NURSES` PERCEIVED DISTRESS DURING COVID-19:descriptive literature review

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to provide the client organization Kuopio University Hospital with information about the psychological burden of nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of the thesis was to present, through the research results, how to reduce the psychological burden of nurses in abnormal working conditions. In this thesis the core objectives were to assess psychological burden during Covid-19 of the nurses who got quick supplementary training to intensive care unit(ICU), to assess the need and quality of the support for those nurses who got supplementary training during Covid-19 pandemic, to bring up ways to reduce nurses' psychological burden during a global pandemic or under abnormal working conditions and to assess the impact of quick supplementary training and Covid-19 pandemic on psychological burden. The purpose of the thesis was also to give development suggestions on how to support the psychological well-being of the nurses in the future. The thesis was implemented as a descriptive literature review. To analyze the data, content analysis was used, specifically thematization. The literature search was performed in two different databases, Pudmed and Cinahl Ultimate. A total of 14 studies were found suitable for the literature review. The results of the literature review showed that Covid-19 pandemic had a negative effect on the psychological well-being of nurses who received quick supplementary training on the ICU, but also on the psychological wellbeing of nurses who work permanently in the ICU. In the literature review, 12 themes that caused psychological stress for nurses emerged. Out of these 12 themes, the new work environment and poor supplementary training in new work tasks caused the greatest psychological burden. As a conclusion the Covid-19 pandemic caused psychological burden for nurses.