The Psychosocial Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Nurses at a Selected Tertiary Hospital in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Abstract

Coronavirus (COVID-19), pose a massive threat to the wellbeing of all the members of the population in the country, but massively left the health care workers to deal with the fear and anxiety while caring for those infected by the virus. The study aimed to explore and describe the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on Nurses at a selected hospital in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The selected hospital for this study was one of the tertiary hospitals designated to admit the COVID-19 patient. The study employed a qualitative approach using an exploratory, descriptive design. The researcher selected non-probability sampling, using a purposeful sampling technique to select a group of professional Nurses, preferably those who have been exposed and/or came into contact with a patient who tested positive for covid-19 at a selected hospital. The study used semi-structured interviews, where individual in-depth interviews were conducted using interview guide to collect data. The interview guide contained one central question to give direction to the researcher when collecting data. The collected data was analysed with the thematic analysis method in the qualitative method. The researcher ensured that research ethics were considered, including respecting the participant rights. In addition, trustworthiness was maintained by applying its four criteria: credibility, dependability, conformability, and transferability. This study revealed two major themes such as psychological impact of COVID-19 on nurses and social impact of COVID-19 on nurses. In order to expand and further explains the response provided by the participants, this study recommend that future researchers could employ Mixed methodologies, the quantitative and qualitative research approaches to give an in-depth analysis of the experiences of the nurses during COVID-19 pandemic. The study also recommend that the future researchers could expand the focus on investigating the challenges in different context, in different communities, both urban and rural to identify patterns, trends and experiences of psychological challenges among healthcare professionals. The study findings further recommend that the nurses need to be helped with capability to recover from the psychological, social trauma, fear, discrimination, and stigmatization that came with the nature of being a nurse particularly those who came in contact with patient who tested COVID-19 Positive.