AUTHOR=Maghsoodi Esmaiel , Vanaki Zohreh , Mohammadi Eesa 

TITLE=Nurses’ perception of work and life under COVID-19 pandemic conditions: a qualitative study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1292664

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1292664

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Objectives: Although nurses work and live in special and stressful conditions in terms of their professional characteristics, in periods of crises and pandemics, when the work pressure of nurses and people's need for professional services is extraordinary and incomparable to customary conditions, their work and life situation is entirely different. Therefore, what nurses have experienced in the COVID-19 pandemic can go beyond the challenges of the work environment. This study was conducted to discover nurses' perceptions of work and life during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted with a conventional content analysis approach on 16 nurses working in the inpatient wards of COVID-19 in Iran. Data were collected through unstructured, individual, and in-depth interviews between August 2020 and June 2023 and were analyzed using content analysis with the conventional (inductive) approach of Granheim and Lundman.
Results: Data analysis led to the extraction of 11 subcategories, including "feeling of lack of support and understanding from managers," "team cooperation and communication challenges in difficult work conditions," "shadow of burnout," "shortage inequity," "dissatisfaction with unfair wages and benefits," "not seeing and appreciating nurses' war sacrifice," "suffering and fatigue of using personal protective equipment (PPE)," "deprivation of fun and rest in life," "fear of illness and imminent death," "low resilience," "deteriorating conditions of life." These 11 subcategories led to the themes "unsafe work environment" and "the shadow of suffering and death on life."
Conclusion: Nurses working in the COVID-19 wards in Iran have worked in an unsafe work environment during the COVID-19 epidemic and have experienced life with suffering and fear of death. It is necessary to pay attention to the needs and problems of nurses and provide the required support by health care organizations to maintain their physical and mental health during epidemics.