Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Running head: The COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The COVID-19 pandemic
Context/perspective of this research
In late December 2019 an undiscovered pneumonia cluster has been found in Wuhan,
China (Wu & McGoogan, 2020). A few days later, the novel causes of this mysterious
pneumonia were identified as a corona virus (Bai et al., 2020). This causative virus was
momentarily alluded to as severe acute respiratory syndrome 2, which was renamed corona-virus
disease (COVID-19) 2019 by the World Health Organisation. The COVID-19 outbreak is
already spreading across China and around the world. Corona viruses are an extremely stable
RNA virus population, with a favourable envelope (World Health Organization 2020). Since
March 2020, the Corona virus (COVID-19) became recognised and extended to many countries
and territories as a global public health issue. With the spreading of COVID-19, it is important
for communities to take measures to avoid more disclosure, raising the effects of the disease and
promote preventive efforts (Zhou et al., 2020). Particular emphasis has been assigned in
securing children and education facilities due to this epidemic.
As of today, the novel corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had caused 1,529,975
human infections and 89,427 deaths worldwide, including more than 3000 infections among
medical staff. The possibility of contamination with COVID-19 will trigger severe psycho-
social stress for healthcare staff. Unfortunately, several young medical personnel who were
infected with COVID-19, whose cases seem to have recently deteriorated and died mildly at the
early stage of the disease, have added more fears of the virus (Huang et al., 2020). The
complexity of their jobs raises the risk of communicable diseases, like COVID-19, for healthcare
employees. If large numbers fall sick during an epidemic crisis, the very elevated degree of
burden on the healthcare sector is exacerbated. That is why it is so critical for patients to be
easily detected and separated and has access to security equipment. Care staff devote a lot of

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The COVID-19 pandemic
time in near partnership with the individual performing high-risk practice (cdc.gov, 2020).
Emergency department doctors and nurses are drenched with sweat and essential care nurses
searching for safety gear have rapidly come to personify the courage and catastrophe of the
corona virus pandemic. The complexity of their job puts healthcare staff at an elevated risk of
contracting some communicable illness, like COVID-19. Health staffs are at the frontline of the
epidemic response and are also susceptible to risks of disease-pathogen infection (in this
situation, COVID-19). The threats include illnesses, work long hours, psychological deprivation,
tiredness, workplace burnout, loneliness and psychological distress (Who.int, 2020). Most
contaminated COVID-19 patients come first to an emergency hospital (ED) unit. ED nurses are
also the first healthcare workers to take charge of current infected patients. In addition, during
the COVID-19 epidemic, there were many instances of exposure to the EDs. ED nurses
experience hectic, volatile and constantly shifting conditions relative to nurses in other fields
(Who.int, 2020). As they contend with various illnesses, stressful experiences and immediate
circumstances, they don't have much time to rest and thus put themselves into significant stress
and anxiety. As a consequence, ED nurses in many medical units are reported to suffer from
much more burnout than other nurses. Burnout is a long-term effect of long-term exposure to
such work pressures, as well as a response when someone can no longer tolerate the discomfort
they experience (Kim & Choi, 2016). Health care staffs are also at risk because people with
COVID-19 are not detected rapidly. Thus, this qualitative research will explore the experiences
of Emergency Department (ED) nurses while treating patients with COVID-19 by conducting
interviews and knowing their perceptions regarding the same in the Sydney metropolitan
Hospital.