Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Enactive Phenomenological Approach to the Trier Social Stress Test: A Mixed Methods Point of View
Published on: January 7, 2019
Enduring the Unbearable-A Phenomenological Hermeneutical Study on Nurses' Lived Experiences of Stress During the
Hillewi Carnesten1, Petra von Heideken Wågert1, Lena Wiklund Gustin1,2
1School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose significant challenges to the welfare system by stress-related ill health and increased turnover rates among nurses.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to explore nurses' lived experiences of stress in the transformed caring reality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methodological Design And Justification:
Caring theory and phenomenological hermeneutical philosophy guided this interpretative study. Findings comprise a broadened understanding of stress experienced by nurses.
Ethical Issues And Approval:
Ethical approval was granted from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. All participants provided informed consent to participate beforehand.
Research Method:
In-depth audio recorded interviews with 13 nurses were performed and transcribed verbatim. Analysis was guided by the three steps of Lindseth and Norberg: naïve understanding, structural thematic analysis and comprehensive understanding.
Results:
In this study, one main theme Enduring the unbearable emerged, and was illuminated in the major themes: Being deprived of the caring self; Seeing self-neglect as the way forward and Feeling vulnerable and unsupported. The interpreted meaning of nurses' lived experiences of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic accommodates the dilemma of enduring the unbearable whilst being subjected to silencing one's inner ethical, caring compass.
Conclusions:
The results underscore the substantial and persistent stress related health risks nurses faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasise the necessity of integrating ethical considerations into policies designed to support nurses' health in future emergencies.
More Related Videos
12:22Mindfulness in Motion MIM: An Onsite Mindfulness Based Intervention MBI for Chronically High Stress Work Environments to Increase Resiliency and Work Engagement
Published on: July 1, 2015
11:13The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Psychological Responses to Stress
Introduction to Stress and Lifestyle
Current Trends in Nursing II
Physiological Foundation of Stress
Role of the Sympathetic Nervous System
Adrenaline triggers the...
Obedience
Psychoneuroimmunology: Cardiovascular Disease
A key area of focus in PNI is the relationship between stress and coronary...