Workplace challenges and nurses recovered from COVID-19

Although many studies have addressed COVID-19, the challenges faced by nurses in their workplace after recovering from this disease have not been investigated. As the backbone of the health system and at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, nurses are exposed to serious risks of infection and even death. They may also face numerous challenges in their workplace after recovering from COVID-19. It is therefore ethically recommended that the problems of these nurses be solved to increase their job satisfaction and encourage them to remain in their profession.

The present research was conducted to determine the workplace challenges faced by nurses who had recovered from COVID-19.

This qualitative study was conducted using the interpretive phenomenological approach proposed by van Manen. The data collected through 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 14 eligible nurses at different occupational levels were analyzed using the six steps proposed by van Manen. These nurses had also recovered from COVID-19.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Urmia University of Medical Sciences (IR.UMSU.REC.1399.318).

Four themes and 20 subthemes extracted from analyzing the data explained the challenges faced by the nurses after their return to work. The themes included declined ethical values (four subthemes), infected nurses, forgotten patients (three subthemes), gradually leaving the job (six subthemes), and corona phobia (seven subthemes).

The present findings can be used to lay the foundations for adopting humanitarian policies in health organizations in terms of ethical care provision during future pandemics.