J Korean Crit Care Nurs.  2022 Jun;15(2):14-26. 10.34250/jkccn.2022.15.2.14.

Nurses’ experiences of caring for severe COVID-19 patients

• Kang MM
• Park YN
• Park SY
• Kim JH

• KMID: 2531632
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.34250/jkccn.2022.15.2.14

Abstract

Purpose
: This study aimed to understand and describe the nurses’ experiences caring for severe COVID-19 patients at isolation room with negative pressure in South Korea.
Methods
: Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews from February 16 to March 31, 2021 with 11 nurses who had been caring for severe COVID-19 patients at isolation room. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed according to Colaizzi’s phenomenological analysis.
Results
: As a result, 5 theme clusters were extracted about nurses’ experiences. The 5 theme clusters, “Adapting to unexpected adversity”, “Accepting unresonable and heavy work”, “Dulness and disconnection from the outside world”, “Changing in perception of new infectious diseases”, and “Pathetic isolated patients” emerged.
Conclusion
: The results of this study provided a deeper understanding of nurses struggling to care for COVID-19 severe patients. This study is expected to be useful in providing basic evidence for improving intensive care practices and for preparing policies in other infection disease situations.

Keyword

COVID-19; Critical Care; Nurses; Qualitative research; 코로나 바이러스; 중환자 간호; 간호사; 질적연구