Nurses’ challenges in the end-of-life care of patients with COVID-19: A qualitative study

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought rapid changes in end-of-life care for nurses and patients. The aim of this study was to explain the Iranian nurses’ perception of challenges in providing end-of-life care for patients with COVID-19. The present study is a qualitative research with content analysis approach. A total of 32 nurses participated in this study. Semi-structural and individual interviews were conducted. Nurses’ narratives indicated that, the challenges of end-of-life care of patients with COVID-19 can be classified in two categories of undesirable care and problems with family support. The category of undesirable care had two subcategories of low quality care and futile care. The category of problems with family support also had two subcategories of lack of family support at the time of hospitalization and lack of a support system for family after the patient's death. The health system, and in particular nursing managers, should strive to formulate clear rules and regulations and design the necessary protocols that are effective in addressing the nurses’ challenges in end-of-life care of COVID-19 patient.

Keywords:

• Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• End-of-life Care
• Nursing Care
• Qualitative Research

Acknowledgements

The researchers are thankful to all of the participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Disclaimer statements

Contributors: None.

Funding: None.

Conflicts of interest: None.

Ethics approval: This study was approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center of Iran University of Medical Sciences with the research project number IR.IUMS.REC.1400.606.

Geolocation information: This study was conducted in Iran.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article .