• Wendy Cadge, Mariah Lewis, Julia Bandini, Sara Shostak, Vivian Donahue, Sophie Trachtenberg, Katelyn Grone, Robert Kacmarek, Laura Lux, Cristina Matthews, Mary Elizabeth McAuley, Frederic Romain, Colleen Snydeman, Tara Tehan, and Ellen Robinson.
• Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA.
• J Nurs Manag. 2021 Oct 1; 29 (7): 1965-1973.

AimsTo understand how nurses experience providing care for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in intensive care units.BackgroundAs hospitals adjust staffing patterns to meet the demands of the pandemic, nurses have direct physical contact with ill patients, placing themselves and their families at physical and emotional risk.MethodsFrom June to August 2020, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Sixteen nurses caring for COVID-19 patients during the first surge of the pandemic were selected via purposive sampling. Participants worked in ICUs of a quaternary 1,000-bed hospital in the Northeast United States. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, identifiers were removed, and data were coded thematically.ResultsOur exploratory study identified four themes that describe the experiences of nurses providing care to patients in COVID-19 ICUs during the first surge: (a) challenges of working with new co-workers and teams, (b) challenges of maintaining existing working relationships, (c) role of nursing leadership in providing information and maintaining morale and (d) the importance of institutional-level acknowledgement of their work.ConclusionsAs the pandemic continues, hospitals should implement nursing staffing models that maintain and strengthen existing relationships to minimize exhaustion and burnout.Implications For Nursing ManagementTo better support nurses, hospital leaders need to account for their experiences caring for COVID-19 patients when making staffing decisions.© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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