Coping strategies among nurses in the Burn Intensive Care Unit: A qualitative study

Background: Working in the Intensive Care Unit has been noted to be stressful. Also, caring for a burn injured patient has been observed to present various stressors to nurses. Thus, working in the Burn ICU may be filled with various stressors that nurses need to respond to. However, there is paucity of studies exploring how nurses in the Burn ICU cope. Objective: To explore and describe coping strategies exhibited by nurses working in the Burn ICU. Methodology: An exploratory-descriptive approach was utilised to explore coping strategies exhibited by nurses. Purposive sampling was used to recruit nurses from the Burns Intensive Care Unit (n = 13). Face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with an interview guide, proceedings audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. One follow up interview was conducted after the initial interview. Analysis was undertaken using thematic analysis to generate themes. Findings: Three themes with corresponding sub-themes were identified: seeking and obtaining support, distancing oneself and recreation. Conclusion: Considering the useful role that senior nurses played in the unit, there is a need to develop strategies to retain them as well as support the on-going professional development of all nurses. There is also a need to create avenues of release to enable nurses’ talk about their experiences as they provide care to burned patients. Keywords: Coping, Nurses, Intensive Care Unit, Burns