientific practices and support are needed. Aim This study aimed to explore the challenges, practices, and organizational support dealt with by nursing managers in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method A qualitative content analysis study evaluated 35 nursing managers in five university hospitals through a semi-structured interview. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research were used for this qualitative study. Results Three main themes emerged: Challenges include the development of a COVID-19 crisis management plan, a shortage in nursing staff, and psychological problems. Practices include; changes in work schedules for nursing staff, the exchange process, hospital preparation, and training and education. And organizational support includes both support at an organizational level and support at an individual level. Conclusion This study revealed that nursing managers are faced with many challenges in the management of COVID-19, requiring good practices and organizational support. This study offers evidence for nursing managers to expect problems that may arise during the pandemic. Recommendations The COVID-19 pandemic requires the development of an integrated plan, and this plan must be disseminated to the hospital’s nursing and medical teams to better equip them for the current and future crises.

Organizational support and Nurse–Physician collaboration during SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic: A qualitative study

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Factores que afectan el cuidado enfermero en tiempos de pandemia: revisión bibliográfica en primer Nivel de atención

“…Además, la falta de apoyo emocional, reconocimiento del trabajo realizado y capacitación ha sido mencionada por Chemali et al (2022). Para abordar estos desafíos, se implementaron diversas estrategias, como la reorganización de la carga de trabajo de acuerdo a Irandoost et al ( 2022) y la contratación de personal adicional (Hossny et al, 2022).…”

How Norwegian homecare managers tackled COVID‐19 and displayed resilience‐in‐action: Multiple perspectives of frontline‐staff

“…In parallel, healthcare managers had to adapt their behaviours to continuously handle unexpected events and anticipate and respond rapidly to pandemic-induced challenges experienced by the frontlines (De La Garza & Lot, 2022;Hossny et al, 2022;Ree et al, 2022). Managers' capacity to quickly adapt to their dynamic surroundings has been identified as key to successful crisis management (Sriharan et al, 2022).…”

“…At the same time, homecare services were often understaffed, and staff had increased workloads, lacked personal protective equipment (PPE), were fearful of infection, and confronted rapidly changing information, guidelines, and procedures (Glette et al, 2023; Jacobsson et al, 2022; Juvet et al, 2021). In parallel, healthcare managers had to adapt their behaviours to continuously handle unexpected events and anticipate and respond rapidly to pandemic‐induced challenges experienced by the frontlines (De La Garza & Lot, 2022; Hossny et al, 2022; Ree et al, 2022). Managers' capacity to quickly adapt to their dynamic surroundings has been identified as key to successful crisis management (Sriharan et al, 2022).…”