[Nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic - a particular challenge]

Nursing quality is one of today's priorities in health care. The COVID-19 pandemic had posed particular challenges for nursing practice. There is currently only limited information available about nursing care in health care institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore the aim of this study was to describe the quality of nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to the available structural circumstances (structure), the applied interventions (process) and the perceived stress of nursing staff (outcome).

A cross-sectional study using an electronic questionnaire was carried out in different health care institutions. The questionnaire includes general questions as well as questions on structure, process and outcome indicators.

2605 nurses participated in this online survey. The study showed that nurses were often provided with guidelines and trainings on protective measures. About two thirds of the nurses reported a sufficient availability of face masks, yet half of the participants wore them longer than eight hours. The study also showed that nurses often applied personal (e.g. use of face masks) and general protective measures (e.g. hand sanitation). Around two thirds of the nurses experienced moderate to high levels of stress.

Health care institutions need to be equipped with sufficient and adequate protective materials in order to be prepared for a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic or other pandemics. Nurses who are working in times posing extraordinary challenges and stress need to be provided with psychosocial support programmes. These measures are indespensable for ensuring high quality nursing care even under extraordinary circumstances.