Meaning of humanized care for the nurse in times of COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: Humanized care should prevail in nursing work, performed with quality and excellence and always be present in daily practice, even in times of a COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To understand the meaning of humanized care for the nursing professional in times of the COVID-19.

Methods: Qualitative descriptive-interpretive approach, with the philosophical reference of Emmanuel Lévinas. Scenario, Hospital de EsSalud (Social Health Insurance) Callao-Peru, from april to december 2020. Eight nurses from the emergency service participated. The semistructured interview was used to collect data and the data were analyzed using Minayo's content analysis.

Results: Two categories were generated: "Recognizing your vulnerability as a human being to COVID-19" and "Providing psycho-emotional support to the COVID-19 patient and family."

Conclusion: Given the critical situation of patients in the emergency service, the nurses become aware of them, losing their fear of contagion of the disease. Providing care to patients with the COVID-19 and who do not progress favorably causes impotence, emotional burden, and stress in nurses. Added to this, listening and feeling the pain of family members adds a greater emotional burden.