Learning from critical care nurses' wartime experiences and their long-term impacts.

BACKGROUND: The history of critical care nursing is intertwined with that of battlefield nursing, where for almost 200 years, nurses worked to save injured soldiers' lives, risking their own physical and emotional injuries. Today, with nurses increasingly deployed to provide critical care during natural, man-made and public health crises that can resemble battlefield situations, there is much to learn from battlefield nurses. This qualitative study explores the lessons of the experiences of civilian nurses deployed to Israeli battlefields in three wars between 1967 and 1982. METHODS: Qualitative, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-two former military nurses who were deployed in three wars between 1967 and 1982. We analysed interview transcripts using a content analysis approach. COREQ, a 32-item checklist, guided method selection, data analysis and the findings' presentation. FINDINGS: Data analysis revealed three main themes, with ten related subthemes: Field Service Challenges, Coping with Challenges, and Nurses' Need for Recognition. CONCLUSION: The findings identify mental, emotional, and organizational issues resulting from nurses' wartime experiences, revealing numerous opportunities for better preparing and supporting critical care nurses before, during, and after crises. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Critical care nursing during crises, such as wartime, is unique but increasingly common. The memories and ongoing impact of those experiences offer invaluable information for nursing and health policy stakeholders planning for future deployments during wartime or other disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Shared trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Psychological effects on Israeli mental health nurses.

Mental health nurses, tasked with the constant care of clients undergoing mental health treatment, have faced unique challenges arising from the uncertain outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shared exposure of both nurses and their patients to a traumatic event such this pandemic leads to additional challenges and ways of coping. The psychological effects of this shared trauma on mental health nurses arising from the pandemic are the subject of this study. An online survey was used to examine personal levels of anxiety and concern, personal and national resilience (NR), and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among 183 mental health nurses working in mental health services in Israel. Overall, the study revealed moderate levels of concern and relatively low levels of anxiety, with significant negative correlations between personal and NR and levels of concern and anxiety. Higher levels of personal and NR were related to lower levels of concern and anxiety, and there was a significant positive correlation between assessments of personal resilience and NR. A significant positive correlation was found between personal and NR and PTG. Higher religiosity was associated with higher resilience, and higher professional seniority was related to higher PTG. Finally, results for particular demographic subgroups indicate that in Israel, special attention should be given to those mental health nurses who have immigrated to Israel, are non-Jews or have less professional experience.