Journal Reading for MS Sample 1

Nurse Experience During The Covid-19 Pandemic Implications For Nurse Leaders
By: Roe, Elizabeth PhD, RN; Decker, Sally PhD, RN; Marks, Kristine MSN, RN, CMSRN, NPD-BC;
Cook, Joyce MSN, RN; Garno, Kourtney BSN, RN, CCRN-K; Newto n, Julie BSN, BS, RN, CIC;
Thrush, Roberta BSN, RN

Citation:
Roe, E., Decker, S., Marks, K., Cook, J., Garno, K., Newton, J., & Thrush, R. (2022). Nurse experience during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing Management, 53(5), 8–17.
[Link]
Summary:
In the case study of nursing leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, Quinn et al. Concluded that the core
of effective leadership is the ability to communicate with compassion and the willingness to serve. Recommendations
for leaders during the pandemic have included using communication that’s truthful, mindful, and relevant to
[Link] and colleagues recommended that leaders round regularly and include nurses in decisions, and Markey
and colleagues encouraged nurse leaders to maintain ethical vigilance and find ways to empower, support, and enable
nurses to apply ethical standards. This quality improvement project aimed to understand the experiences of nurses
working at one hospital system during the COVID-19 pandemic using fundamentals from the relationshipbased care
(RBC) model and a qualitative approach. The RBC model provides both the philosophical foundation and practical
infrastructure for the hospital system, which includes seven hospitals (rural and nonrural), physicians’ offices, urgent
care, and home care. RBC culture has the patient and family at the core and is committed to three key relationships—
self, colleagues/ coworkers, and patients/ families— and six dimensions essential to the implementation of RBC,
which include leadership, teamwork, professional nursing practice, patient-care delivery, resource-driven practice, and
outcomes measurement.
The researchers utulized a qualitative design to document the nurses’ experiences from their perspectives
during the pandemic. The questions utilized were: 1. What has it been like to be a nurse at (agency) during the
COVID-19 pandemic? What might be more helpful or useful to nurses at (agency) during the pandemic? A total of
1,632 nurses were asked to participate in the study and 476 completed both sections of the instrument for a response
rate of 29%. The survey was collected for 2 weeks in February 2021.
The concepts from the RBC model were used to identify the subcategories and themes. Researchers derived
five themes from the data: 1. Different (polarized) perceptions of leadership/ communication with varied connection
to levels of leadership; 2. Balance of meeting patient and nurse needs and managing exhaustion; 3. Rapid practice
changes and doing things differently, which varied with unit and role; 4. Increase in need/change of resources (PPE,
staffing) requiring teamwork; and 5. Emotional experience (stressful/scary). For question two, seven strategy areas
were identified from the data related to the question about what would be more helpful to nurses: 1. Nurses’
input/presence in decision- making; 2. Adequacy of preparedness and training (education, PPE, staffing); 3. Support
of staff physically (breaks, better treatment when sick, mental health days) and emotionally (empathy, compassion
from leadership, employee health, debriefing, stress reduction); 4. Visibility of management (focus on support,
empathy, appreciation); 5. Consistent, accessible, relevant, prompt communication (vary depending on recipient); 6.
Response to changes needed relating to COVID-19 practice demands (different staffing models, appropriate staff,
different definitions of productivity); and 7. Compensation (paid time off [PTO], hazard pay).
Findings from this study provide suggestions from nurses working at the point of care. This study delineated
the importance of leadership support related to both communication and developing relationships with staff. The
amount of physical and psychological energy it takes to care for patients was also evident, along with the complexities
of providing care when navigating changing knowledge and needs. The need for resources, both physical and from
colleagues, was also evident. Overall, the emotional experience of providing care was apparent and described as
stressful and scary. Nurse involvement in improving communication and providing support, team building, and
education is important to enhance the experience of nurses and promote quality care. Based on the findings of this
study, the organization has made changes to improve communication and provide more opportunities for nurses to be
involved in making decisions.
Reflection:
To lead well means that you must first understand what is needed to be done and the methods on how to do
it. More importantly, one must learn how to work well with others to achieve those goals. This journal discussed the
experiences of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications in nursing leadership. It categorized the
experiences of nurses into themes as well as what must be done by agencies in order to create an environment for
optimum functioning.
This journal showed that nurses are prone to stress and exhaustion, need guidance and support as well as the
basic resources they need to provide care. They also want to be involved in decision-making regarding the policies
that concern them. As a leader, I think that these concerns should be heard and should be acted upon. I think that its
every administration’s responsibility to provide the resources needed for its people to function and give quality service
appropriately without sacrificing unnecessarily. In this goal, this journal also identified methods on how to best assist
nurses in doing their duty. The themes revolved around adequacy preparedness and training, having physical support
for staff, palpable support and empathy from the management, adequate response to necessary changes for COVID-19
and proper compensation in PTO and hazard pay. Ideally, these are supposed to be basic and standard assistance to
nurses, but in reality, some institutions have trouble providing assistance such as these, even delaying compensation,
especially on public institutions.
It is then up to the responsibilities of nurse managers to handle the morale of their subordinates and make
sure things still get done regardless. As a prospective team leader, I think that this is quite a responsibility to bear.
Thus, it demands a lot from a person. As a student nurse, I think that it is best to cultivate necessary values and
characteristics as early as now, but it is also important to keep in mind that we should not idle, accept things as they
are, be indifferent, nor depend solely on resiliency. As much as we have the duty to our patients, we also must
consider our duty to ourselves.