Clinical Nurses' View of Staffing During the Pandemic

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Pandemic Response

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented staffing difficulties in acute care settings.
• Providing care for critically ill patients during surges strained existing healthcare resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To understand clinical nurses' perspectives on staffing during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To identify key themes and challenges related to nursing staff deployment and support.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative descriptive study design.
• Conducted eighteen focus groups with registered nurses across intensive care, telemetry, and medical-surgical units.
• Thematic analysis of focus group transcripts to identify emergent themes.

Main Results:

• The overarching theme identified was that nursing staffing was "a bit of a mess."
• Key sub-themes included a challenging physical work environment, reliance on supplemental staff (agency, travel nurses), nurses performing multiple roles, team cohesion, and significant emotional toll.
• Nurses perceived a lack of consistent staffing and support during the pandemic's first wave.

Conclusions:

• Nurse leaders must learn from the pandemic experience to improve future staffing decisions.
• Recommendations include orienting nurses to deployed units, maintaining team assignments, and ensuring staffing consistency.
• Addressing these issues is crucial for improving both nurse and patient outcomes.