Slettmyr Anna, Schandl Anna, Arman Maria, Hugelius Karin
Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
BMC Nurs. 2025 Apr 1;24(1):360. doi: 10.1186/s12912-025-02956-7.
Many intensive care unit (ICU) nurses who were crucial to the frontline response during the COVID-19 pandemic left their employment during or after the pandemic. Studies exploring the experiences of these nurses are lacking. The aim of this study was to explore ICU nurses' course towards making the decision to resign from work in the ICU following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advertisements on social media and a snowball sampling-inspired method were used to recruit 11 nurses from hospitals around Sweden who worked in an ICU during the pandemic and who then left employment. The participants were interviewed individually via telephone, online or in-person. An interview guide with a few open-ended questions was used to capture the nurses' narratives. The data were analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutical method.
The nurses were tangled in paradoxes, described as three themes: 'To give it all and yet feel insufficient', 'To experience togetherness and yet feel lonely' and 'To prioritise others and yet need to eventually prioritise oneself'. The decision to end their employment was ambivalent but necessary, made with relief and no regrets, but with sorrow. During this decision-making process, there may have been a window of opportunity during which nursing management or the health care service might have influenced the outcome.
The ICU nurses' decision to resign was influenced by a tangle of challenging paradoxes that entailed ambivalence. The course to the decision to resign was marked by hesitancy. While it is important to understand and support nurses' willingness to care for patients during a crisis and to acknowledge their suffering as it relates to their professional efforts, it is also essential to address their individual struggles and needs.
许多在新冠疫情期间对一线应对至关重要的重症监护病房（ICU）护士在疫情期间或之后离职。缺乏对这些护士经历的研究。本研究的目的是探讨新冠疫情后ICU护士做出从ICU辞职决定的过程。
通过社交媒体广告和一种受滚雪球抽样启发的方法，从瑞典各地医院招募了11名护士，他们在疫情期间在ICU工作，之后离职。通过电话、在线或面对面方式对参与者进行单独访谈。使用包含几个开放式问题的访谈指南来获取护士的叙述。采用现象学诠释学方法对数据进行分析。
护士们陷入了矛盾之中，被描述为三个主题：“全力以赴却仍感不足”、“体验团结却仍感孤独”以及“优先考虑他人却最终仍需优先考虑自己”。结束工作的决定是矛盾的，但却是必要的，做出这个决定时感到解脱且无悔，但也伴随着悲伤。在这个决策过程中，可能存在一个机会窗口，在此期间护理管理层或医疗服务机构本可以影响结果。
ICU护士的辞职决定受到一系列具有挑战性的矛盾的影响，这些矛盾导致了矛盾心理。辞职决定的过程以犹豫为特征。虽然理解和支持护士在危机期间照顾患者的意愿以及承认他们与专业努力相关的痛苦很重要，但解决他们的个人挣扎和需求也至关重要。
