Topic Overview
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines work-related stress as any outcome that differs from a professional record due to poor working conditions, inadequate resources, and the unavailability of personalized support. Such challenges tend to become more pronounced when the existing organizations fail to focus on the needs of the targeted workers. Most of them lacked adequate care delivery resources, experienced work-related stress, and remained exposed to the condition, challenges that had existed before the pandemic.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, relevant agencies and organizations declared a global pandemic, informing the efforts and strategies put in place to address it. Most nurses were compelled to complete their responsibilities as frontline workers. When the outbreak peaked, most of these professionals were required to work overtime, come into contact with more patients, provide timely support, and deal with others in end-of-life care (Peters et al., 2022).
Without prior understanding of this disease, the majority of the nurses developed a wide range of psychological problems. They remained fatigued, lacked timely resources, and were unable to voice their concerns promptly. Nienhaus (2021) observed that some of the affected individuals complained of increased workload and mental illnesses. They could not remain coordinated and focus on the overall outcomes of their patients.
Without proper mechanisms to address these issues, more nurses may be unable to effectively deal with the health challenges of their patients. The absence of proper support mechanisms and interventions to help these workers worsened their conditions. These issues highlight the need to delve deeper and gain a better understanding of the long-term effects of COVID-19 on nurses and the broader healthcare sector.
Rationale for the Topic
My motivation for writing about the effects of COVID-19 on nurses is that I became a victim of some of the medical and physical complications associated with the condition. One of my friends, who works as a nurse, became mentally depressed because of the situation. Some of my colleagues experienced similar challenges arising from the impact of COVID-19. By sharing his experiences with him, he pinpointed that the events associated with COVID-19 led to fatigue and breakdown. However, the professional was keen to indicate that there was nothing nurses could do to deal with the situation. The nature of these issues compelled me to consider this issue.
My research question was “What negative impacts did nurses who endured the challenging work conditions of the COVID pandemic sustain?” To come up with the best research and focus on a specific process, I developed this thesis statement: Nurses who endured the challenging work conditions of the COVID pandemic have sustained adverse long-term effects, including physical illness, mental depression, and fatigue. I will present adequate evidence to support my thesis using four articles. I will also offer my opinions on the issues or problems that most nurses faced due to the pandemic. I will conclude the paper by offering additional recommendations for future research.
Literature Review
Claim One
First, the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increased workload for most nurses in various healthcare facilities, negatively affecting their overall physical well-being. In the article, “Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Health Care Workers 1-Year Post-Discharge in Wuhan”, Liao et al. (2021) observed that “37.5 percent of the healthcare workers” (p. 157) reported increased physical problems and fatigue. This quote indicates that most healthcare professionals experienced fatigue and reported impairment in their physical functions (Liao et al., 2021).
Due to the increasing workload attributed to the large number of people affected by COVID-19, Liao et al. (2021) further indicate that “most of the nurses experienced physical health problems” (p. 158). This issue becomes an area for stakeholders to consider and ensure that more medical workers receive the much-needed support. The absence of proper mechanisms to protect or meet the demands of such professionals would affect their experiences and ability to provide high-quality medical services.
Claim Two
Second, with the emergence of COVID-19, the dynamics of the working environment changed significantly, thereby compelling nurses to encounter unforeseeable situations, which eventually led to mental health diseases. In their study, Mensinger et al. (2022) observed that American nurses encountered numerous challenges due to COVID-19 in comparison to other professionals, such as trauma, insomnia, depression, and anxiety. Specifically, it occurred that “U.S.-based RNs reported significantly more traumatic stress and depressive symptoms” (Mensinger et al., 2022, p. 4).
This quote is captured in Mensinger et al.’s (2022) article, titled “Psychological Responses of Hospital-Based Nurses Working during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Study.” Throughout the acute phase of the pandemic, more nursing staff members reported increased depressive symptoms that affected their overall contributions and effectiveness in care delivery. These occurrences supported the fact that mental illnesses became common during the period and affected the overall performance and contributions of “nurses to the changing health needs of most of the patients” (Mensinger et al., 2022, p. 5). The outcome was that most healthcare units were unable to offer personalized and high-quality medical services. Due to these issues, most nurses were negatively affected and were unable to continue pursuing their professional goals.
Claim Three
Third, throughout the COVID-19 period, nurses were exposed to various socially stressful conditions that affected their overall quality of life and eventually led to prolonged fatigue. Most professionals working as first-line responders to the pandemic encountered numerous challenges, worsening their overall medical experiences. The level of fatigue increased significantly since they had to work for prolonged hours while simultaneously dealing with an unknown condition.
In their work, “Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Workers in Health and Social Services in Germany”, Peters et al. (2022) observed that the presence of fatigue among nurses “could significantly worsen the quality of life” (p. 9). In their working environments, most nurses feared being exposed to the condition. The situation led to additional “psychological distress and reduced health outcomes” (Peters et al., 2022, p. 10).
