Understanding Rewarding and Challenging Nursing Experiences During the Pandemic in Five Countries: Toward Strengthening the Workforce

Introduction: Nurses are now more likely to leave their current role in direct patient care than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Country culture and the organization of health care systems drive nurses’ decisions to leave or stay in the profession. Methods: In a fall 2020 survey of nurse professional quality of life, a content analysis of responses to the open-ended question, “What has been challenging or rewarding during this pandemic experience?” was performed. Results were organized within Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory. Results: Six hundred and fifty-six nurses across five countries responded to the question; 526 comments were analyzed. Most (53.6%) respondents were staff bedside nurses. Themes, such as Distress and Fatigue and Building and Experiencing Social Capital were found and understood to reflect cultural values and dimensions such as Uncertainty Avoidance and Power Distance. Discussion: Recommendations include strengthening culturally tailored leadership knowledge to inform and facilitate countries’ nurse retention.