The impact of COVID-19 on the social image of Nursing

Objective: to describe the current perception of Nursing by society, and to understand how the representation of the Nursing profession in the social consciousness has changed with the healthcare emergency scenario of COVID-19. Method: a descriptive cross-sectional study in the overall population andhealthcare professionals, recruitedthroughnonprobabilistic sampling (the sample size achieved, n= 1.109, delivered absolute accuracy of 2,94%), through a questionnaire designed ad hoc. Results: Nursing was considered a profession devoted to care andessentialwithin the healthcare system (83.7%), butwithlow socialrecognition (53.8%), underpaid (48.4%)and perceivedas a high-risk profession (93.3%). These professionals were considered to have university degree education (84.8%), and their most outstanding quality was knowledge (85.2%). The stereotype profile was a woman (92.8%), middle-aged (53.9%), wearing sanitary "pyjamas” (85.3%). 52.4% of the sample believed that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed their perception of Nursing;the importance of these professionals was acknowledged, andtheir performance was valued positively, inspiring feelings of admiration and respect towards them. Conclusions: Nursing has been considered a profession devotedto care andessentialwithin the healthcare system, but with low social recognition, underpaid, and perceived as a high-risk profession. The healthcare emergency experience has given visibility to nursing care. There has been a positive impact by the COVID-19 pandemic upon the social image of Nursing, revaluing it as a profession. © 2022 DAE Editorial, Grupo Paradigma. All rights reserved.

Public Perceptions and Attitudes on the Image of Nursing in the Wake of COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic in recent years has given nursing teams a unique place in this war, and an opportunity to change public opinion. The perceptions have the power to affect the users of health services, the nurses' performance, health policy, and even the choice to become a nurse. AIM: To examine the relationship between the public's perceptions and attitudes to the nursing profession compared with other healthcare professions, and to examine the relationship with the image of nursing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN AND METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional study, with a descriptive correlational design. Specifically, 80 respondents, men and women aged 18-75, joined a survey consisting of an anonymous questionnaire. RESULTS: A positive relationship was found between the public's perceptions and attitudes to nursing compared with other professions and the image of nursing in the wake of COVID-19, so the more positive public opinion was, the more positive the image of nursing would be. CONCLUSION: In the wake of COVID-19, the public's opinion and perception of the nursing profession compared to other professions and their attitudes to nurses are more positive. It is important to continue to explore which factors most affected and changed the image of nursing during the pandemic, and to design strategies to preserve the improved image of nursing among the public on an ongoing basis.

Public perceptions on Twitter of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The use of social media platforms to convey public opinions and attitudes has exponentially increased over the last decade on topics related to health. In all these social media postings related to the pandemic, specific attention has been focused on healthcare professionals, specifically nurses. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore how the keyword 'nurse' is located in COVID-19 pandemic-related tweets during a selected period of the pandemic in order to assess public perception. METHODS: Tweets related to COVID-19 were downloaded from Twitter for the period January 1st, 2020, to November 11th, 2021. Sentiment analysis was used to identify opinions, emotions, and approaches expressed in tweet which included 'nurse', 'COVID-19', and 'pandemic' as either keyword or hashtags. RESULTS: A total of 2,440,696 most used unique words in the downloaded 582,399 tweets were included and the sentiment analysis indicated that 24.4% (n = 595,530) of the tweets demonstrated positive sentiment while 14.1% (n = 343,433) of the tweets demonstrated negative sentiment during COVID-19. Within these results, 17% (n = 416,366) of the tweets included positive basic emotion words of trust and 4.9% (n = 120,654) of joy. In terms of negative basic emotion words, 9.9% (n = 241,758) of the tweets included the word fear, 8.3% (n = 202,179) anticipation, 7.9% (n = 193,145) sadness, 5.7% (n = 139,791) anger, 4.2% (n = 103,936) disgust, and 3.6% (n = 88,338) of the tweets included the word surprised. CONCLUSIONS: It is encouraging to note that with the advent of major health crises, public perceptions on social media, appears to portray an image of nurses which reflects the professionalism and values of the profession.

Public perceptions about nurses communicated via Twitter in Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: Social media platforms such as Twitter allow people to openly express their views about many topics, including the nursing profession. COVID-19 is currently a frequently searched and discussed topics on Twitter. This study was performed to identify the image of nursing in the social media before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, and to review of public perceptions about nurses' communication on twitter in Turkey. DESIGN: This study was conducted using content analysis with a sample of tweets posted on Twitter before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Codes were created, including expressions of respect, anxiety, violence, gratefulness, anger, positivity, and negativity. RESULTS: Findings showed that 35.65% of the 373 tweets posted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were positive while 64.35% were negative. During the pandemic 91.94% of the 1006 tweets were positive and 8.06% were negative. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggests that public opinion about nurses, as reflected on Twitter during the COVID 19 pandemic, was positive.