Experiences of the operating room nurses during the covid-19 pandemic.

This study was designed in a phenomenological type, one of the qualitative research methods, in order to examine the experiences of operating room nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was carried out in a public hospital in Zonguldak, using in-depth interview technique with 10 operating room nurses between February and March 2021; using personal information and semi-structured interview form. Themes and codes were created with thematic analysis method. As a result of the analysis, 4 themes and 29 codes were obtained. In the theme of Changing Systems and Practices in the Operating Room; In the theme of personal protective equipment and sterility, workload/time, lack of patient-nurse communication, decrease in the number of cases, change in emergency-elective case applications, flexible working practices, Effects of Pandemic; In the theme of anxiety/fear, psychological problems, personel protective equipment difficulties, nurse shortage, longing/distance from family, sleep disorders, familial problems, difficulty in working in a different unit, Strategies for Coping with Pandemic; communication with family, breathing/sports exercises, spirituality, regular/healthy eating, online shopping, watching TV series/movies, accepting the process, importance of life/health in the theme of What We Learned from the Pandemic, importance of family, worthlessness of the nursing profession, financial injustice, gaining professional experience, personal importance of protection, lack of union support and professional satisfaction codes were created. It was determined that there were changes in the nursing and surgical process in the operating room with the COVID-19 pandemic, that nurses experienced positive/negative effects, and that many gains were made from the pandemic by using coping methods.