Influence Of The Experience In The Care Of Patients With COVID-19 In Hubei Province And Its Impact On Dispatched Nurses’ Humanistic Care Characteristics

ObjectivesTo explore dispatched nurses’ experience in the humanistic care of patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19)in Hubei province,and to investigate the influence of such experience on their humanistic care characteristics,stress responses and resilience,contributing to a better understanding about the impact of novel infectious disease on clinical nurses’ health and caring characteristics toward quality patient care and occupational health.MethodsThe mixed-methods design was adopted including both quantitative and qualitative approaches.During and after the stressful event in the dispatched mission,i.e.,rescue phase and recovery phases three and nine months afterwards,respectively,the online questionnaire survey was conducted among eligible dispatched nurses regarding their humanistic care characteristics,stressful responses and resilience.Semi-structured interviews were conducted among some of the participants who had close contact with the researcher using the exploratory qualitative approach to reach a deep understanding about the experiences in the humanistic care of patients with COVID-19 and the impact of such experience.Quantitative study:With a convenience sampling of 78 dispatched nurses from different hospitals in the same province,Nursing Care Characters Assessment Tool,Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale,and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist—Civilian Version was used to assess their humanistic care characteristics,resilience and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD).SPSS 26.0 was used for statistical analysis.The difference in humanistic care characteristics between different sociodemographic groups was examined using Chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test.The analysis of intraclass correlation(ICC)was performed between the scores of humanistic care characteristics at different measure points,while the scores of humanistic care characteristics,resilience and PTSD symptoms between different measure points were compared using paired t-test.The significance level was set at 0.05.Qualitative study:Using the purposive sampling method,15 of the above participants within the same dispatched batch was willing to participate in the semi-structured interview according to the pre-designed interview guide to talking about their experiences in the direct care of patients with COVID-19.All interviews were recorded with each lasting for about 30 to 60 minutes.The Colaizzi Seven-step method was applied in the thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts regarding the perceived caring moments.Member checking and debriefing technique was used to establish the methodological rigor.ResultsOn average,participants in the quantitative study aged 33.7(SD=4.90)years and had the clinical experience for 11.4(SD=5.20)years,of whom 21.8%(n=17)was male.No significant difference was found in the scoring of humanistic care characteristics across three measure points(Ps>0.05).The difference was not significant between the second and third scoring of resilience,overall and dimensional(Ps>0.05),but there was significant between the second and third scoring of post-traumatic stressful responses,overall and dimensional in terms of re-experiencing and avoidance(Ps<0.05).Four themes emerged from the analysis of qualitative data:noble dispatch motivation,enhanced professional identity,beneficial to personal growth,and being impactful.Three of these themes were contributed by multiple subthemes,indicating different perspectives to their experience of humanistic care in view of dispatched nurses and suggesting the sources of drives for the satisfaction of patients’ needs for healthcare related to COVID-19.ConclusionTaking care of patients with COVID-19 was a stressful event,which was very traumatic for nurses dispatched to Hubei province,but nurses’ resilience and humanistic care characteristics was not enhanced over time,suggesting the increased vulnerability.Dispatched nurses’ experience in the care of patients with COVID-19 was predominantly positive,indicating the inadequacy in the exploration of negative perceptions and their impact,shortor long-term.The sample size in the survey was relatively small with participants limited to only one sending province.More comprehensive studies are required to improve the understanding about and preparedness for dispatched rescue and humanistic care for stressful missions.