The healers who suffer: nursing officers perception towards management of covid-19 patients - A phenomenological approach

This work presents a special issue gathering contributions from our nursing heroes about their live experiences in context of COVID-19. The personal experiences were gathered from five nursing officers working in COVID-19 wards in Puducherry. The overall aim of this phenomenological approach was to reveal and interpret Nurses' lived experiences of working in COVID-19 wards in a hospital setting. Attempts were made to understand the nature of experience Nurses undergo in the COVID-19 wards and the associated effects of personal values, opinions, and the social processes on the care they have provided in the ward .The open-ended questions were prepared by intense review of literature related to standard guidelines, PPE protocols, current hospital management of COVID-19, dietary management, sustainable PPE use, infection control, mask affect, isolation protocols, workload and experiences of Nurses, difficulties faced, risk ratio involved, special allowances, after-work practices, mental state of patients and coping with the pandemic stress. Nurses and their specialised care were seen as crucial for recovery while lack of time, amenities and perceived work environment demands were viewed as the barriers to work performance.