Nurses´ well-being and the occurrence of stressful situations in the workplace at a time of increasing sars cov-2 infections

Uvod: Stres med zdravstvenimi delavci je povezan z negativnimi posledicami, kot so psihične stiske, izgorelost, depresija, tesnoba, bolečine v križu. Namen je bil ugotoviti, kako se medicinske sestre počutijo in doživljajo stresne situacije med porastom okužb s SARS-CoV-2 ter kako se z njimi spopadajo. Metode: Uporabljena je bila deskriptivna metoda dela. Pri kvalitativnem raziskovanju nam je zbiranje podatkov s polstrukturiranimi intervjuji omogočilo lažje razumevanje subjektivnih izkušenj intervjuvanih. Uporabljena je bila metoda tematske analize vsebine. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 20 zdravstvenih delavcev, različnih stopenj izobrazbe, delovnih izkušenj in starosti. Rezultati: S pomočjo tematske analize so bile oblikovane 4 glavne teme. Počutje ob naraščanju okužb (1), sprememba delovnega procesa (2), podpora v času naraščanja okužb (3) in spopadanje s stresnimi situacijami (4). Posamezne teme so bile razčlenjene še na podteme ter kode. Najpogostejše stresne situacije, ki so jih zaznali, so povezane s povečanim obsegom dela, prerazporejanjem kadra, možnostjo prenosa okužbe, pomanjkanjem znanja ter pomanjkljivo informiranje. Počutijo se utrujene, razočarane, prestrašene. Bojijo se prenosa okužbe, nemočne in nejevoljne. Razprava in sklep: Ugotovljeno je bilo, da so bili zdravstveni delavci izpostavljeni mnogim stresnim situacijam v času naraščanja okužb s SARS-CoV-2. Želeli so si predvsem več podpore s strani vodstva, boljše informiranje, več kadra pa tudi psihološko pomoč. Podali so predloge in ukrepe, s katerimi se bomo v prihodnjih morebitnih podobnih situacijah lahko boljše odzvali in se uspešnejše spopadali s stresnimi situacijami.Introduction: Stress among healthcare professionals is associated with negative consequences such as mental distress, burnout, depression, anxiety, and lower back pain. The aim was to find out how nurses felt and experienced stressful situations during the rise of SARS-CoV-2 infections and how they coped with them. Methods: A descriptive method of work was used. In qualitative research, data collection through semi-structured interviews enabled us to better understand the subjective experiences of the interviewees. The method of thematic content analysis was used. The study involved 20 health professionals with different levels of education, work experience and age. Results: With the help of thematic analysis, four main topics were formulated. Feeling at the rise of infections (1), changing the work process (2), support at the time of rising infections (3) and coping with stressful situations (4). Individual topics were also broken down into sub-topics and codes. The most common stressful situations they perceived were related to increased workload, redeployment, the possibility of infection transmission, lack of knowledge and lack of information. They felt tired, disappointed, and scared. They were afraid of transmitting the infection, and felt helpless and reluctant. Discussion and conclusion: It has been found that healthcare professionals have been exposed to many stressful situations during the rise of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Above all, they wanted more support from the management, better information, more staff and psychological help. They made suggestions and proposed measures with which we will be able to react better and deal with stressful situations more successfully in future similar situations