scholarly journals Exploring the experiences of nurses caring for patients with COVID-19: a qualitative study in Iran

BMC Nursing ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudabeh Ahmadidarrehsima ◽  
Nasibeh Salari ◽  
Neda Dastyar ◽  
Foozieh Rafati

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is now a major public health emergency in the world. Nurses as key members of the COVID-19 patient care team are exposed to most challenges caused by the disease. As exploring the experiences of nurses as patient supporters and caregivers can play an important role in improving the quality of care for patients with COVID-19 disease, the present study explored the experiences of nurses caring for patients with COVID-19. Methods The study employed a qualitative design. This study employed purposive sampling to select 10 nurses with bachelors and master’s degrees in nursing who were taking care of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs or inpatient wards in southern Iran. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis procedure proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. Results The analysis of the data revealed four main themes and ten sub-themes: A) physical, psychological, and social burden of care (excessive workload; fear, anxiety, worry; unpleasant social experiences; compassion fatigue) B) unmet needs (personal needs and professional needs) C) positive experiences (pleasant social experiences and inner satisfaction), and D) strategies (problem-solving strategies and stress symptom mitigation strategies). Conclusions An analysis of the themes and subthemes extracted in this study suggested that the nurses who participated in this study faced many personal and professional challenges. Therefore, health officials and specialists need to pay special attention to nurses’ challenges and needs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (31_suppl) ◽  
pp. 30-30
Author(s):  
Claudia Sofia Roldan ◽  
Jie Jane Chen ◽  
Alexandra N. Nichipor ◽  
Tracy A. Balboni ◽  
Monica Shalini Krishnan ◽  
...  

30 Background: We aimed to gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of patients with advanced metastatic cancer surrounding palliative radiation therapy (RT). Methods: In-depth structured interviews were conducted from 9/2016 to 10/2018 with 17 patients with bone or lung metastases receiving their first course of palliative RT. Patient answers about understandings of goals of care and disease prognosis were recorded and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Medical records were reviewed to obtain demographic and clinical data. Results: The median age of patients was 64 years (range: 21-82). The median survival from time of metastatic diagnosis was 17.6 months (range: 1-46). When asked about goals of RT, qualitative analysis revealed that half (53%) linked receiving palliative RT to improving their quality of life, however 35% believed RT would completely get rid of their tumor. Words that were used commonly throughout patient answers included alleviating pain (41%), cure (29%), and reducing tumor growth (24%). All patients reported they received their information about goals of care from their medical teams. When asked about prognosis, 53% said prognosis had been discussed with them, whereas 76.5% said they were interested in information about prognosis. When asked “What do you believe lies ahead?,” about half (47%) expressed uncertainty about the future, while others (41%) were focused on the next steps in treatment. In the patients interested in learning more about their prognosis, there was a strong preference for this information to come from their medical teams. Conclusions: More than half of patients accurately identified the goal of RT as improving their quality of life, however some patients believed that the palliative RT would cure their tumor. This highlights the ongoing gap in patient provider communication and the need for improvement in this area. Inaccurate perceptions of goals of treatment and prognosis may motivate some patients to pursue unnecessarily aggressive treatments, which could affect quality of life without improving survival. Referrals to radiation oncologists present a potential opportunity to reopen discussions on goals of care and prognosis to adjust patient expectations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
azade safa ◽  
Farzaneh Sabery ◽  
Mahdieh Sabery

Abstract BackgroundPrevention and management of compassion fatigue (CF) is one of the most serious issues facing the nursing profession today because CF is a complex phenomenon with many negative and destructive consequences. Given that cultural, religious, and socioeconomic differences can affect nurses’ perception about preventive strategies of CF; this study was conducted to obtain greater understanding about prevention and management strategies of CF among Iranian nurses. MethodsInductive content analysis study was conducted by the method proposed by Elo and Kyngäs. It includes three steps of open coding, creating classes and abstracting it. Purposive sampling was used to select the nurses in Tehran and Kashan (two cities in the center of Iran). Data was gathered by semi-structured interviews from June to October 2020. ResultsThe following two main themes, 5 categories and 13 subcategories were extracted. The labels of themes included "self-care strategies" and "social support strategies ". Self-care strategies consisted of 2 main categories of problem-based strategies and escape/ avoidance strategies. Social support strategies included 3 main categories of family support, organizational support and community support. ConclusionThe results showed that Iranian nurses use self-care strategies and social support strategies to prevent and manage CF; nevertheless, it seemed social support strategies outweighed self-care strategies. As a result, in addition to the importance of family and organizational support, the governmental support is also noticeable, thus, appropriate policy- making and culture-building activities to promote nursing dignity are necessary.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1213-1224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Tajabadi ◽  
Fazlollah Ahmadi ◽  
Afsaneh Sadooghi Asl ◽  
Mojtaba Vaismoradi

