RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Live Experiences of Nurses Caring for Patients Diagnosed with COVID-19 Infection in the North West Province
Joan M. Dikobe1, *, Miriam M. Moagi1, Leepile A. Sehularo1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 16
E-location ID: e187494452302140
Publisher ID: e187494452302140
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v16-e230320-2022-183
Article History:
Received Date: 07/11/2022Revision Received Date: 18/01/2023
Acceptance Date: 18/01/2023
Electronic publication date: 29/03/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Nurses are the frontline healthcare workers and continue to play a vital role in caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Exploring and describing the experiences of nurses caring for COVID-19 patients are significant to determine what nurses are experiencing physically, psychologically, and socially, in order to help them in improving the quality of patient care.
Objective:
The study aimed to explore and describe the live experiences of the nurses caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection in the North West Province.
Methods:
A qualitative, descriptive, phenomenological and contextual design was used to collect data. The study used a non-probability sampling approach and purposive sampling technique to select four focus group discussions (FGDs) in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and analysis was done using descriptive phenomenological data analysis to develop themes and categories. Measures to ensure the trustworthiness of the study were considered throughout the study.
Results:
The results indicated nurses’ conceptualisation of COVID-19, nurses’ physical experiences of caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, nurses' psychological experiences of caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, nurses' social experiences of caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, nurses' positive experiences of caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, and nurses' experiences of coping when caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection.
Conclusion:
The study showed nurses caring for COVID-19 patients to be physically, psychologically, and socially affected by the disease. Therefore, they needed support from the managers, colleagues, family members, and the community.
