Protective reactions of ICU nurses providing care for patients with COVID-19: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background The exponential spread of COVID-19 has caused a huge threat to public health worldwide. Providing care for patients with COVID-19 is a stressful experience for ICU nurses, which can affect their protective reactions. The present study was conducted to explore the protective reactions of ICU nurses providing care for patients with COVID-19. Methods This qualitative descriptive study was conducted to discover the protective reactions of nurses providing care for patients with COVID-19. A total of 14 ICU nurses were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected using individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews. All interviews were recorded, and then codes and themes were extracted using content analysis method. Finding Seventeen subcategories, six categories and two themes were extracted from the analysis of data. These themes include “Unbalanced self-protective reactions” and “Responsible self-protective reactions”. Conclusion During the COVID-19 epidemic and crisis, ICU nurses exhibit different self-protective reactions when providing care for patients with COVID-19, which include unbalanced and responsible reactions. Nursing managers can mitigate these unbalanced reactions by identifying them and their roots. Identifying the protective reactions of ICU nurses in providing care for patients with COVID-19 could assist in developing the necessary interventions to promote positive reactions and reduce unbalanced reactions by finding their root causes.

Home care nurses’ perception of the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study

“…Similar to the findings of other studies, the participants in the present study also experienced different levels of fear, stress, obsession, and depression during the pandemic [ 29 , 30 ]. This study also confirms the results of other studies [ 27 ] indicating that fatigue results from physical and psychological burnout. Fatigue also caused negligence in safety measures to control infection, which significantly reduced patient care [ 31 ] and even threatened the patients’ as well as nurses’ health causing them to eventually contract the disease [ 27 ].…”

“…This study also confirms the results of other studies [ 27 ] indicating that fatigue results from physical and psychological burnout. Fatigue also caused negligence in safety measures to control infection, which significantly reduced patient care [ 31 ] and even threatened the patients’ as well as nurses’ health causing them to eventually contract the disease [ 27 ]. This finding also confirmed other studies’ results [ 26 , 27 ].…”

“…This support showed itself in titles such as “health care heroes” and “health care warriors” which were given to the health care staff. Unlike home care nurses in Iran, their counterparts in other countries [ 26 ] and in hospitals in Iran [ 27 ] didn’t discontinue their jobs at the beginning and continued looking after patients into the pandemic. This study indicates that these nurses lacked adequate training and preparation to face a crisis; therefore, they stepped away from fulfilling their duties due to the fear of contracting the disease.…”

“…Fatigue also caused negligence in safety measures to control infection, which significantly reduced patient care [ 31 ] and even threatened the patients’ as well as nurses’ health causing them to eventually contract the disease [ 27 ]. This finding also confirmed other studies’ results [ 26 , 27 ]. Based on these results, it seems that the physical and psychological distress inflicted on home care nurses during a pandemic must be regularly checked in order to prevent the consequences [ 32 ].…”

“…Not being properly educated by professionals, families believed the information on social media and insisted on practicing them at home and on their patients. As several studies have indicated, insisting on conducting unscientific protective measures stems from the family members’ compassion towards their other family members [ 27 ].…”