Experience of middle management nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aims: To explore the experiences of middle management nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland.

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 has placed extraordinary demands on health care systems worldwide, which were found mostly unprepared. In this situation, middle management nurses played a strategic role because they acted as a link between organizational directives and the clinical practice.

Methods: This is a qualitative study that used a face-to-face interview with semi-structured questions to learn about the experiences of middle management nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. After recruiting participants through purposeful sampling, data were analysed by means of thematic analysis using Nvivo 12.

Results: In total, 12 middle managers were interviewed. Data analysis identified four macro-themes-Changes; Conflicting emotions; Relation; Role-and 20 sub-themes.

Conclusion: The sudden challenges posed by the pandemic required middle managers to shift their focus from advanced planning to negotiation for meeting the rapidly evolving needs of nursing staff and top management, in order to guarantee the nursing team's well-being and organizational efficiency.

Implications for nursing management: Lessons learned from the pandemic suggest the need for fine-tuning organizational models and the importance that nurse middle managers affirm and uphold the core values for nursing and engage patient and staff advocacy.

Keywords: COVID-19; experience; middle management; nursing; pandemic; qualitative study.