Crisis, work and nursing: an ethnographic narrative of the coronavirus pandemic in Primary Care in Spain

Abstract

Objective: to narrate the experience of facing a long economic and political crisis and the experience of the arrival process of the coronavirus pandemic in a Spanish healthcare center. Methods: this is a descriptive qualitative study with ethnographic analysis, with data collection through interviews, participant observation and field diary records. Results: the immersion in the context allowed us to identify two axes of domain: “The crisis, work in the community and the territory in Primary Care”; “The inevitability of being a nurse in facing a health crisis”. Final considerations: the narrative portrays the ethics in field research, tensions and values of nursing work in crisis situations. Nurses’ experiences are presented in narratives of dissatisfaction and difficulties, but with the support of values related to guaranteeing assistance to users and cooperation and solidarity in the collective organization of workers to face the COVID-19 crisis.