Work-life balance of frontline nurses during COVID-19 pandemic
Gauli, Aishwarya (2023)
Gauli, Aishwarya
2023
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052915316
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052915316
Tiivistelmä
COVID-19 outbreak was declared as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. During the time of this pandemic, healthcare professionals have played a major role in managing the crisis and taking care of the infected patients working as frontliners. One of the most essential roles in managing this pandemic has been of frontline nurses. Nurses are the providers in this pandemic with the most prolonged contact with the infected patients which exposes them to the virus as well as patient suffering. A lot of research has been done all over the world since the pandemic started and they have shown how the nurses have been negatively impacted during the pandemic, where their personal lives also have been affected leading to the disruption of their work-life balance.
The aim of this master thesis was to increase knowledge and understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the work-life balance of nurses working as frontliners and the purpose was to provide deeper insight on the challenges faced by frontline nurses during COVID-19 pandemic and to find possible actions to promote their health and wellbeing. Job Demands-Resources theory was used for theoretical framework. Two different data collection methods- systematic literature review and interviews were used for data collection. The research sample consisted of 12 scientific articles for systematic literature review and 6 participants for the interviews. The collected data was then analyzed by using inductive content analysis.
The analysis of data from systematic literature review led to the production of five themes: health and wellbeing, sense of abandonment, working conditions, lack of boundaries between work and home and inadequate leadership. Similarly, the analysis of data from interviews produced the following six themes: coronaphobia, strain in physical and mental health, impact in social life, heavy workload, guidelines and resources at workplace and organizational factors. Apart from the challenges the frontline nurses faced during the pandemic, the results also showed that the leaders played an important role in helping the nurses to maintain their work-life balance. Open communication with the nurses, provision of updated COVID guidelines as well as personal protective equipment, adequate training related to the care of COVID patients, and the use of PPE as well as helping the nurses take care of their mental health by providing necessary resources were the requirements of nurses from their leaders in order to provide good quality care to the patients and to maintain their work-life balance.
The aim of this master thesis was to increase knowledge and understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the work-life balance of nurses working as frontliners and the purpose was to provide deeper insight on the challenges faced by frontline nurses during COVID-19 pandemic and to find possible actions to promote their health and wellbeing. Job Demands-Resources theory was used for theoretical framework. Two different data collection methods- systematic literature review and interviews were used for data collection. The research sample consisted of 12 scientific articles for systematic literature review and 6 participants for the interviews. The collected data was then analyzed by using inductive content analysis.
The analysis of data from systematic literature review led to the production of five themes: health and wellbeing, sense of abandonment, working conditions, lack of boundaries between work and home and inadequate leadership. Similarly, the analysis of data from interviews produced the following six themes: coronaphobia, strain in physical and mental health, impact in social life, heavy workload, guidelines and resources at workplace and organizational factors. Apart from the challenges the frontline nurses faced during the pandemic, the results also showed that the leaders played an important role in helping the nurses to maintain their work-life balance. Open communication with the nurses, provision of updated COVID guidelines as well as personal protective equipment, adequate training related to the care of COVID patients, and the use of PPE as well as helping the nurses take care of their mental health by providing necessary resources were the requirements of nurses from their leaders in order to provide good quality care to the patients and to maintain their work-life balance.