Background Nursing documentation as a pivotal part of nursing care has many implications for patient care in terms of safety and ethics. Objectives To explore factors influencing nursing documentation from nurses’ perspectives in the Iranian nursing context. Methods This qualitative study was carried out using a qualitative content analysis of data collected from 2018 to 2019 in two urban areas of Iran. Semi-structured interviews (n = 15), observations, and reviews of patients’ medical files were used for data collection. Ethical considerations This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of research and regulations in terms of confidentiality of data, anonymity, and provision of informed consent. Findings The main theme of this study was “unsafe documentation.” Two categories, “types of errors in reporting” and “reasons of errors in reporting,” and 12 subcategories were developed indicating factors influencing nursing documentation in the Iranian nursing context. Conclusion In general, individual, organizational, and national factors affected nursing documentation in Iran. In this respect, hiring more nurses, application of reforms in the healthcare management structure, devising appropriate regulations regarding division of labor, constant education of healthcare staff, establishment of clinical governance, improvement of interpersonal relationships, development of hardware and software techniques for documentation, and provision of support should be done to improve the quality of nursing documentation. The above-mentioned suggestions can help nurses with a safe, ethical, lawful, and reliable documentation in nursing practice.


Author(s):  
Nazan Ulusoy ◽  
Anja Schablon

In most studies, nurses with a migrant background report experiences of interpersonal discrimination. These often occur in interaction with those in need of care. However, in Germany this topic has remained largely unexplored, although a large proportion of the employees in geriatric care have a migration background. The aim of the study was to investigate whether care workers with Turkish migration background in in-patient geriatric care are exposed to discrimination from residents. Furthermore, the reasons for discrimination, handling of discrimination and recommendations for in-patient geriatric facilities to avoid/reduce discrimination were examined. In a qualitative, explorative study, 24 employees with Turkish migrant background working in in-patient geriatric care were interviewed in 2017. The semi-structured interviews were evaluated using a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. The majority (N = 20) experienced or observed discrimination. This occurred mainly in the form of xenophobic insults and rejections. They perceived visible traits (dark hair and eye color, clothing) as potential reasons. To deal with the discrimination, most of them temporarily left the scene. They recommend that institutions should primarily make the diversity of the workforce transparent to avoid/reduce discrimination. More research is needed about discrimination against care workers with migration background because discrimination may have serious psychological effects that impact employee retention and the quality of care.


Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 283
Author(s):  
Ralf-Christian Härting ◽  
Włodzimierz Lewoniewski

Collaborative knowledge bases allow anyone to create and edit information online. One example of a resource with collaborative content is Wikipedia. Despite the fact that this free encyclopedia is one of the most popular sources of information in the world, it is often criticized for the poor quality of its content. Articles in Wikipedia in different languages on the same topic, can be created and edited independently of each other. Some of these language versions can provide very different but valuable information on each topic. Measuring the quality of articles using metrics is intended to make open data pages such as Wikipedia more reliable and trustworthy. A major challenge is that the ‘gold standard’ in determining the quality of an open data page is unknown. Therefore, we investigated which factors influence the potentials of quality determination of collaborative open data pages and their sources. Our model is based on empirical data derived from the experience of international experts on knowledge management and data quality. It has been developed by using semi-structured interviews and a qualitative content analysis based on Grounded Theory (GT). Important influencing factors are: Better outcomes, Better decision making, Limitations, More efficient workflows for article creation and review, Process efficiency, Quality improvement, Reliable and trustworthy utilization of data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Aarthun ◽  
Knut A Øymar ◽  
Kristin Akerjordet

In many western countries, parents have a legal right to influence and be involved in decision-making (DM) surrounding their children’s healthcare. This ensures that the healthcare is customized as far as possible to meet the children’s and families’ needs and preferences. However, parental involvement in such DM is not sufficiently implemented and the parental role during hospitalizations has become demanding. More knowledge is required to inform health professionals (HPs) about how to improve parental involvement in DM from a health-promoting perspective. The aims of this study were to explore parents’ experiences of how HPs facilitate their involvement in the DM surrounding their child’s healthcare and to identify how HPs can improve parental involvement at the hospital. This was an explorative, descriptive qualitative study within a constructivist research paradigm, comprising a purposive sample of 12 parents participating in individual semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was performed. The findings showed that HPs’ sensitivity to parents’ capacity, resources and needs was essential in order to facilitate the latter’s involvement in DM. HPs’ sensitivity also seemed to influence the quality of communication and the HP-parent relationship. Moreover, these factors appeared to affect parents’ coping ability during their children’s hospitalization.


