Mixed-method study on long-term impact of coronavirus disease-19 infection among nurses: A study protocol

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial effect on frontline healthcare workers, specifically nurses, who have faced both physical and psychological burdens. Despite growing studies on the short-term impact of COVID-19, few studies have examined its long-term impact on nurses’ health and professional well-being. This research targets to bridge this gap by examining the sustained effects of COVID-19 infection among nurses, integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods. This research adopts a mixed-methods approach. In quantitative phase, using simple random technique 216 nurses recovered from COVID-19 will be selected. Data will be collected from eligible nurses which includes personal characteristics, fatigue, sleep quality and brain fog measured via validated scales along with physical health parameters that will be retrieved from their annual health records. Chi-square test would be done to assess the relationship between severity of infection and post recovery physical and cognitive health impacts. Physical health parameters such as Blood pressure, Body mass index (BMI), Lab test values will be collected before and after infection and will be compared with paired t-test or Wilcoxon signed rank test. In qualitative phase, the phenomenological method will be used to carry out in-depth interview with a subset of nurses to learn more about their lived experiences and professional challenges post-infection. A purposive sampling technique will be used, targeting nurses working in tertiary healthcare settings and thematic analysis will be used to identify themes and sub-themes from their qualitative narrative. This mixed-method study is anticipated to produce evidence on the long-term physical and cognitive effects of COVID-19 among nurses that addresses a critical and underexplored consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nursing workforce thereby influencing workplace policies and occupational health interventions following COVID-19.