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QUAN - Socio-occupational profile
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qual - Category 1: Restructuring the work teams
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| Mixed result: There are differences in composition of the Nursing teams working in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 units |
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COVID-19 units |
Non-COVID-19 units |
| Male workers (p=0.004), of black/brown/other skin color (p=0.015), with temporary contracts (p<0.001), with shorter working time in the area (p<0.001), in the institution (p<0.001) and in the sector (p<0.001) and those who had another job (p<0.001) prevailed in the COVID-19 units. |
The other issue was that it changed a lot, from my peers who worked with me in the afternoon, we have none, are all new and there are many colleagues with temporary contracts, emergency, from other units, our leaders [...] (NT 1 - COVID-19). |
[...] they kept treating all of them [patients], but with many restrictions, so it required a lot of our team [...] we needed to make several adaptations [...] peers got sick and we had to reorganize our work schedule, the flow of patients too [...] (NUR 2 - Non-COVID-19). |
| Workers with chronic diseases (p<0.001) and self-declared as belonging to the risk group (p<0.001) prevailed in non-COVID-19 units |
It was very difficult when I got there, employees who were considered risk group were relocated to other units, so some employees who were from the unit had to leave and to cover these employees they had to bring people from other units, like me [...] they directed people who were from the risk group, aged individuals, pregnant women, lactating and I went to the COVID-19 unit. (NT 5 - COVID-19). |
We were with enough patients from another area [unit specialty]. We were working with reduced staff, we should have been six professionals, but we actually were five, sometimes we happened to be four one night, four people taking care of the whole unit and complying with the workload. (NT 2 - Non-COVID-19). |
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QUAN - Risk perception and work demands
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qual - Category 2: Understanding risk and work demands
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| Mixed result: There are differences in composition of the Nursing teams working in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 units |
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COVID-19 Units |
Non-COVID-19 units |
| The increase in work requirements during the pandemic (p<0.001) was higher among workers from the COVID-19 units. |
[...] in addition to taking care of the comorbidities of each patient, we had some who were admitted to the hospital due to clinical problems, postoperative patients, all together, plus decompensation due to the COVID disease; so we had to adapt a lot, seek knowledge about what we could do [...] (NT 10 - COVID-19). |
After a couple of days that he came out of the surgery, he tested positive and the whole team was contaminated, only the anesthetists didn’t because they were taking more care, with face shield and everything. How can you possibly deal with this situation? It’s all very new, there’s no treatment and when we least expect the patient has COVID. (NT 3 - Non-COVID-19). |
| Workers from non-COVID-19 units experienced greater fear of exposure to the risk of contamination (p=0.028). |
I was always very tired, doing a lot of 12h shifts, morning and afternoon or afternoon and evening. And it’s very tiring, mental health is extreme, it’s not just doing my job knowing that I’m risking myself, that’s all. I’m going to work knowing that I have to do everything thoroughly, paramentation and de-paramentation and the things inside the room, so as not to get contaminated, then I start to get nervous, I enter the room with a very apprehensive emotional load, I can’t enter calm. (NT 4 - COVID-19). |
At first it was very difficult, I remember a patient I took care of, a gentleman who had conjunctivitis, quite a lot of eye secretion and we were without PPE. I did eye hygiene, I was very close to him, then on the other day: COVID! The patient in front also tested positive and died after a few days. I stood there pondering: ‘my Lord! where am I, my Lord?!’ After a week in contact with the patient we would find out it was COVID and we isolated the whole room, we switched all the patients to another sector, took to isolation, it was a mess, my God in Heaven and us in the middle. Because we feel lost, because it’s us caring for people, and who cares for us? Nobody. It took a long time to have some care for ourselves, at least where I was, to provide PPE, but this equipment was rationed. (NT 2 - Non-COVID-19). |
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[...] my last week was about having to choose who’s going to die and we didn’t study for that. I try, I’m very shaken by this last week [crying] and I’m really glad I’m on vacation because no one is really ready to deal with these situations. This week we had 4 patients and they chose me and the other 3 knew that they hadn’t been chosen and we were on the desperate side, seeing them, young people, but with no respirator and no ICU [Intensive Care Unit] bed. (NT 5 - COVID-19).
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QUAN - Implications of the pandemic on workers’ health
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qual - Category 3: Impact on workers’ health
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| Mixed result: The pandemic similarly impacted the health of Nursing workers working in COVID-19 non-COVID units |
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COVID-19 Units |
Non-COVID-19 units |
| Starting to use medication during the pandemic (p=0.340), absence from work due to health reasons during the pandemic (p=0.218), absence from work due to suspected COVID-19 (p=0.351) and to COVID-19 diagnosis (p=0.221), self-assessment of the impact on physical health (p=0.597) and Minor Psychological Disorders (p=0.535) were also present among the workers who worked in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 units. |
We witnessed scenes of anxiety and panic attacks in professionals, blackouts, paralysis and this will never leave our memory. They were extremely shocking moments because we saw these behaviors in old professionals, safe, capable, experts in the area. [...] and these scenes of fear, paralysis and panic still come into our heads. [...] at first it brought about negative impacts, because feelings, frustrations, fear, anxiety and a sensation of impotence were arising. [...] there was enough somatization, fear, anxiety. Anxiety crises, sometimes veiled. (NUR 3 - COVID-19). |
The first patient I received that was positive made me feel afraid, that week I was very anxious, until 10 days I was very anxious. Thinking that I ended up touching the patient, and not having the proper protection. (NUR 1 - Non-COVID-19). |
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It was very distressing for all of us. I was very anxious, I noticed that I had a kind of panic syndrome, because it was a lot of information, it was a lot of change. They had shifts where every night we took a patient to the ICU, so it generates a lot of anxiety in the group. [...] And that anxiety, that fear, a lot of not knowing what’s going to happen anyway. I thought it affected a lot, I was seeing that I had panic syndrome. And my peers were feeling that way, too. (NUR 5 - COVID-19). |
Headache, in these last months I have it almost every day, I had gastrointestinal problem due to stress, anxiety and I couldn’t sleep at night, I woke up at 2 am thinking “I will have to work”, I woke up and the headache started. [...] I’m very exhausted, very tired, because there’s a lot of post COVID patients and they are all bedridden and overload us. [...] it’s a sum of the burden of the pandemic, of having family members, having a life outside this place, having problems. My husband got out of isolation last week, he had COVID, my young son had bronchitis and I get all that pressure thinking “am I bringing COVID home?”, I’m terrified of contaminating my son. I live under this pressure. (NT 8 - Non-COVID-19). |
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