Beyond the Boundaries of Nursing Care: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created an emergency and challenging situation, especially for nurses, who have experienced feelings including fear and questions concerning their job responsibilities and professional ethics. They needed to maintain safety on the basis of their knowledge and skills. This study aimed to explore nurses’ experiences related to the pandemic. This research was conducted by using qualitative research with a descriptive phenomenological design. The participants were 15 nurses on duty in COVID-19 units at hospitals and who were delivering or had delivered direct care to patients with COVID-19. Data were collected from in-depth interview and analyzed with Colaizzi technique. The nurses experienced psychological disorders while they were performing their roles through the professional care models, and coping with the management of their workload during the pandemic. These circumstances were caused by the responsibility of nurses to give all forms of support and protection to patients. The study has shown that nurses faced some challenges regarding nursing workload to provide nursing care during the pandemic.