2026 Volume 73 Issue 2 Pages 156-166
Objective To identify the technical approaches used by public health nurses for providing telephone support to patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) receiving home-based care during the pandemic.
Methods Five managers and five newly appointed public health nurses from five municipalities, each with experience in home-based care for homebound COVID-19 patients, were interviewed. A qualitative analysis was performed using Braun and Clarke’s methodology.
Results The analysis yielded 68 codes, with 10 unique to managerial public health nurses. These codes were grouped into eight categories, which were then subdivided into three primary response techniques: methods for establishing ongoing support to patients with unknown COVID-19 status, including those who are not cooperative or hostile; approaches for rapid adaptation to establish an effective recovery environment for infectious diseases; and strategies for improving the self-care abilities of patients with COVID-19 and their families. During the telephone support sessions, nurses relied not only on verbal expressions but also encouraged non-verbal expressions and collected non-verbal information to gain a multidimensional understanding of patients’ situation and needs. This involved managing patients’ refusal to respond as well as their strong treatment requests. Unique observations among managerial nurses included the following: continuing to provide detailed explanations to obtain patient consent, managing resistance to containment strategies, and remaining aware of their authority as health center staff; understanding the perceived threat of COVID-19 by patients, families, and local residents to inform awareness; and deliberately issuing instructions to patients to gather precise vital information from their posture or behavioral responses. Due to their experience, managerial nurses were able to empathetically understand patients and their families, apply emotional intelligence, and engage in conversations that enabled them to sensitively detect subtle early signs of health deterioration.
Conclusion This study identified techniques to address the unique public health challenges posed by infectious diseases, providing valuable insights for training resilient public health nurses.
