ABSTRACT
Objective:
to understand the experience of being a mother of a child and a nurse working in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method:
a research study with a qualitative approach, conducted with 17 participants from different cities of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Data collection took place in the months of April and May 2020, through semi-structured interviews conducted via an open access virtual communication platform. The data were thematically analyzed, based on the Complexity Paradigm.
Results:
the absence and mismatch of scientific and systematic information at the beginning of the pandemic, the fragile institutional support, and the concern of contamination of the children generated stress and anguish in the mother-nurses. The support previously offered by schools and family members was hindered by the pandemic, leading to a greater demand for parental care. Creative strategies to provide distraction, as well as religiousness and spirituality were valued to face the chaos experienced.
Conclusion:
nurses, while being valued as important frontline professionals in the fight against the pandemic, are invisible in their personal-affective dimension and in that of being a mother. The study indicates the need for structural institutional policies so that mother-nurses are placed in a position of equality and safety for the full exercise of the profession and a healthy intra-family relationship, especially in contexts of adversity such as that experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DESCRIPTORS:
Nurses; Child; Preschool child; Mother-Child relationship; Pandemics; Child care; Coronavirus infections; Qualitative research