Reflecting on the challenges encountered by nurses at the great Kermanshah earthquake: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Iran has experienced an increasing number of earthquake in the past three decades. Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers that play an important role in responding to disasters. Based on previous studies, they experienced challenges providing care in the previous disasters. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the nursing challenges to provide care to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake, Iran. METHODS: This is a qualitative study with conventional content analysis using Granheim and Landman approach. In this study, 16 nurses involved in providing care to the injured in the Kermanshah earthquake were selected by purposeful sampling method. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln were used to ensure the validity of the study. RESULTS: Data analysis led to the emergence of 453 primary codes, 14 subcategories, and 5 categories. The five categories were as follows: (a) organizational and managerial challenges; (b) human resources; (c) infrastructure; (d) educational preparations; (e) and ethical. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed that nurses faced several challenges in providing care to earthquake victims. Based on these findings, better educational management and planning, infrastructure reform, and establishment of a crisis nursing national team seem necessary. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-021-00605-3.