Evaluation of Nurses’ Challenges during Coronavirus Outbreak: A Qualitative Study

Background: During the crisis of communicable diseases, nurses play an important role in controlling the disease and treating patients; therefore, the obstacles and challenges facing these medical personnel should be reduced. Objectives: The main goal of the present study was to evaluate the challenges faced by nurses during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using the content analysis approach in 2021-22 in the city ABC. The participants in this study were 30 people who were selected from 10 different hospitals and included nursing managers (n=10), supervisors (n=10), and nurses (n=10). Sampling was done purposefully and continued until the information saturation point. Semi-structured in-depth interview was used individually based on the interview guideline to collect data. Results: The results showed that the challenges faced by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic included 452 codes and 12 subcategories, which after the final classification of the data, 4 main challenge categories were obtained, which included human challenges (33 subcategories), financial challenges (15 subcategories), communication challenges (8 subcategories), and organizational challenges (27 subcategories). Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that the challenges faced by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic included human, financial, communication, and organizational obstacles. Recognizing the challenges can help formulate road maps and strategies for improving disaster preparedness and management in hospitals.