Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Coronavirus Disease-19 and Nursing Management

Abstract

Millions of people lost their lives due to the Coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) epidemic that started in China and spread rapidly all over the world. One of the most important problems in combating the disease was the loss of time in early diagnosis of infections and the ineffectiveness of the quarantine screen due to the incubation period of the disease, which can last up to fourteen days. This process poses a high risk to healthcare professionals and especially nurses, who are the first to come into contact with infected people. Currently, there is no definitive treatment for Covid-19. The only proven form of management is isolation and supportive care. Therefore, nurses, who are involved in every level of patient care, have an important role in combating this epidemic. Being a new emerging disease condition for the whole world, there has been created a huge gap regarding how the nursing care of patients with Covid-19 in hospitals will be. The aim of this article is to implement nursing interventions according to Gordon's Functional Health Patterns Model of a patient diagnosed with Covid-19, to highlight the important points that should be taken into consideration during their care, and to guide the nurses working in the field. Data were collected by face-to-face interviewing with the patient, and care was planned, applied and evaluated according to the model. The model of Functional Health Patterns can be used as an easy and convenient model for determining health care requirements and implementing nursing interventions for patient with a positive diagnosis of Covid-19.