The following report focused on the shortage of nursing workers that occurred in Spain as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The study prioritizes discovering and documenting the mental health problems that were present among health care professionals that operated voluntarily throughout the crisis. This includes the observation of experiences, emotional reactions, coping techniques, and other factors that impacted the students that performed voluntary healthcare work at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study utilized a qualitative study in the constructivist paradigm with a purposive sampling of twenty-two students. The participants were involved in semi‐structured interviews and later content-analyzed with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research checklist (Roca et al., 2021). The selection of a qualitative approach was beneficial to the study, especially through the perspective of constructivism. Constructivism informs the researchers about the environment of the participants and their experiences are given context. As such, the reality which is assessed by the researchers is based on the perception and experiences of the student. This allows the qualitative study to identify biases and external variables and provides the study with more effective results. The data collection occurred through semi‐structured interviews with two components. First, basic data describing the sample was collected directly from the students. Following this, online interviews were conducted with the participants. Data analysis had then been implemented to discover two recurring themes which included experiences and emotional responses and coping strategies. The themes also exposed dimensions of elements such as patients, contexts, fear of contagion, emotions, personal satisfaction, work environment, personal, and daily life. The qualitative study and selected data collection were appropriate as they allowed for insight into the experiences of the unique participant group.
Reference
Roca, J., Canet-Velez, O., Cemeli, T., Lavedan, A., Masot, O., Botigue, T. (2021). Experiences, emotional responses, and coping skills of nursing students as auxiliary health workers during the peak COVID‐19 pandemic: A qualitative study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 30(5), 1080–1092.