Protective reactions of ICU nurses providing care for patients with COVID-19: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The exponential spread of COVID-19 has caused a huge threat to public health worldwide. Providing care for patients with COVID-19 is a stressful experience for ICU nurses, which can affect their protective reactions. The present study was conducted to explore the protective reactions of ICU nurses providing care for patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This qualitative descriptive study was conducted to discover the protective reactions of nurses providing care for patients with COVID-19. A total of 14 ICU nurses were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected using individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews. All interviews were recorded, and then codes and themes were extracted using content analysis method. FINDING: Seventeen subcategories, six categories and two themes were extracted from the analysis of data. These themes include “Unbalanced self-protective reactions” and “Responsible self-protective reactions”. CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 epidemic and crisis, ICU nurses exhibit different self-protective reactions when providing care for patients with COVID-19, which include unbalanced and responsible reactions. Nursing managers can mitigate these unbalanced reactions by identifying them and their roots. Identifying the protective reactions of ICU nurses in providing care for patients with COVID-19 could assist in developing the necessary interventions to promote positive reactions and reduce unbalanced reactions by finding their root causes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-021-00567-6.