Impact of COVID-19 on nurses’ mental health in Thohoyandou area, Limpopo province

Maphulusi Makananisa; Valeria Baloyi; Mpho Madzhie; Maphuti Chueng

doi:10.36096/ijbes.v7i2.773

Authors

Maphulusi Makananisa Department of Psychology, University of Venda, Limpopo Province https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0096-2595
Valeria Baloyi Lecturer Department of Psychology, University of Venda, Limpopo Province https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7724-2759
Mpho Madzhie Part-time Lecturer Department of Psychology, University of Venda, Limpopo Province
Maphuti Chueng University of Venda https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7685-6660

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36096/ijbes.v7i2.773

Keywords:

Covid-19, Front liners, Healthcare Workers, Mental health, Nurses

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has far-reaching social and economic consequences for everyone. Every country in the world was affected by the pandemic in one way or the other. To mitigate the effects, companies around the world implemented working from home strategies. However, not all jobs can be done from home. This means that healthcare workers were exempt from the working from home initiative. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the nurses’ mental health in the Thohoyandou area. The study was qualitative in nature and used exploratory research design. A sample of 15 participants were selected purposefully at Tshilidzini Hospital. An interview guide was used for data collection and thematic content analysis was employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that the impact of COVID-19 on nurses’ mental health was anxiety and fear, depression and loneliness. The challenges nurses experienced include shortages of staff, workloads, shortage of personal protective equipment and lack of compensation. Moreover, this study revealed that nurses supported each other and used faith to cope with the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health. This study has made imperative recommendations such as counselling or debriefing as coping strategies for nurses and adequate supply of resources for healthcare workers. The study further motivates continual research to explore the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers’ mental health.

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