LAUSR

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, a rapidly escalating public health emergency of international concern, on 11th March 2020 (WHO, 2023). This ignited the concern of patients as well as healthcare workers. The COVID-19 outbreak provoked social stigmatisation and discriminatory behaviours against healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19. Social stigma in this context refers to people’s negative feelings towards someone or a group of people who they fear may share or have specific symptoms of a disease that they perceive to put them at risk. Social stigma increases anxiety, depression and burnout. Evidence confirms that nurses and doctors who experienced significant social stigma from the general public during the pandemic had poorer mental health and their work performance decreased significantly (Bagheri Sheykhangafshe et al., 2022). Researchers have demonstrated that the pandemic caused major trauma to nurses globally, as they faced various challenges, including, for example, the risk of exposure, fear, anxiety, mental preparedness, unrealistic hope, changed lifestyle, restricted social activities, social stigma, positive and a negative mind set. This qualitative study highlights that social stigmatisation, demonstrated through discriminatory behaviours or the fear of social reactions, was a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors used an inductive content analysis approach to define categories and subcategories of the social stigma experienced by nurses. Overall the study showed that nurses experienced adversities, especially in the initial days and gradually developed preparedness for better patient care in addition to the wide range of experiences.