Intensive Care Nurses' Experiences With Personal Protective Equipment During The Covid-19 Pandemic in Turkey: A Phenomenological Study

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the experiences of intensive care nurses working with personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 epidemic. Materials and Methods: The study group of the descriptive phenomenological study included 12 intensive care nurses selected with the purposeful sampling method. Collected through the semi-structured interviews, the data were coded with the MAXQDA program and evaluated with the content analysis method. The COREQ checklist was followed. Results: As a result of the research, two main themes emerged "What will happen to me" and "Me in PPE". Nurses primarily faced difficulties in accessing PPEs that would protect them. They experienced ambivalent feelings of anxiety, fear, and confidence regarding the protection of PPE. Some participants felt inadequate due to inadequate education regarding COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. They failed to meet many physiological needs while using PPE. The hardships they endured made them feel angry with other people, and they perceived strict institutional rules on the use of PPE as pressure. Conclusion: This study provided information on the experiences of intensive care nurses who first started using PPEs and used them the longest. Intensive care nurses have been adversely affected physiologically and psychologically due to working with PPE for a long time and without adequate training. It should be evaluated whether the well-being of nurses is affected by the pandemic process, and psychological support should be provided accordingly. Strategies should be prepared and implemented to provide nurses with adequate equipment and guidance in a similar situation