Newly graduated registered nurses’ experiences of caring in emergency departments during the Covid-19 pandemic

The project aims to describe their encounters with stress during the Covid -19 pandemic and how they cope (study I) and their experience of caring for patients in EDs during this time (study II). Furthermore, the project aims to investigate healthcare professionals' experiences of the transition in healthcare that the Covid-19 pandemic caused and its impact on the work environment and health (study III) and to explore how nurses ascribe their experiences of caring for patients in the ED as a NGRN during the Covid- 19-pandemic (study IV). Altogether, the four studies within this project will contribute to understanding NGRNs’ experiences of caring in the ED during the Covid-19 pandemic and to understand these experiences in relation to work related stress.

Study I:

Aim: To describe NGRNs experiences of encountering work-related stress during the Covid-19 pandemic. Fourteen nurses were interviewed via audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews, transcribed, and analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

Research questions:

• How do NGRNs describe their experiences of encountering work-related stress in the ED during the Covid-19 pandemic?
• How do NGRNs describe coping with work-related stress in the ED during the Covid-19 pandemic?

Study II:

Aim: To explore NGRNs lived experiences of caring in the ED during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fourteen nurses were interviewed with semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews. The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using phenomenological hermeneutic method.

Research question:

• How do NGRNs in EDs describe their experiences of caring for patients in the emergency department during the Covid-19 pandemic?

The sample for study I and II consists of fourteen NGRNs with work experience as a nurse between 3 and 36 months, of which at least 3 months in the ED. The selected EDs are in areas particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with a major impact on the healthcare staff's working environment. These studies are intended to shed light on as wide variations of the participants 'experiences as possible, which is why variation in the participants' age, gender and work experience was sought.

Study III:

Aim: To examine healthcare professionals' experiences of the transition in healthcare caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the work environment and health. The data collection was carried out among health care workers (assistant nurses, nurses, and physicians) in a region in Central Sweden particularly hard hit by the pandemic during the first wave, spring 2020. A survey covering work environment and validated self-assessment instruments to measure individual resources and health was employed including an open-ended question. Participants were asked to write about experiences or events from the Covid-19 pandemic particularly well remembered and that affected the person in question in his work. It was encouraged to write both positive and negative things. This intentional collection of both quantitative and qualitative data was analyzed by means of mixed method design. Qualitative data were analyzed with qualitative content analysis and quantitative data used SPSS to analyze demographic data and study variables.

Research question:

• How do healthcare professionals experience the transition in their work caused by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Study IV:

Aim: To explore how nurses ascribe their experiences of having cared for patients in the ED during the Covid-19 pandemic as a NGRN. Focus group interviews with newly graduated nurses in the emergency department / emergency operations in regions that have been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic are in planning phase. These will be analyzed by the means of phenomenological hermeneutical method.

Main supervisor:

Petra von Heideken Wågert, Professor physiotherapy External link.

Supervisors:

Lena Wiklund Gustin, Professor caring science External link.

Susanna Toivanen, Professor sociology External link.

Karin Skoglund, Senior lecturer caring science External link.

Co-researcher study III:

Christina Andreae, Ph.D. caring science

Doctoral student:

Hillewi Carnesten, Doctoral student caring science, Lecturer medical science External link.