The lived experiences of frontline nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Qatar: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to explore the lived experiences of frontline nurses providing nursing care for COVID-19 patients in Qatar. Design: Qualitative, Phenomenological. Methods: Nurses were recruited from a designated COVID-19 facility using purposive and snowball sampling. The participants were interviewed face-to-face using semi-structured interview questions from 6 September–10 October 2020. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Result: A total of 30 nurses were interviewed; (76.7%) were deployed for >6 months. Three major themes were drawn from the analysis: (a) Challenges of working in a COVID-19 facility (subthemes: working in a new context and new working environment, worn out by the workload, the struggle of wearing protective gear, fear of COVID-19, witnessing suffering); (b) Surviving COVID-19 (subthemes: keeping it safe with extra measures, change in eating habits, teamwork and camaraderie, social support); and (c) Resilience of Nurses (subthemes: a true calling, a sense of purpose).