The COVID-19-pandemic in acute inpatient setting from nursing managers' and hygiene specialists' perspective-A qualitative study

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19-pandemic is an unprecedented, exceptional situation and necessitates numerous adaptations of structures and processes in the acute inpatient setting. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore how acute inpatient care was influenced by the pandemic and which implications may result for the future from nursing managers' and hygiene specialists' point of view. Methods: Qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with five nursing managers and three hygiene specialists in four German acute care hospitals. Interviews were interpreted by using content analysis. Results: Interviewees described how everyday routines in their hospitals were adapted to the prioritized care for COVID-19 patients. Main challenges were uncertainty and anxiety among staff, relative scarcity of equipment and workforce resources and rapid implementation of new requirements for treatment capacities. This was addressed by targeted communication and information, large efforts to ensure resources and coordinated control of all processes by cross-department, interprofessional task forces. Conclusions: Adaptations made to the structures and procedures of care delivery during the pandemic hold potential for future improvements of routine care, e. g. new workplace and skill mix models. To identify detailed practical implications, a renewed and deepened data analysis is needed at a later point of time, with a larger distance to the period of the pandemic.