The COVID-19 Storytelling: Nurses, Patients and the Power of Death.

Abstract

Introduction: Personal stories accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic are of utmost relevance when considering policy adjustments and future improvements in the field of nursing.

Methods: in order to gather data and offer a more detailed overview of the complexity of nurses' responsibilities in times of global health crisis, the method used is ethnographic research.

Results: The analisys demonstrates that the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, characterized by major uncertainties, has altered nurses' daily routines to the extent that they have been exposed to additional sets of duties, as well as to the higher levels of exhaustion and risks with potentially fatal consequences.

Conclusion: This narratives provide a valuable input to the debate on nurses' own status, as well as on the state of healthcare. This paper extends the current knowledge and contributes to wider discussions about nursing and our society's ability to handle outbreaks of large-scale health crises.