A Qualitative Study on the Care Experience of Emergency Department Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapid spread of the disease has severely impacted healthcare systems around the world. There is a lack of evidence related to the care experience of emergency department nurses.

To understand the care experience and thoughts of emergency department nurses during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Purposive sampling was used to recruit 16 emergency department nurses from a medical center, and a semi-structured interview was used for data collection. The enrollment period was from 28 July 2021 to 30 October 2021. Thematic content analysis was used for data analysis.

The care experiences of emergency department nurses during the COVID-19 epidemic can be classified into three themes and six sub-themes. Theme 1: I am the gatekeeper; theme 2: Care and environment challenges: difficulties with equipment and environment, managing patient's and family members' emotions, insufficient manpower of care; theme 3: Conflicting emotions: worrying about being infected or transmitting the disease, needs of effective support and empathy, and lack of understanding and discrimination towards the occupation.

Emergency department nurses adhered to professional awareness and responsibility during the epidemic and play a critical role in epidemic prevention.