The combination of all the issues associated with COVID-19 led to strenuous working conditions and requirements in an effort to meet the demands of most patients. This challenge exacerbated the situation, intensifying the overall burnout and fatigue among the nurses. Based on this claim, it is agreeable that the absence of proper mechanisms to address these mental and physical health problems worsened the overall outcomes of most of the healthcare workers. These realities were critical in guiding different stakeholders and policymakers to consider how they could transform the situation and improve the overall working conditions for the most affected nurses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the completed study has revealed that nurses always provide timely and personalized care in different settings and scenarios. The outbreak of COVID-19 revealed a global healthcare system characterized by numerous challenges, including poor coordination, inadequate resources, and a workforce shortage. The existing nurses were compelled to work tirelessly as the first line responders to most of the patients. Such professionals were compelled to work without adequate resources, PPE, and guidelines for the unknown medical condition.
The complexity of these issues resulted in increasing cases of mental illness, physical burnout, and fatigue. These issues affected the overall performance and contributions to the broader sector. Future scholars can focus on how this pandemic affected nurses of different ages, genders, races, and socioeconomic statuses. Considering superior strategies to empower more nurses would be plausible if the healthcare sector were to achieve its goals.
Analysis of the Problem
The completed investigation has identified some of the unique gaps that led to negative experiences and outcomes among nurses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the findings have revealed that most of the challenges nurses had encountered before the pandemic would become more amplified or pronounced in 2020. After the outbreak, the global community would declare COVID-19 a pandemic since it was infecting and affecting the overall experiences of millions of people in every corner of the world.
Over the decades, nurses have lacked proper working conditions, adequate resources, and work-life balance (Peters et al., 2022). The nursing shortage has remained a systemic problem in many countries. The outbreak would compel nurses to maximize their efforts, work for longer hours, and be required to provide personalized services to an increasing number of patients (Liao et al., 2021). These requirements led to additional long-term effects on these professionals, thereby resulting in burnout, fatigue, physical exhaustion, and depression.
Gaps in Literature
The consulted research articles focused on the problems nurses encountered as they tried to work tirelessly and respond to the health issues facing different COVID-19 patients. The researchers pinpointed the challenges that affected most nurses’ overall experiences and outcomes. Specifically, exhaustion, fatigue, mental illness, and burnout were identified as some of the recorded outcomes from the ongoing pandemic (Nienhaus, 2021). However, most studies lacked information on how they approached or examined the subject matter.
The researchers failed to consider the impact of the pandemic on nurses based on their social and economic statuses, age, and gender. This gap could have allowed scholars to provide more insights into the issues associated with COVID-19. Such an approach could have shed more light on the most affected social group and their subsequent problems in their respective communities (Liao et al., 2021).
Most identified researchers were keen to examine the problem from a generalized perspective, making the findings and subsequent arguments weak. This means that they failed to consider a specific region in Canada. The strategy could have helped present additional insights for responding to most nurses’ challenges.
With such observations, several issues or ideas are worth considering if the healthcare sector is to achieve its aims. First, it becomes necessary for the available facilities and agencies to examine the nature of this gap and consider how nurses need to be empowered and supported during pandemics (Liao et al., 2021). Second, a proper understanding of this problem could inform evidence-based approaches for meeting the changing needs of all healthcare professionals during pandemics. Third, the completed paper will guide future stakeholders to collaborate and introduce sustainable mechanisms to improve the overall well-being of nurses.
Suggestions for Future Research and Nursing Practice
The completion of this investigation has revealed that nurses play a critical role in the broader healthcare sector. Following the emergence of COVID-19, these professionals were required to collaborate and consider the best ways to meet the demands of all underserved patients. Nonetheless, they remained on the receiving end since they had to work in complex scenarios without the relevant personal protective equipment (PPE) and resources.
Future researchers could consider the gaps identified above by completing additional studies focusing on a specific region, such as Ontario or Canada. Such investigators could dig deeper to examine the pandemic’s long-term impacts on nurses of different genders, economic backgrounds, ages, and racial backgrounds (Liao et al., 2021). The approach would shed more light on the level of depression and fatigue, thereby being able to recommend the best solutions. Finally, future scholars can monitor the recorded problems that most nurses face and consider evidence-based approaches to mitigate them.
References
Liao, T., Meng, D., Xiong, L., Wu, S., Yang, L., Wang, S., Zhou, M., He, X., Cao, X., Xiong, H., Fan, Y., Xia, J., Hu, Y., & Jin, Y. (2021). Long-term effects of COVID-19 on health care workers 1-year post-discharge in Wuhan. Infectious Diseases and Therapy, 11(1), 145–163.
Mensinger, J. L., Brom, H., Havens, D. S., Costello, A., D’Annunzio, C., Durning, J. D., Bradley, P. K., Copel, L., Maldonado, L., Smeltzer, S., Yost, J., & Kaufmann, P. (2022). Psychological responses of hospital-based nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States: A cross-sectional study. Applied Nursing Research, 63, 151517–151517.
Nienhaus, A. (2021). Long-term effects of COVID-19 in health workers and the assessment of the fatigue syndrome in compensation claims. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 78(1), 160-161.
Peters, C., Dulon, M., Westermann, C., Kozak, A., & Nienhaus, A. (2022). Long-term effects of COVID-19 on workers in health and social services in Germany. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(12), 6983-6994.