Perceptions of intensive care nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic - A qualitative survey

Background: While at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the need for intensive care is increasing, the specific care needs of patients are still largely unknown. This is a challenge for the work of intensive care staff. Aim: The aim of the study is to understand how intensive care nurses perceive their working conditions and the consequences for patient care. Methods: The study is a qualitative survey. Using a web-based questionnaire, narratives of n = 902 nurses were collected. This article reports the perceptions of n = 397 intensive care nurses. The evaluation is based on the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2015). Results: The analysis of the data shows the following six categories: "The lack of staff is extremely noticeable" to "Waiting for something", "struggle for PPE (personal protective equipment)", "time to learn', "considerable discrepancy" in patient care, "attempts to compensate" and "constantly a bad feeling".The tension between the tack of knowledge and information on the one hand and the professional demand to do justice to the seriously ill and their relatives on the other hand, brings nurses to their professional limits. Conclusion: Conditions for ethical decision making have to be developed and concepts for a clear attribution of autonomy and responsibility for intensive care nurses must be introduced.