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

Abstract

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).