Abstract
To analyze nurses' experiences in the front line of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the performance of emotional labor (EL), aiming at its characterization and identification of support strategies and development opportunities of nurses and practices. Qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study, with content analysis of eleven written narratives and reports from a focus group composed of nurses with experience in caring for patients with COVID-19 from different Hospital Centers in Lisbon, Portugal. Five themes were extracted: 1) Challenges experienced by nurses in the frontline; 2) Emotions experienced by nurses in service care; 3) Emotional responses of nurses and patients: impact on care; 4) EL of nurses in the patient care process; 5) Opportunities for development in the face of the emotional challenge required of nurses in combating COVID-19. The nurses demonstrated the ability to transform this profoundly emotional experience positively.
Highlights
OBJECTIVEThe current pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which translates into COVID-19 disease, has become a major health crisis on a global scale in the course of 2020
From the nurses’ experiences shared in the written narrative and the focus group, five themes were extracted, namely: 1) Challenges experienced by nurses in the front line of fighting COVID-19; 2) Emotions experienced by nurses in providing care to patients with COVID-19; 3) Emotional responses of nurses and patients with COVID-19: impact on care; 4) Nurses’ EL in the care process of patients with COVID-19; 5) Development opportunities in the face of the emotional challenge required by nurses in fighting COVID-19
The challenges faced by nurses on the front line of the fight against COVID-19
Summary
The current pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which translates into COVID-19 disease, has become a major health crisis on a global scale in the course of 2020. Some health professionals are even avoiding physical contact with the family or community due to stigma or fear, making this moment, already challenging, much more difficult[1] In this scenario, nurses face substantial changes in their workplace, mainly due to long hours, constant change in teams, and reallocation of services due to the new organization of patient care circuits “COVID and not COVID.”. Studies on extreme and borderline situations identify the sources of anxiety and fear among nurses on the front line of the fight against COVID-19 and are a reference for understanding the problem, but research in nursing is scarce It does not clarify the emotional experience and emotional management skills of nurses[2,3,4]. To analyze the experiences of nurses on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the performance of EL in order to characterize them and identify support strategies and development opportunities for nurses and nursing practices
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