Research nurses publish study on living through COVID-19
May 23, 2022
Contact:
Jon Berg
Sanford Health Media Relations
605-366-2432 / Jon.Berg@sanfordhealth.org
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. —Six Sanford Health employees, including nurses and researchers, and an associate professor from Augustana University, recently published a study titled, “The lived experience of frontline nurses: COVID-19 in rural America,” which highlights the experiences of several nurses working in three of Sanford’s tertiary medical centers in the upper Midwest during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study was published in the Wiley Online Library, an American multinational publishing company featuring online scientific journals and additional scientific research resources.
“We interviewed 19 nurses – 14 female and 5 male nurses with an average age of 28.6 and 4.7 years of nursing experience,” said Karen Robinson, PhD, RN, FAAN, a nursing research consultant with Sanford Health. “The study helped us understand exactly what nurses working in COVID units and intensive care units in rural America experienced as they were caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients.”
The study identified common themes from the nurses who were interviewed, which included the feeling of being overwhelmed and the perseverance and resiliency nurses and their co-workers experienced during the pandemic. Nurses also shared their experiences caring for patients who were extremely ill and sicker than any other patient they had cared for in their nursing career.
This study and the stories shared from these rural nurses, will help to inform how to best support bedside nurses, nurse management and staff development educators in the future.
For more information about Sanford Health, visit SanfordHealth.org.
About Sanford Health
Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the United States, is dedicated to transforming the health care experience and providing access to world-class health care in America’s heartland. Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the organization serves more than one million patients and 220,000 health plan members across 250,000 square miles. The integrated health system has 47 medical centers, 2,800 Sanford physicians and advanced practice providers, 170 clinical investigators and research scientists, more than 200 Good Samaritan Society senior care locations and world clinics in 8 countries around the globe. Learn more about Sanford Health’s commitment to shaping the future of rural health care across the lifespan at sanfordhealth.org or Sanford Health News.
