Nurses’ Perceptions of Covid -19 Pandemic in Pontianak City West Kalimantan Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

Nurses are the most substantial medical personnel in a hospital or community health center and they have the highest frequency of contacts with patients in 24 hours. They are highly active during the pandemic, which made them vulnerable to the virus. Causing the nurses to be easily stressed and fatigued which will affect their body and eventually their immune system. The nurses were also overwhelmed by the fact that their families and friends can contract the virus from them if they were infected. In addition, there‟s also fear of rejections and discriminations from the society towards them and their families. Objective to describe and to explore the perceptions of nurses as medical workers on the co-19 pandemic in Pontianak City, West Kalimantan. For method, this research uses a qualitative descriptive method with the phenomenological approach by interviewing five nurses who have worked with COVID-19 patients in a state-owned hospital. For the result of this study, the researchers have found six themes related to nurses 'perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely 1) The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of nurses, 2) Nurses' efforts to protect themselves from COVID-19, 3) causes that resulted to nurses exposure to the COVID-19, 4) Nurses' experience when using PPE, 5) Obstacles and challenges experienced by nurses during co-19, 6) Nurse's expectations during epidemic COVID-19