Work Experience of Surgical Technologists Under the COVID-19 Disaster: A Qualitative Study

Background: Due to the crisis of shortage of specialized nurses and high workload in intensive care units and emergency departments of hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital managers had to use nurses and staff in other departments as reinforcements despite their lack of necessary competency to work in those departments. Hence, this study investigated surgical technologists' work experiences during the COVID-19 disaster. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using the conventional content analysis method at Alborz University of Medical Sciences. The participants were 42 surgical technologists selected using purposive sampling from 14 hospitals in 10 cities of Iran. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed in MaxQDA2 software using the content analysis method. Results: The results of this study were classified into two main categories, "challenges" and "coping strategies. The first main category consists of three subcategories, "psychological-emotional stress," "managerial crises," and "physical injuries." The second main category also includes three subcategories, "emotion-based strategy," "cognition-based strategy," and "problem-based strategy." Conclusions: The surgical technologists' experience indicated that the COVID-19 crisis posed serious challenges, mostly related to the shortage of protective facilities and the lack of adequate training about self-care and patients in wards with no work experience. Therefore, managers of hospitals should offer appropriate purposive training courses to sufficiently develop their staff's knowledge and competence to manage the crisis in pandemics or epidemics.