Living with COVID-19: Voices from the grassroots

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Public Health
• Psychology

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted healthcare professionals, particularly nurses.
• The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) history committee initiated a writing contest to document nurses' experiences.
• Submissions included personal stories, essays, and poems reflecting on the pandemic's impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline the shared experiences and emotions of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To utilize the framework of COVID Grief to analyze the writing contest submissions.
• To frame the Year of the Nurse and the pandemic's toll through specific emotional stages.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of heartfelt stories, essays, and poems submitted to the AANP history committee's writing contest.
• Application of the "Five Stages of COVID Grief" framework to categorize and understand the emotional range of the submissions.
• Qualitative synthesis of the documented experiences to identify common themes.

Main Results:

• The writing contest submissions revealed a spectrum of emotions experienced by nurses, including disbelief, bitterness, guilt, fear, and anxiety.
• Resilience emerged as a significant theme, alongside the challenges faced.
• The "Five Stages of COVID Grief" framework effectively captured the essence of nurses' pandemic journeys.

Conclusions:

• The COVID-19 pandemic evoked profound and varied emotional responses among nurses.
• Documenting these experiences through writing contests provides valuable insights into the nursing profession's challenges and resilience.
• The COVID Grief framework offers a useful lens for understanding and processing the pandemic's impact on nurses.