Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, a rapidly escalating public health emergency of international concern, on 11th March 2020 (WHO, 2023). This ignited the concern of patients as well as healthcare workers.
The COVID-19 outbreak provoked social stigmatisation and discriminatory behaviours against healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19. Social stigma in this context refers to people’s negative feelings towards someone or a group of people who they fear may share or have specific symptoms of a disease that they perceive to put them at risk. Social stigma increases anxiety, depression and burnout. Evidence confirms that nurses and doctors who experienced significant social stigma from the general public during the pandemic had poorer mental health and their work performance decreased significantly (Bagheri Sheykhangafshe et al., 2022).
Researchers have demonstrated that the pandemic caused major trauma to nurses globally, as they faced various challenges, including, for example, the risk of exposure, fear, anxiety, mental preparedness, unrealistic hope, changed lifestyle, restricted social activities, social stigma, positive and a negative mind set.
This qualitative study highlights that social stigmatisation, demonstrated through discriminatory behaviours or the fear of social reactions, was a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors used an inductive content analysis approach to define categories and subcategories of the social stigma experienced by nurses. Overall the study showed that nurses experienced adversities, especially in the initial days and gradually developed preparedness for better patient care in addition to the wide range of experiences.
Our own experience aligns with this paper’s findings that the major concern was nurses’ paradoxical emotions, fear and anxiety which were mainly attributed to unawareness or sudden outbreak, the contagious nature of the illness and a lack of knowledge, that negatively impacted on nurses’ psychological and physical well-being. Most of the social stigma healthcare workers experienced was at their residence and they had to hide their known COVID-19 status from others to avoid experiencing discrimination. This led to nurse’s reduced communication, loneliness and increased social isolation.
The question still to answer is how could nurses cope with an ongoing situation of, for example, all-round rejection, isolation and abandonment, so easily? The researchers surfaced important qualities of nurses in this work, these are a positive mindset, spirituality, independence, willingness to care, resilience of nurses, preparedness and their scientific understanding of the disease. For us, this paper is relevant to the nursing field, as it perspicuously acknowledges nurses willpower to battle with all the emotional challenges that they faced while caring for COVID-19 patients. Undoubtedly, the influential role of the media also facilitated a great change in the public’s attitudes towards nurses, by broadcasting the selflessness and dedication of the nurses globally. Further, in my view, it would be a step in the right direction if administrations and governments promoted mental health awareness and provided dedicated psychological interventions for nurses and their families.
We feel proud and grateful to all nurses here in India and overseas for their countless efforts to help the world overcome the deadly pandemic. Considering the crucial frontline roles nurses have played in pandemics throughout history, coupled with the fact that WHO designated 2020 as the year of the nurse and the midwife it is undeniably the right time for the world to recognise the varied and vital work nurses do (Year of the Nurse and the Midwife 2020, n.d.).