The impact of Covid-19 on nurses' mental health in the City of Johannesburg Clinics, Gauteng Province

Abstract

The mental health of nurses is crucial to their ability to deliver high-quality nursing care during the pandemic since they are the backbone and front-line personnel of the healthcare system. The Covid 19 pandemic presented nurses with a variety of challenges, including abrupt deaths among patients, staff members, and families, a lack of resources, and restrictive measures. Despite the terrible circumstances brought by Covid 19, nurses were still required to care for the victims. Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of nurses in the City of Johannesburg clinics in Gauteng province. Study method The qualitative, explorative, and descriptive design was used for the researcher to get insight into the lived experience of the participants. Non-probability, purposive homogeneous sampling was used in this study to select 14 nurses from five clinics in the City of Johannesburg municipality region A & E. The researcher asked the participants about their experiences regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health, to explore more information. Data were collected using semi-structured one-on-one interviews with a scheduled interview guide. Qualitative data analysis using Tesch's approach was followed. Ethical principles were applied throughout the study. Results The following themes emerged from the study: The impact of COVID-19 on nurses’ mental health regarding contributing factors, mental health symptoms, behavioral symptoms, support and measures to improve nurses’ mental health. Conclusion Various factors contributed to the impact of COVID-19 on professional nurses’ mental health; these include the sudden onset of COVID-19, losses of colleagues and family members, insufficient material and human resources, inadequate psychosocial support, COVID-19 symptoms, as well as the COVID-19 preventative and intervention measures should be considered in managing the well-being of nurses who had been serving as the front liners. Timely psychological counselling, as well as awareness and intervention, need to be implemented for nurses to alleviate their anxiety or discomfort while dealing with other pandemics in future and improve their general mental health.