Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2022; 10(19): 6472-6482
Published online Jul 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i19.6472
Family relationship of nurses in COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study
Melike Yavaş Çelik, Meryem Kiliç
Melike Yavaş Çelik, Department of Nursing, Yusuf Serefoglu Faculty of Health Sciences, Kilis 7 Aralık University, Kilis 79000, Turkey
Meryem Kiliç, Department of Nursing, SANKO University, Gaziantep 27000, Turkey
Author contributions: Çelik MY and Kiliç M completed the manuscript and gave their final approval of the version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Kilis 7 Aralık University (2020/25 decision number).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: The identities of the participants are confidential, data can be shared without personal information when requested.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Melike Yavaş Çelik, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing, Yusuf Serefoglu Faculty of Health Sciences, Kilis 7 Aralık University, 7 Aşit Aralık Street, Karataş Campus, Kilis 79000, Turkey. www_com_tr@hotmail.com
Received: December 9, 2021
Peer-review started: December 9, 2021
First decision: January 12, 2022
Revised: January 22, 2022
Accepted: May 27, 2022
Article in press: May 27, 2022
Published online: July 6, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

This research demonstrates that nurses feel pain because the pandemic process has separated them from their family and children.

AIM

To examine the family relationship situation of nurses in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

METHODS

The research adopted a descriptive qualitative design. Participants were selected by the snowball method. An individual in-depth interview technique was used while the participants were away. In-depth interviews were made with a total of 27 nurses. Nine of these nurses were excluded from the study due to communication problems and device problems during the interview.

RESULTS

This research showed that nurses suffered from family relationship breakdown and insufficiency in intrafamilial coping. The nurses stayed away from their families due to overtime and fear of COVID-19. They cannot meet the needs of their children and spouses for whom they are responsible, and they cannot spare time for them. They were living a tiring life with great responsibility and faced with mental problems such as burnout syndrome and depression. This study was conducted in three cities with a high number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey. We investigated three themes: Breakdown in continuity of intrafamilial relationship, ineffectiveness in role performance, and ineffective individual coping.

CONCLUSION

The nurses suffer from conditions such as change in parent-infant/child relation and insufficiency in intrafamilial process coping.

Keywords: COVID-19, Nurses, Family relationship, Coping, Role performance

Core Tip: This study was planned to examine the family relationship of nurses in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. It was showed that nurses suffered from family relationship breakdown and insufficiency in intrafamilial coping.