Open AccessThe lived experiences of frontline nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic in Qatar: A qualitative study
Author(s) -
Villar Ralph C.,
Nashwan Abdulqadir J.,
Mathew Rejo G.,
Mohamed Ahmed S.,
Munirathinam Sathish,
Abujaber Ahmad A.,
AlJabry Mahmood M.,
Shraim Mujahed
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
nursing open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.55
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 2054-1058
DOI - 10.1002/nop2.901
Subject(s) - snowball sampling , covid-19 , pandemic , interpretative phenomenological analysis , qualitative research , context (archaeology) , nursing , teamwork , psychology , nonprobability sampling , workload , psychological resilience , medicine , disease , social psychology , sociology , outbreak , virology , environmental health , infectious disease (medical specialty) , social science , population , law , pathology , computer science , biology , operating system , paleontology , political science
Aim This study aims to explore the lived experiences of frontline nurses providing nursing care for COVID‐19 patients in Qatar. Design Qualitative, Phenomenological. Methods Nurses were recruited from a designated COVID‐19 facility using purposive and snowball sampling. The participants were interviewed face‐to‐face using semi‐structured interview questions from 6 September–10 October 2020. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Result A total of 30 nurses were interviewed; (76.7%) were deployed for >6 months. Three major themes were drawn from the analysis: (a) Challenges of working in a COVID‐19 facility (subthemes: working in a new context and new working environment, worn out by the workload, the struggle of wearing protective gear, fear of COVID‐19, witnessing suffering); (b) Surviving COVID‐19 (subthemes: keeping it safe with extra measures, change in eating habits, teamwork and camaraderie, social support); and (c) Resilience of Nurses (subthemes: a true calling, a sense of purpose).