Nurses and Coronavirus: Challenges and Consequences

Despite the unprecedented mobilization of people and resources to confront the COVID-19 Phenomenon, the identification and treatment of ever-increasing number of patients has put the health systems of many countries under an unprecedented pressure beyond their capacity. On the frontline of this battle, the employees of the health systems, especially nurses are among the people who have been impacted the most by this natural disaster. This editorial aims to have a comprehensive look at the various dimensions of the barriers and problems that nurses have faced during the pandemic. Based on investigations, early into the pandemic, shortage of preventive and diagnosis equipment, as well as low usability of personal protective equipment were the most important challenge of nursing. Nursing job characteristics have also undergone a major transformation by an adverse increase in the physical and mental workload of the profession. Moreover, nurses’ working condition has been so inevitably affected by the phenomenon’s characteristics of fear and uncertainty. This unprecedented situation has also hindered the hospitals in providing an appropriate physical environment for their patients and employees. On the other hand, in spite of having great importance, scant attention have been paid to organizational (i.e., shortage of specialized workforce, lack of training for new nurses, and inefficiency of break time) and extra-organizational (i.e., sanctions and stigma) issues. Lastly, the consequence of such difficult and grueling conditions has been various psychosomatic disorders which can be a serious threat not only to nurses’ health and quality of care, but also to the proper functioning of the health systems of countries.