Vital Role of Urgent Care Nurses in Addressing COVID-19 Patient Needs

Introduction

The urgent care nurses are registered nursing practitioners who are responsible in providing care to the patients who do not require care in the Intensive care Unit but needs constant care observation and health monitoring (da Silva Santana et al., 2019). In the current COVID-19 pandemic condition, an increased need for the urgent care nurses is seen in the hospitals and healthcare trusts. This is because COVID-19 patients require continuous health monitoring and observation as the disease is intended to cause persistent health deterioration and at times sudden critical health condition which in case not immediately managed leads the patient to experience fatal consequences (Sun et al., 2020). In the UK, additional increase in the number of active COVID-19 cases is seen since the end of September with 33,470 cases reported on 12th November 2020. Since the first identification of COVID-19 cases in the UK, 1.2 million cases are reported in England, 83,259 cases reported in Scotland, 67,811 cases reported in Wales and 47,711 cases reported in Norther Ireland (WHO, 2020). This indicates that COVID-19 have affected wider population making the urgent care nurses increasingly involved in taking care of the patient to ensure recovery and well-being of the affected individuals. Since COVID-19 situation is totally new, the urgent care nurses initially faced challenges in delivering appropriate care. However, with time it is seen that urgent care nurses have developed various experiences regarding the way to appropriately care for COVID-19 patient during the pandemic situation by overcoming barriers and challenges in care. The increased COVID-19 cases in the UK have led to more urgent care nurses to be involved in care who have not been previously involved in caring for the coronavirus patient. It has led them to face difficulty regarding the way to deliver care and resolve issues for coronavirus patients to ensure their effective well-being. Thus, detailed understanding of the experiences of urgent care nurses in working with coronavirus affected patients during COVID-19 pandemic will be explored. This is because it would help to gather and provide information about the way care is to be delivered. Moreover, it would provide information about positive aspects and issues to be faced by the urgent care nurses in delivering care during COVID-19 pandemic situation to the coronavirus affected patients and way to resolve them to ensure delivering appropriate care to the patient.

Aim

The aim of the study is to identify care delivery experiences of the nurses while working with coronavirus affected patients during COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives

To identify urgent care nurse’s physical experience in working with coronavirus affected patients in COVID-19 pandemic

To identify urgent care nurse’s social and psychological experience in working with coronavirus affected patients in COVID-19 pandemic

To identify urgent care nurse’s patient care experience in working with coronavirus affected patients in COVID-19 pandemic

Methodology

The research designs are mainly of two types which are qualitative research design and quantitative research design. The qualitative research design is the method that focuses on gathering or collecting data through open-ended interactive communication with the study participants. The qualitative research design is developed by following the disciples and principles of social sciences such as sociology, psychology, anthropology and psychology. Thus, the method allows in-depth probing and questioning of the study respondents to gather their responses based on which the feelings and motivation of the respondents that led to the answering of the questions are also identified (Sun et al., 2020). Therefore, the qualitative research design will be used because it allows to gather detailed information about the different experiences of the urgent care nurses occurs while providing care to the coronavirus patients in the COVID-19 pandemic situation. In contrast, the quantitative design is the method of systematic investigation of any phenomenon to gather quantifiable data by performing mathematical or statistical computation techniques. In this research design, the data is gathered from existing and potential individuals by use of survey, online polls and others to depict the results in statistical format (Hao et al., 2020). In this study, objective data in the form of statistical results in not required as it focuses on gathering real-life care experiences of urgent care nurses for coronavirus patients. Thus, this method will not be used in the study as it does not allow to gather the required information. The sampling is of two types which are probability sampling technique and non-probability sampling technique. In probability sampling technique, the selected participants are chosen from the population who represent the larger population as whole. However, the non-probability sampling allows selection of participants on the basis of subjective judgement and requirement in the study (Khan et al., 2020; Kreps et al., 2020). In this study, non-probability sampling will be used in selecting the participants in the study. This is because it is cost-effective as well as involves less time in selecting participants compared to probability sampling technique. Moreover, in this study small number of participants are available due to which non-probability sampling will be used as probability sampling is used where there is probability of finding high number of participants for the study (Khan et al., 2020). A total of 3 urgent care nurses who are working to deliver care to coronavirus patients in the COVID-19 pandemic are to be involved in the study. The in-depth interview data collection technique will be used in executing the study. This is because interview helps in gathering detailed experience along with determine feeling and attitudes of the participants helping to provide in-depth and accurate data (Sikkema et al., 2020). The interview of the participants in the study will be conducted through Skype as face-to-face interview cannot be performed due to the COVID-19 condition where limited socialisation has been asked to be maintained to avoid getting affected by the disease. The Nvivo software will be used in analysing the data gathered through interview for reliable and credible data analysis.

