Rural Nursing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot of Nurses' Experiences from Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Introduction:The aim of this article was to collect and analyseif/how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the practice of rural nurses'from Aotearoa, New Zealand.Methods: This qualitative study involved nine rural nurse paticipants from New Zealand. All participants engaged with an individual zoom interview, during the pandemic lockdown. The interviews were conducted and audio recorded with the first author, guided by a set number of questions. The interviews were edited and produced as a podcast before being played on a local radio station in New Zealand.Thematic analysis was used to analyse theedited recorded podcast interviews.Results: During COVID-19 rural nurses' became welfare providers and community educators, they upskilled their practice and worked at a distance. They were effective communicators and collaborators with their health practitioner colleagues and members of the rural communities. Equally, health disparities, vulnerable populations, economic dynamics and community resiliance were noted as was the rural nurses' pioneering spirit. Discussion:The COVID-19 pandemic placed heightened demands on rural nurses and thus, potentially demanded changes in practice. Recognition has been given to compare whether the pioneering spirit associated with rural nursing practice, initially in the 1990s has continued in a similar vein, identified in the larger research project was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings have further lead us to reflect on lessons learnt from nurses' experiences and practice associated with the New Zealand 1918 flu pandemic.

Newly qualified registered nurses’ and midwives’ experiences from rural health district placement in Namibia

“…Although participants in the current study did not mention any experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent literature has indicated that some nurses in rural health districts strengthened communication and collaboration within communities by becoming community educators, supporting their colleagues and becoming more resilient during the pandemic [48]. In other settings, however, rural nurses experienced role frustration owing to chaos in the care environment and feeling overwhelmed and abandoned by their communities, families and leaders during the pandemic [49].…”