Italian nurses’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic through social media: A longitudinal mixed methods study of Internet posts

Abstract

Objective To examine the experience of Italian nurses posted on social media and discover changes, if any, over the waves. Methods A mixed methods study reported according to the Good Reporting of a Mixed Methods Study criteria. All narratives (texts, letters and interviews) posted by Italian nurses from February 2020 to May 2020 (first wave) and from October 2020 to May 2021 (second/third wave) on the five most famous Italian professional social media platforms. The data were analysed qualitatively (first wave) and then quantitatively (second/third wave). Results A total of 380 narratives (202,626 words, 2510 quotes) were posted in the first wave, and 161 (68,388 words, 835 quotes) in the second/third wave. In the first wave, the following five themes emerged: (a) ‘sharing what is happening within myself’ (891; 35.5%); (b) ‘experiencing unprecedented working conditions’ (749; 29.8%); (c) ‘failing to rehabilitate the image of nurses in society’ (376; 15%); (d) ‘experiencing a deep change’ (253; 10.1%) and (e) ‘do not abandon us’ (241; 9.6%). The same themes and subthemes also emerged in the second/third wave with some significant differences, indicating changes in the lived experience of nurses. Moreover, in the second/third wave, a new theme emerged: ‘experiencing the mixed emotions towards jabs’. Conclusions By analysing their posts, Italian nurses continue to face challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, with changes in their lived experiences across the waves. Governments, nursing associations and health care organizations should consider these changes to design policies to prevent the further loss of nurses.

Violence and aggression against nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Latin America. From the emerging leaders program of the Interamerican Society of Cardiology (SIAC)

“…The entire process of disseminating the survey, collecting the data, processing it, and communicating the results has adhered to international ethical standards for data handling (Rossettini et al, 2022).…”

“…Violence against HCP also has an economic impact, when absenteeism and medical expenses are related to the impacts (Kumari et al, 2022). Considering the growing concern about this issue, the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (SIAC) developed a survey to explore the frequency and type of aggression and violent actions against healthcare providers during COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America (Rossettini et al, 2022). Nurses play a significant role in caring for SARS-CoV-2 patient populations, especially with those who develop severe and decompensated illness.…”

“…Other surveys and qualitative studies have analysed this topic in other continents such as Europe. There is a consensus that this topic is highly relevant and necessary to understand further, as violence against nurses during the pandemic is quite universal (Kämmer & Ewers, 2021; Rossettini et al, 2022). The aim of this study was to characterize the type of aggression and violent events against all types of nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Latin America.…”

Understanding early experiences of Chinese frontline nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A text mining and thematic analysis of social media information

“…Certain studies have used NodeXL, LDAvis, and other visualization tools to analyze the posts by nurses on Twitter (Guo et al, 2021; O'Leary et al, 2022). Furthermore, content analysis has been conducted by collecting photos and texts posted by nurses on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Sina Weibo (Arasli et al, 2020; Chen et al, 2021; Fontanini et al, 2021; Koren et al, 2021; Rossettini et al, 2022). However, the characteristics of nurses' experiences and corresponding sentiments of posts were not extracted and analyzed in these studies.…”

Relationships between leadership behaviour of nurse managers and nurses' levels of job satisfaction and compassion fatigue during the COVID‐19 pandemic

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Among the occupational groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses have encountered many difficulties in patient care and have been exposed to many sources of stress (Aloweni et al, 2022;Murat et al, 2021). With a higher risk of infection compared to the rest of the population, nurses have experienced anxiety due to many factors, including limited rest, an insufficient number of personal protective equipment, increasing in workload and working hours, changes in the units or institutions where they work, experiencing unprecedented working conditions and the risk of transmitting or spreading the virus to their families (Labrague & De los Santos, 2021;Rossettini et al, 2022). This situation caused them to work under intense stress (Alan et al, 2021;Murat et al, 2021).

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