Table 4.

Codes, subcategories, and categories extracted from data analysis

Categories	Subcategories	Codes
Experiences and challenges	Lack of protective equipment	Lack of protective equipment such as gloves, high quality masks, face shields, disinfectant solution, and isolation clothes
	High work pressure	Increasing work shifts, increasing number of patients, more visits to patients due to too many drugs and giving different serums, doing patients’ work due to not having a companion
	Marginalized physical health	Fatigue, headache, muscle fatigue, weakness, lethargy, sleeplessness, low quality of sleep, digestive problems, disrupted eating hours and eating habits, menstruation problems of female nurses
	Problems related to the use of protective equipment	Shortness of breath, facial ulcers, heat, sweating, body burns, itching, and leg wounds
	Being excluded	Relatives run away from dealing with nurses, inappropriate behavior and avoidance of neighbors, inappropriate behavior of others outside the workplace, and inappropriate behavior of family members
	Lack of supportive work environment	Not having a suitable place to rest, crowded break rooms, lack of motivational stimuli such as material rewards, worries about dismissal, lack of psychological counseling to cope with the stress related to COVID-19, and lack of adequate training in how to deal with COVID-19 patients
	Problems related to patients	Getting abused and bullied by patients, patients’ boredom, patient’ homesickness, seeing patients in bad condition
	Psychological problems	Depression, self-morbidities, and grief over losing a colleague due to COVID-19
	Fear	Fear of being infected, fear of carrying and transmitting the virus to their families, the disease’s persistence, and ignorance of the COVID-19 virus
	Marginalized personal and family life	Disconnection with family, homesickness for family, reduction of the role of mother or father in the family, being distant from the family during Nowruz, not attending their child’s birthday party, disruption in life plans such as marriage, cancellation of family travel plans
	The challenge of communication with patients’ families	Difficulty in informing families about positive test results, difficulty in informing families about their patient’s death, difficulty in informing families about their patient’s exacerbated condition, accusing the nurses of being shirkers by the patient’s family, too much contact by the patient’s family
Adaptation strategies for work conditions	Performing religious-spiritual activities	Praying, saying daily prayers, listening to the Qur’an, saying blessings to Prophet Muhammad [Salawaat], asking for help from the Imams
	Creating an empathetic atmosphere in the workplace	Creating emotional relationships with patients, strengthening relationships with other colleagues, forgiveness and devotion, helping colleagues, giving positive feedback to colleagues, talking more with colleagues, and providing an atmosphere for jokes and laughter
	Spiritualizing their work	Considering their work as jihad in the way of God, equating death due to COVID-19 with martyrdom, and receiving rewards in the hereafter
	Trying to convince the family and gaining their support	Explaining the necessity of being in the hospital, explaining the importance of nurses’ work, observing health principles and comforting the family, showing working conditions to family members, and making phone and video calls to the family
	Enhancing their sense of self-worth and responsibility	Feeling satisfied with strengthening their social image and status among people, satisfaction with people’s gratitude, increasing their efforts to save people, increasing interest in their work and profession, taking responsibility for people’s health