Nurses’ Experiences as Care Providers for Refugees in Emergency and Critical Care in Jordan: A Qualitative Interview Study

Abstract

During the global refugee crisis of the 2010s, hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled to Jordan. As displaced Palestinians have had refugee status for several decades in Jordan already, this study aimed to explore nurses’ perceptions of caring for Palestinian and Syrian refugees within the context of critical and emergency care. The qualitative design was executed through twelve semi-structured interviews with nurses working in refugee camps and public hospitals. Three main themes were identified describing the nurses’ empathetic understanding of the refugees’ situation, various challenging factors, as well as different aspects of the opportunities that they perceived in critical care and emergency care. The experiences of publicly employed nurses generally differed from those working in the camps. In addition, the findings indicate the importance of further research conducted locally, as it suggests several elements that have a negative impact on the quality of advanced healthcare for refugees.