Strategies Used for Management of Patients with COVID 19: A Comparative Study of Iranian and Chinese Nurses’ Experiences

Shokoh Varaei, Zhang Caihong, Zhang Siqi, Parvin Mahmoodi4,, Honghua Guo2

Abstract


Background: Medical infrastructures, application of control strategies, and proper implementation of logistic policies are vital for successful management of an epidemic in a country, but all of them are under the influence of the health and management policies of countries. Thus, this study aimed to compare the strategies used by Iranian and Chinese nurses for management of patients with COVID‑19. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted based on the conventional content analysis method of Graneheim and Lundman approach. Participants were recruited by purposeful sampling among the nurses working in the COVID‑19 wards of Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran, and Haikou Hospital in Hainan, China. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews from August 2020 to February 2021. Then, the differences in used strategies by the nurses in the two countries were investigated using the data were analyzed using MAXQDA-10, qualitative data analysis software, and descriptive analysis technique. Results: In‑depth interviews were carried out with nine Chinese and ten Iranian nurses. With “Managers as the key element to overcome the crisis” as the main category, six categories and 22 subcategories were excluded from the Iranian interviews. With “Action to control crisis” as the main category, eight categories and 19 subcategories were excluded from the Chinese interviews. Conclusions: Nursing managers in China focused on the process of training nurses to take care of patients with COVID‑19 and reducing the transmission of infection among health care workers. However, nursing managers in Iran focused on compensating the shortage of nurses, shortening the duration of patients’ hospitalization, daily monitoring of nurses’ performance, and ventilator settings of patients.


Keywords


COVID19, disease management, nursing care, patient care management

Full Text:

PDF

References


World Health Organization. Director-General’s remarks at the media briefing on 2019-nCoV on 11 February 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-sremarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-2019-ncov-on-11-february-2020. [Last accessed on 2020 Feb 12].

Pearson CM, Mitroff II. From crisis prone to crisis prepared: A framework for crisis management. 1st ed. Risk management. Academy of Management Perspectives: Routledge; 2019. p. 185-96.

Team E. The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19)—China, 2020. China CDC weekly 2020;2:113.

Al-Rousan N, Al-Najjar H. Is visiting Qom spread COVID-19 epidemic in the Middle East? Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2020;24:5813-8.

Available from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. [Last accessed on 2025 Aug 25].

Sriharan A, Hertelendy AJ, Banaszak-Holl J, Fleig-Palmer MM, Mitchell C, Nigam A, et al. Public health and health sector crisis leadership during pandemics: A review of the medical and business literature. Med Care Res Rev 2022;79:475-86.

Hertelendy AJ. COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of what is working, what we have learned thus far, and the challenges that remain ahead. J Emerg Manag 2020;18:7-8.

Coe E, Enomoto K, Finn P, Stenson J, Weber K. Understanding the hidden costs of COVID-19’s potential impact on US healthcare. McKinsey and Company. 2020.

Harter J. COVID-19: What employees need from leadership right now. Gallup Workplace. 2020.

Hatami H, Sjatil PE, Sneader K. The toughest leadership test. McKinsey and Company. 2020.

Ahmadidarrehsima S, Salari N, Dastyar N, Rafati F. Exploring the experiences of nurses caring for patients with COVID-19: A qualitative study in Iran. BMC Nurs 2022;21:16-22.

Robinson R, Stinson CK. The lived experiences of nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dimens Crit Care Nurs 2021;40:156-63.

Graneheim UH, Lundman B. Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: Concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today 2004;24:105-12.

Guba EG, Lincoln YS. Fourth generation evaluation. Newbury Park, CA: Sage; 1989.

Bhadoria P, Gupta G, Agarwal A. Viral pandemics in the past two decades: An overview. J Family Med Prim Care 2021;10:2745-50.

Villar RC, Nashwan AJ, Mathew RG, Mohamed AS, Munirathinam S, Abujaber AA, et al. The lived experiences of frontline nurses during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Qatar: A qualitative study. Nurs Open 2021;8:3516-26.

Ross A, Bevans M, Brooks AT, Gibbons S, Wallen GR. Nurses and health-promoting behaviors: Knowledge may not translate into self-care. AORN J 2017;105:267-75.

Nelson H, Hubbard Murdoch N, Norman K. The role of uncertainty in the experiences of nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic: A phenomenological study. Can J Nurs Res 2021;53:124-33.

Catania G, Zanini M, Hayter M, Timmins F, Dasso N, Ottonello G, et al. Lessons from Italian front-line nurses’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative descriptive study. J Nurs Manag 2021;29:404-11.

Mokhtari R, Yaghoobzadeh A, Abdi K, Sajadi M, Jaras M, Golitaleb M. The experiences of nurses in care provision to COVID-19 patients: A qualitative study. Front Public Health 2022;10:766880.

Pritchard R, Ashwood E. Managing motivation: A manager’s guide to diagnosing and improving motivation. Routledge; 2008.

Vidua RK, Chouksey VK, Bhargava DC, Kumar J. Problems arising from PPE when worn for long periods. Med Leg J 2020;88(1_suppl):47-9.

LoGiudice JA, Bartos S. Experiences of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study. AACN Adv Crit Care 2021;32:14-26


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.