Family relationship of nurses in COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

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.