Nurse care during the COVID-19 pandemic under the influence of fear and loneliness

Researchers from the University of Seville Department of Nursing, with the collaboration of professionals from the ICU at Virgen Macarena University Hospital in Seville, have analyzed the key elements in caring for COVID- emergency patients 19 during the first wave of the pandemic. Their study concludes that fear and loneliness affected nursing care, which made it difficult to maintain the human experience of health care.

The breakdown in the human movement of ICU care during this period was largely due to the isolation of COVID-19 patients. This, combined with the personal protective equipment worn by staff to prevent the disease itself and the restrictions on visiting families, has made it more difficult to provide full and complete care to individuals, such as identified in the study.

Fear of the unknown, lack of proper protocols and appropriate protective products at the onset of the pandemic, uncertainty against an unknown and highly lethal virus, coupled with fear of the staff their loved ones To infect. . In fact, this condition caused many of them to need psychological support and affected their ability to function properly as they were up to the pandemic.

Fear of the unfamiliar emotions widened negative feelings, causing feelings to emerge that had never been seen in their work environment. First, the lack of material resources, staffing and protocols was significant. However, as the weeks went by, management issues were overcome as more insight was gained about the disease, leading to the development and implementation of specific protocols and improvements in the organization of care.

With these factors, nursing professionals added to the difficulty of working with nurses with no specific training in intensive care. Some had to enter the ICU from other specialty areas as Covid-19 patient numbers rose. “Intensive care training is incorporated into the bachelor’s degree but many have to be left out for lack of time,” explained Rafael-Jesús Fernández-Castillo, one of the study’s authors. “The nurses fought long and hard for their intensive care specialization. Sufficient scientific evidence supports the need for it with futile results from the leaders. Therefore, more intensively trained emergency care support workers would better workload of nurses in the regular team “.

The study, which appeared in the journal Fostering in emergency care, published by the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN), took a qualitative approach. To achieve the goal, 17 nurses of different ages, trained and experienced who worked at ICU Virgen Macarena University Hospital in Seville were interviewed during the first wave of the pandemic (April 2020).