Lived Experience of Nurses in COVID-19 Units - A Phenomenological Study from Eastern India

Introduction: Nurses are the frontline workers who had to play multiple functions like in acute care, community, etc. but, it was stated that COVID-19 has caused immense trauma to nurses globally.

Methods: A descriptive phenomenological study to explore the lived experience of nurses working in COVID-19 units was conducted among nine senior nursing officers recruited by purposive homogenous sampling and interviewed with an open-ended interview guide by ensuring data saturation. COREQ guideline were adopted for this qualitative study.

Results: Qualitative data were analysed using Giorgi’s framework, and themes and sub-themes were derived. The major themes that emerged in the present study were “Reactions and preparation”, “Feelings and satisfaction in active duty”, “Role of a helping hand”, “Working experience in PPE”, and “Pandemic and socialization”. Each theme had further sub-themes to classify the verbatims.

Conclusion: Most of the nurses had anxiety and prepared themselves to play with fire, had unrealistic hope, and mixed emotions, kept their family away and intentionally concealed information to reduce family’s fear, were satisfied with training and preparation, and had unpleasant experiences with PPE, had to restrict their social activities and felt social stigma. It also concludes with the recommendation that warrants the need to improve their professional quality of life and working conditions by safeguarding nurses’ physical and mental health.