Results and Discussion

The anticipated outcome is that physical issues faced by urgent care nurses while caring for the coronavirus patients in the pandemic situation will be identified. Moreover, the social challenges along with psychological issues experienced by the urgent care nurses in delivering care to the coronavirus patients in pandemic situation will be informed. The anticipated impact of the results will be that the current urgent care nurses who have not yet delivered care to coronavirus patients would be aware of the nature of issues and outcomes to be faced while providing care in this condition, in turn, making them feel prepared and determine prior solution for the issues to be experienced.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the aim to be fulfilled by the study is identifying care delivery experiences of the nurses while working with coronavirus affected patients during COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the qualitative research design will be used. Moreover, in-depth interview will be performed by including participants in gathering information for the study.

References

da Silva Santana, R., de Lima Fontes, F.L., de Almeida Morais, M.J., da Silva Costa, G., da Silva, R.K., de Araújo, C.S., da Silva, A.L.B. and do Nascimento Pereira, R.I., 2019. Occupational stress among emergency and urgent care nurses at a public hospital in Teresina, Piaui, Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Trabalho, 17(1), p.76.

Hao, F., Tam, W., Hu, X., Tan, W., Jiang, L., Jiang, X., Zhang, L., Zhao, X., Zou, Y., Hu, Y. and Luo, X., 2020. A quantitative and qualitative study on the neuropsychiatric sequelae of acutely ill COVID-19 inpatients in isolation facilities. Translational psychiatry, 10(1), pp.1-14.

Khan, F.R., Kazmi, S.M.R., Iqbal, N.T., Iqbal, J., Ali, S.T. and Abbas, S.A., 2020. A quadruple blind, randomised controlled trial of gargling agents in reducing intraoral viral load among hospitalised COVID-19 patients: A structured summary of a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials, 21(1), pp.1-4.

Kreps, S., Prasad, S., Brownstein, J.S., Hswen, Y., Garibaldi, B.T., Zhang, B. and Kriner, D.L., 2020. Factors Associated With US Adults’ Likelihood of Accepting COVID-19 Vaccination. JAMA network open, 3(10), pp.e2025594-e2025594.

Sikkema, R.S., Pas, S.D., Nieuwenhuijse, D.F., O'Toole, Á., Verweij, J., van der Linden, A., Chestakova, I., Schapendonk, C., Pronk, M., Lexmond, P. and Bestebroer, T., 2020. COVID-19 in health-care workers in three hospitals in the south of the Netherlands: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 20(11), pp.1273-1280.

Sun, N., Wei, L., Shi, S., Jiao, D., Song, R., Ma, L., Wang, H., Wang, C., Wang, Z., You, Y. and Liu, S., 2020. A qualitative study on the psychological experience of caregivers of COVID-19 patients. American journal of infection control, 48(6), pp.592-598.

Sun, N., Wei, L., Shi, S., Jiao, D., Song, R., Ma, L., Wang, H., Wang, C., Wang, Z., You, Y. and Liu, S., 2020. A qualitative study on the psychological experience of caregivers of COVID-19 patients. American journal of infection control, 48(6), pp.592-598.

WHO 2020, The United Kingdom: The Coronavirus, Available at: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/gb [Accessed on: 18 November 2020]

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