Nurses’ challenges, concerns and unfair requirements during the COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Background During disease outbreaks, nurses express concerns regarding the organizational and social support required to manage role conflicts. Objectives The study examined concerns, threats, and attitudes relating to care provision during the COVID-19 outbreak among nurses in Israel. Design A 53-item questionnaire was designed for this research, including four open-ended questions. The article used a qualitative research to analyze the responses to the open-ended questions and their association with responses to the close-ended ones. Participants and research context In all, 231 registered nurses and fourth-year nursing students throughout the whole country. The questionnaire was delivered in nursing Facebook and WhatsApp groups and through snowball sampling. Ethical considerations The research was pre-approved by the Ethics Committee at the researchers’ university. Results Nurses mostly referred to personal risk, followed by dilemmas regarding care provision. On average, 38.6% of quotations stated that during the pandemic, nurses are not asked to perform unfair duties. Nurses discussed activities and requirements that impact their personal and familial safety, their relationship with employer, organization or the state, and their duty to providing care. Other than fear of contraction, respondents’ most frequent themes of concerns were related to work condition and patients’ interests, inter-collegiate relationships, and uncertainty and worries about the future. Respondents’ ethical dilemmas mostly referred to clinical questions, providing care without adequate equipment or managerial support, and in conditions of uncertainty and increased risk. Discussion Nurses raise important issues concerning their relationships with employers and family members, and significant insights regarding the pandemic and their revised responsibilities and definition of work. They raise serious concerns regarding their rights at work and their standing for them. Conclusions Health managers should find ways to enhance the ethical climate and institutional support to enable a better work-life balance in times of pandemic and support nurses’ working needs and labor rights.

Ethical dilemmas experienced by nurses while caring for patients during the COVID‐19 pandemic: An integrative review of qualitative studies

“…Nursing is a science and an art that, to be practised efficiently and effectively, requires specialized knowledge and skills, which, in turn, are acquired through years of study and experience (Vega & Hayes, 2019 ). Nurses must be well‐prepared for providing care, but with the emergence of the pandemic, many of them had to work in COVID‐19 wards and use medical equipment they had never used before without receiving adequate training (Morley et al, 2020 ; Sperling, 2021 ). Similar situations were described by nurses who cared for patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) (Kim, 2018 ) and Ebola (Raven et al, 2018 ).…”

COVID-19-related anxieties: Impact on duty to care among nurses

“…The types of anxieties demonstrated in our survey were also seen in a study of nurses in Israel. 32 In that study, Sperling used an original tool to survey 231 acute care nurses during the pandemic and found that the issues that most concerned nurses were contracting COVID-19 from work, bringing it home to family members, and certain work conditions, including being forced to care for COVID-19 patients without adequate training and PPE. These domains of concern were also highlighted in the current study which demonstrated that they were associated with an erosion of duty to care principles.…”

A critical incident study of ICU nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Many nurses have felt insufficiently supported by their institutions during the pandemic. 9 , 14 Moreover, organizational support is associated with reduced anxiety in nurses. 40 Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment for nurses and, according to the Canadian Nurses Association Code of ethics, both employers and governments have a duty to protect nurses during disasters and pandemics.…”

“…Nurses are confronting many ethical challenges during the pandemic 8 , 13 , 14 and ICU nurses, in particular, are at a greater risk of experiencing patient-related issues causing moral distress. 15 Furthermore, ICU nurses have the highest prevalence rates of burnout among different specialties, which is often related to moral distress as well as other unique characteristics of the critical care environment (e.g.…”