Ethical Challenges Concerning the Care for Hospitalized COVID-19 Patient from the Perspective of Peruvian Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused that the nursing personnel face several bioethical dilemmas when providing direct care to patients, since it was a new and unexpected situation.

Objective: To describe the ethical challenges in the care for hospitalized COVID-19 patients from the perspective of Peruvian nurses.

Methods: An exploratory, descriptive and qualitative research was conducted from July to October 2021. The population consisted of 15 nurses who worked in the COVID-19 hospitalization area in Arequipa, Peru. The nonprobabilistic sample by convenience was achieved through the data saturation and redundancy technique; the sample was made up of 10 nurses. The interviews, held by telephone calls and Zoom, were processed using content analysis.

Results: Four categories were obtained: a) scarce medical supplies and equipment, c) exorbitant and lonely deaths, b) scarcity of humane treatment, and d) lack of family involvement in hospitalization.

Conclusions: The greatest ethical challenges faced by nurses during COVID-19 were finding hospitalized patients dead or seeing them die alone without the company of their family; the fear of contagion, which caused distant treatment; and the lack of supplies. All those aspects caused suffering and impacted the mental health of nurses, aspects that should be considered for future pandemics.