Healthcare providers’ experiences in hospital resuscitation of patients with COVID-19: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 epidemic has globally challenged medical practices, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Numerous challenges affect healthcare providers (HCPs) who are members of the resuscitation team and the resuscitation process in COVID-19 patients. As a result, HCPs may experience different dilemmas about CPR. Failure to recognize these experiences can harm both HCPs and patients. This study aimed to explore the HCP’s experiences of CPR in patients with COVID-19. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 26 participants in the emergency departments of Besat, Golestan, and Imam Reza hospitals (in the west of Iran) using the hermeneutic phenomenology approach. The data were analyzed using the 6-step Smith interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) method. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 38 years. Most of them (61.5%) were male and had a Bachelor’s degree in nursing (46.1%).The data analysis resulted in extracting four super-ordinate and nine sub-ordinate themes. “Human aspects of Care”, “Perceived Psychological Effects of Resuscitation in COVID-19”, “HCP’s perceptions of factors affecting the resuscitation process in COVID-19”, and “Perceived differences in COVID-19 resuscitation compared to non-COVID patients” were super-ordinate themes. CONCLUSIONS: The participants experienced a wide range of difficult feelings and emotions while resuscitating the patients with COVID-19, suggesting the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on HCPs and the resuscitation process. They experienced stress and fear, and the resuscitation process was influenced by their compassion, underlying patient conditions, resuscitation futility, and participants’ fatigue or lack of oxygen due to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).