The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been one of the biggest challenges to healthcare workers and the health system. Nurses faced various stressful situations and workloads, which caused them a higher amount of stress and higher risk of burnout. People respond to stress differently, depending on the person's personality, age, experiences, values, beliefs and circumstances in which the stressful situation occurs. Stress is more likely to occur when an individual feels that they have insufficient support from management. In the master's thesis, we investigated how health care workers experienced stressful situations that arose during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and how they coped with them. The research is based on a phenomenological approach, as we studied their experiences. We conducted six semi-structured interviews with registered nurses who directly cared for patients infected with covid-19.
The results of this thesis revealed the wide-range of consequences which are still affecting nurses to this day. Working during the pandemic was not only stressful and exhausting, but also resulted in fear for both their lives and the lives of their loved ones. The biggest burden was the use of personal protective equipment, lack of properly trained staff and overtime work. As a result, healthcare workers felt changes in their mental and physical health. They felt fear, anxiety and sadness more often. They also noticed changes in their lifestyle, eating habits and a desire to change jobs. All this has consequences in the area of quality assurance and safety at work, as these demanding working conditions affect the quality and safety of work in health institutions. When dealing with stressful situations and burdens, they often helped themselves by talking to friends, family members or co-workers with whom they could share similar experiences. The management of the institutions where they are employed did not provide any of the participants in our study with the psychological help, which they would like to have in the future. From the results of this research, it is necessary to ensure appropriate working conditions, adequate number of employees, suitable rest and appropriate working hours for employees in health care institutions. Much more needs to be done to promote and make psychological help available. Adequate psychological support would make it easier to cope with stressful situations and responsibilities of nurses and reduce their negative consequences.
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