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Article

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in negative consequences for nurse well-being, patient care delivery and outcomes, and organizational outcomes.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of nurses working during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

Design: This study used a qualitative descriptive design.

Setting(s): The setting for this study was a national sample of nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States over a period of 18 months.

Participants: Convenience and snowball sampling were used to recruit 81 nurses via social media and both national and state listservs.

Methods: Using a single question prompt, voicemail and emails were used for nurses to share their experiences anonymously working as a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Voicemails were transcribed and each transcript was analyzed using content analysis with both deductive and inductive coding.

Results: The overarching theme identified was Unbearable Suffering. Three additional themes were identified: 1) Facilitators to Nursing Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2) Barriers to Nursing Practice During the COVID-19 pandemic, with the sub-themes of Barriers Within the Work Environment, Suboptimal Care Delivery, and Negative Consequences for the Nurses; and lastly, 3) the Transitionary Nature of the Pandemic.

Conclusions: The primary finding of this study was that nurses experienced and witnessed unbearable suffering while working during the COVID-19 pandemic that was transitionary in nature. Future research should consider the long-term impacts of this unbearable suffering on nurses. Intervention research should be considered to support nurses who have worked during the COVID-19 pandemic, and mitigate the potential long-term effects.

Tweetable abstract: A study on nurses experiences during the pandemic reveals their unbearable suffering. Read here about the reasons nurses are leaving.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnsa.2023.100127

APA Citation

Littzen-Brown, C., Dolan, H., Norton, A., Bethel, C., May, J., & Rainbow, J. (2023). Unbearable suffering while working as a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative descriptive study. International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances, 5, 100127.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnsa.2023.100127

Rights

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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