The COVID‐19 pandemic: Analysing nursing risk, care and careerscapes

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how junior nurses, and some who were still in training, navigated the complexities and uncertainties engendered by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data are drawn from in‐depth interviews with 18 students/nurses in Christchurch, New Zealand. Managing intertwining risk, care and careerscapes takes an intensified form as existing infection control rules, established norms of care, boundaries between home and work and expected career trajectories roil. ‘Safe’ and ‘risky’ spaces are porous but maintained using contextual, critical, clinical judgement. Carescapes are stretched, both within and beyond the walls of healthcare settings. Within the COVID‐19 riskscape, careerscapes are open to both threat and opportunity. Countries demand much of their healthcare staff in times of heath crises, but have a limited appreciation of what it takes to translate seemingly tightly bounded protocols into effective practice. The labour required in this work of translation is navigated moment by moment. To surface some of this invisible work, those implementing pandemic plans may need to more carefully consider how to incorporate attention to the work/home/public boundary as well as overtly acknowledging the invisible emotional, physical and intellectual labour carried out in crisis risk, care and careerscapes.

Learning from critical care nurses' wartime experiences and their long‐term impacts

“…These conditions expand their duties beyond their official qualifications, and military nurses have described taking leadership and teaching roles within field hospitals 2,4,7,10–12 . More recent studies find that, among other similarities to military deployment, such role shifts mirror what nurses working during the current COVID‐19 pandemic report experience ( 13 ; Marey‐Salwan et al, 2021).…”

Implicações da atuação da enfermagem no enfrentamento da COVID-19: exaustão emocional e estratégias utilizadas

“…[3][4] Nesta pandemia não foi diferente, uma vez que a enfermagem recebeu destaque em estudos realizados durante este período pelas elevadas prevalências de danos à saúde mental e maior risco de desenvolver exaustão emocional no trabalho. [5][6][7] O enfrentamento da pandemia foi marcado pela formulação de estratégias para conter a disseminação viral 8 e os enfermeiros ocuparam a importante função de planejar, organizar e, junto dos técnicos/auxiliares de enfermagem, operacionalizar essas modificações, sendo também impactados pelas mudanças. Dentre as mudanças organizacionais, esteve a separação de pacientes infectados e não infectados com o Coronavírus, modificando o espaço físico e o fluxo de atendimento realizado pelos profissionais, [9][10] passando os hospitais a terem unidades dedicadas e não dedicadas à COVID-19.…”

Implications of nursing performance in coping with COVID-19: emotional exhaustion and strategies used

“…[3][4] It was no different in this pandemic, as Nursing was highlighted in studies carried out during this period due to the high prevalence of mental health harms and higher risk of developing emotional exhaustion at work. [5][6][7] Coping with the pandemic was marked by the formulation of strategies to contain viral dissemination 8 and nurses occupied the important function of planning, organizing and, together with nursing technicians/assistants, operationalizing such changes, also being impacted by the changes. Among the organizational changes, there was separation of patients infected and not infected with the Coronavirus, modifying the physical space and the flow of care performed by the professionals, [9][10] with hospitals having COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 units.…”