Exploring nurses' experiences of psychological distress during care of patients with COVID-19: a qualitative study

COVID-19 infection is a new disease that infects a large number of people, killing a ratio of whom every day in the world. Healthcare staff, especially nurses, experience a great deal of psychological distress during care of COVID-19 patients. Detecting factors that disturb nurses' mental health during care of these patients can help to reduce their psychological distress. Therefore, this study aimed to explore nurses' experiences of psychological distress during care of patients with COVID-19.

The present qualitative research was performed using the conventional content analysis method in Iran from March to May 2020. Participants in this study included the nurses caring for patients with COVID-19, and they were selected based on the purposeful sampling method. The data was collected through 20 phone call interviews and analyzed based on the method proposed by Lundman and Graneheim.

Qualitative data analysis revealed 11 categories including death anxiety, anxiety due to the nature of the disease, anxiety caused by corpse burial, fear of infecting the family, distress about time wasting, emotional distress of delivering bad news, fear of being contaminated, the emergence of obsessive thoughts, the bad feeling of wearing personal protective equipment, conflict between fear and conscience, and the public ignorance of preventive measures.

The data showed that the nurses experienced a variety of psychological distress during care of patients with COVID-19. Through proper planning by authorities, it is possible to manage the risk factors of mental health distress in nurses and improve their mental health status.