Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the reallocation of healthcare resources, and a minimization of elective activities. Healthcare personnel involved in COVID-19 care have been found to be negatively affected by the associated excess stress. The existing COVID-19 research has focused on the experiences among healthcare personnel in general, and not particularly on the operating room members, who have often been relocated to overburdened workplaces. Therefore, we aimed at exploring the experiences in this particular group. Methods This study has a qualitative inductive design based on interviews with a strategic sample of 12 operating room members: surgeons, anesthesiologist, specialist nurses and nurse assistants. The interviews were analysed using content analysis. Results Three themes were identified; “Feeling safe in the familiar and anxiety in the unknown”, “To be the ones left behind”, and “The possibility for recuperation in a seemingly everlasting situation”. The participants described working hard, although it was experienced as not enough according to their moral ideals. We interpreted this as feelings and signs of moral distress, a commonly described concept in previous studies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a risk for burn out. Conclusions The operating room members emphasized the negative stress of being in the unknown, of performing work tasks in an unfamiliar place and situation, and of experiencing conflicting feelings of relief and guilt. Organizational strategies towards a functional leadership and support should be emphasized. Such strategies might reduce the risk of psychological consequences such as burn out.

Fagerdahl (2020): Health-related quality of life and prosthesis use among patients amputated due to peripheral arterial disease-a one-year follow-up, Disability and Rehabilitation,

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