2021 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siamak Amiri ◽  
Parvaneh Vasli ◽  
Jamileh Mohtashami ◽  
Nadereh Memaryan

Background: Spiritual care (SC) is an appropriate source for adaptation and coping with disease and life stressors. Although SC contributes to the quality of life and mental health of clients, there are barriers to the provision of such care. Objectives: This study aimed to explore barriers to the provision of SC in mental health care centers from the viewpoints of mental health care provider (MHCP) experts. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted based on conventional content analysis on 19 participants who were selected from different groups of MHCPs. The participants were selected by purposive sampling method from December 2019 to December 2020 in Karaj and Tehran, Iran, by considering the maximum diversity. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with participants during an average time of 60 min per interview until data saturation. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Results: Barriers to SC were obtained in four categories and 10 subcategories. The categories included “SC concept-related barriers”, “barriers related to MHCPs”, “organizational barriers”, and “barriers related to SC recipients.” Conclusions: This study demonstrated various barriers to the provision of SC to the clients of health care centers that should be removed to promote the level and quality of SC.


BMC Nursing ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vahid Zamanzadeh ◽  
Leila Valizadeh ◽  
Mohammad Khajehgoodari ◽  
Farzaneh Bagheriyeh

Abstract Background Nurses are at the forefront of patient care during infectious disease pandemics and they play a key role in treating and preventing the upward trend of the disease. Hence, it is crucial to consider their experiences in designing action plans to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since there is not enough data in this regard, the current study aimed to investigate the nurses’ experiences in caring for patients with COVID-19 in Iran. Methods In this descriptive qualitative study, a total of 20 nurses were selected by purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis to collect data. Results Data analysis revealed four main themes, including ‘duality in the form of care,’ ‘confusion and ambiguity in care planning’, ‘workload’, and ‘social isolation in spite of positive image.’ Conclusion Our findings indicated that the nurses experienced a range of paradoxes during the COVID-19 pandemic; these paradoxes included distraction from providing care due to focus on marginal factors in spite of empathy and cooperation in nurses, the presence of volunteer support staff despite the lack of equipment, lack of scientific information and the unreliability of online information, overload in the hospital due to insufficient facilities and equipment, and the physical avoidance of people in the community in spite of social support for nurses in the media. The results of this study can lead to a clear understanding for managers and healthcare policymakers in the country and aid them in taking optimal measures to support nurses and improve the quality of nursing care against COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205715852110446
Author(s):  
Jennifer Gothilander ◽  
Helene Johansson

Childhood obesity is increasing in Sweden. All children are offered regularly spread health visits to a school nurse. As health visits include a measure of height and weight and a health dialogue, school nurses can discover, disclose, and treat a child's weight gain. The aim of this study was to describe school nurses’ experiences and challenges in working with childhood obesity. This qualitative study collected data through focus-group discussion and semi-structured interviews with ten female school nurses from six municipalities. Data were analysed inductively using manifest qualitative content analysis. The study was reported using the COREQ guidelines. Stigmatization and lack of resources are major challenges for school nurses working with childhood obesity, and they experience frustration, powerlessness and feel that they provide unequal treatment. The present study concludes that obesity stigmatization is a widespread challenge for school nurses. They cannot alone generate all the resources needed or conquer all challenges. Evidence-based guidelines, increased knowledge, time for reflections and peer support could potentially empower school nurses, reduce frustration, and improve the quality of and equality in childhood obesity treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 311-322
Author(s):  
Robert J. Litwin ◽  
Johanna L. Chan ◽  
Steven Y. Huang

AbstractMalignant bowel obstruction (MBO) is a relatively common condition affecting patients with advanced malignancy. Therapeutic interventions should be aimed at maintaining quality of life. Given the lack of prospective controlled studies in this patient population, patient management is often based on local practice patterns and anecdotal experience. To foster a collaborative approach among the members of the patient care team involving internal medicine, oncology, palliative care, clinical nutrition, surgery, gastroenterology, and interventional radiology physicians, it is important to improve our understanding of MBO. The purpose of this article is to describe the clinical presentation, pathophysiology, as well as medical, surgical, and nonsurgical palliative options available to patients with MBO for purposes of decompression and nutrition.


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