Table 5.

CERQual Qualitative Evidence Assessment.

Objective: To explore the psychosocial experiences of frontline nurses working in hospital-based settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Included studies: Twenty-eight studies (Arnetz et al., 2020, Eftekhar et al., 2020, Fan et al., 2020, N Galehdar et al., 2020, Gao et al., 2020, Góes et al., 2020, Hou et al., 2020, Jia et al., 2021, Kackin et al., 2020, Kalateh et al., 2020, Q Liu et al., 2020, YE Liu et al., 2020, Sheng et al., 2020, Sun et al., 2020, Tan et al., 2020, Zhang et al., 2020, Deliktas et al., 2021, Muz and Erdoğan, 2021, Coşkun and Günay, 2021, N Galehdar et al., 2020, Sethi et al., 2020, Fernández-Castillo et al., 2021, Ohta et al., 2020, Lee and Lee, 2020, Goh et al., 2020, Bennett et al., 2020, Vindrola-Padros et al., 2020, Okediran et al., 2020)
Review Finding	Studies Contributing to the Review Finding	Assessment of Methodological Limitations	Assessment of Relevance	Assessment of Coherence	Assessment of Adequacy	Overall CERQual Assessment of Confidence	Explanation of Judgement
Frontline nurses experienced fear of infection and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic.	Studies Arnetz et al., 2020, Eftekhar et al., 2020; Galehdar et al., 2020a, Gao et al., 2020, Góes et al., 2020; Kackin et al., 2020, Kalateh et al., 2020, Liu et al., 2020a, Liu et al., 2020b, Sheng et al., 2020, Sun et al., 2020, Tan et al., 2020, Zhang et al., 2020, Deliktas et al., 2021, Muz and Erdoğan, 2021, Coşkun and Günay, 2021, Galehdar et al., 2020b, Sethi et al., 2020, Fernández-Castillo et al., 2021, Ohta et al., 2020, Lee and Lee, 2020, Goh et al., 2020, Bennett et al., 2020	Minor methodological limitations (23 studies with minor methodological limitations)	Minor concerns about relevance (the studies were from 11 countries)	Minor concerns about coherence (data reasonably consistent within and across all studies)	Minor concerns about adequacy (11 studies together offered moderately thick data overall)	High confidence	This finding was graded as high confidence because of minor concerns regarding methodological limitations, relevance, coherence, and adequacy.
The unfamiliarity in the workplace and psychological unpreparedness were the main occupational stressors that caused nurses psychological distress and negative physical impacts.	Studies Arnetz et al., 2020, Eftekhar et al., 2020, Fan et al., 2020, Galehdar et al., 2020a, Gao et al., 2020, Góes et al., 2020; Kackin et al., 2020, Kalateh et al., 2020, Liu et al., 2020a, Liu et al., 2020b, Sheng et al., 2020, Sun et al., 2020, Tan et al., 2020, Zhang et al., 2020, Deliktas et al., 2021, Muz and Erdoğan, 2021, Coşkun and Günay, 2021, Galehdar et al., 2020b, Sethi et al., 2020; Ohta et al., 2020; Lee and Lee, 2020, Bennett et al., 2020, Okediran et al., 2020	Minor methodological limitations (23 studies had minor methodological limitations)	Minor concerns about relevance (the studies were from 10 countries)	Minor concerns about coherence (data consistent within and across all studies)	Minor concerns about adequacy (10 studies together offered moderately thick data overall)	High confidence	This finding was graded as high confidence because of minor concerns regarding methodological limitations, relevance, coherence, and adequacy.
Nurses’ coping strategies combined with external supports given to nurses contributed to improved coping abilities to stress and thus increased professional identity	Studies Eftekhar et al., 2020, Fan et al., 2020, Galehdar et al., 2020a, Gao et al., 2020; Hou et al., 2020, Jia et al., 2021, Kackin et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020a, Liu et al., 2020b, Sheng et al., 2020, Sun et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020, Deliktas et al., 2021, Muz and Erdoğan, 2021, Coşkun and Günay, 2021, Galehdar et al., 2020b, Sethi et al., 2020, Fernández-Castillo et al., 2021, Ohta et al., 2020, Lee and Lee, 2020, Goh et al., 2020, Bennett et al., 2020, Vindrola-Padros et al., 2020, Okediran et al., 2020	Minor methodological limitations (24 studies had minor methodological limitations)	Minor concerns about relevance (the studies were from 10 countries)	Moderate concerns about coherence (some concern about the fit between the data from a few primary studies)	Minor concerns about adequacy (10 studies together offered moderately thick data overall)	Moderate confidence	This finding was graded as moderate confidence because of minor concerns regarding methodological limitations, relevance, and adequacy; and moderated concerns regarding coherence.