Ethical problems experienced by nurse managers in the pandemic of COVID-19 in a university hospital

Simone Graziele Silva Cunha; Sérgio Deodato; Maria José Menezes Brito

doi:10.15253/2175-6783.20232481737

Authors

Simone Graziele Silva Cunha Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0445-4822
Sérgio Deodato Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Lisboa, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8076-8276
Maria José Menezes Brito Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9183-1982

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15253/2175-6783.20232481737

Keywords:

Nursing; Health Management; Ethics, Nursing; COVID-19; Coronavirus Infections.

Abstract

Objective: to understand the ethical problems experienced by nurse managers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: qualitative study, conducted with 19 nurse managers. The inclusion criteria were nurses who had held a management position for at least six months, and the exclusion criteria were those who held an assistance position. Data were collected through individual interviews with a semi-structured script and document analysis and analyzed using Content Analysis. Results: the ethical problems were related to duplicity and lack of information about norms and routines; lack of patient flow; routine changes without communication with the nurse coordinators; absenteeism and presenteeism of the nursing team; refusal of reassignment by technicians; nursing professionals who chose to work in the COVID-19 sector and earn additional unhealthy salary and those who did not choose due to fear of disease; and conflicts arising from the patient. Conclusion: the analysis revealed situations marked by ethical problems that compromise the dynamics of work and the quality of care. Contributions to practice: understanding ethical problems contributes to the promotion of improvements in planning, intervention, and preparation of professionals to deal with conflicting issues experienced in hospital management.

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