Experiences of Nursing Students in the Care for Patients Diagnosed With COVID-19: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The present study examined the experiences of nursing students in the care of patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This qualitative study was performed based on inductive qualitative content analysis in 2020. The samples were 10 nursing students who were selected purposively from the emergency and intensive care unit wards of hospitals affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Data were collected through semistructured and individual interviews and analyzed simultaneously and continuously by Granheim and Landman inductive qualitative content analysis. Experiences of nursing students in the care for patients with COVID-19 include 3 main categories and 7 subcategories: (a) psychological stress (fear of ward and patients and mental conflict), (b) social isolation (rejection by the family and friends, isolation, and concealment of the workplace), and (c) coping strategies as an adaption strategy (a positive impact of spirituality and an effective role of increasing information). According to the findings of this study, the education system and university administrators can help reduce psychological stress and improve the quality of care in nursing students.

Nursing students’ clinical placement experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic: A phenomenological study

“…This connects with findings reported by Nabavian and colleagues (2021). Their participants also said they even hid from their families and friends while serving in Covid-19 wards so as not to generate anxiety ( Nabavian et al, 2021 ). These aspects are also described in other qualitative studies ( Canet-Vélez et al, 2021 , Roca et al, 2021 ).…”

“…As to nursing students, insights into their experience during the first wave of the pandemic while attending academic courses (Masha’al Dina et al, 2020 ) or clinical placement ( Eweida et al, 2020 ) are emerging. However, studies considering the clinical practice experience while caring for Covid-19 patients ( Casafont et al, 2021 , Galvin et al, 2020 , Nabavian et al, 2021 , Rodríguez-Almagro et al, 2021 ) are scarce. To the best of our knowledge, no study has examined this experience in Italy, where the pandemic strongly hit since February 2020 and clinical placements were almost wholly suspended.…”

The Listening Project: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Pre-Registered Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Scotland

“…As of the 12 studies, 6 were conducted in Spain (Canet-Vélez et al, 2021;Casafont et al, 2021;Gómez-Ibáñez et al, 2020;Ramos-Morcillo et al, 2020;Roca et al, 2021;Velarde-García et al, 2021), 2 in USA, 1 in England (Godbold et al, 2021), 1 in Jordan (Suliman et al, 2021), 1 in Iran (Nabavian et al, 2021), and 1 in Croatia (Lovrić et al, 2020). Included studies used semi-structured online interviews using Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft teams (n=7), focus group (n=1), face to face interview (n=2), archived letters ( n=1), and open-ended questionnaire sent via email (n=1).…”

The lived experience of nursing students caring for COVID-19 patients

“…Previous studies have identified that nursing students caring for patients with COVID-19 have expressed feelings of psychological stress, fear of patients, and mental conflict as they worried about becoming ill themselves or transmitting the virus to others. [6] Lancaster et al ( 2021) [1] also reported that graduating nurses experienced stress related to the conflict between their obligation to keep themselves and their loved ones safe while caring for those with COVID-19. For some students, the fear of infection in the classroom was not as significant as it was in the clinical setting.…”