Aim:

To deepen the knowledge about life experiences and support perceived by nurses who attended in-hospital patients with COVID-19 disease on haemodialysis during the months with the highest prevalence of the pandemic in Spain.

Material and Method:

Qualitative phenomenological study. The participating group was ten nurses from public hospitals in Spain who had dialyzed patients with COVID-19. Data collection was performed using semi-structured interviews through Skype© program, until the units of meaning were saturated. The analysis was done using the Colaizzi’s seven-step method.

Results:

Four dimensions emerged from the speech analysis associated with different subcategories: ignorance about the disease, patient suffering, perceived support and professionals’ ability to cope.

Conclusions:

Positive and negative emotions have coexisted in nurses. In the peak stage of the epidemic outbreak, the experiences of hemodialysis nurses were caused by ignorance, not knowing how to act appropriately, and fear of infection, aggravated by the lack of means of protection. The positive experiences were personal growth, the support of the team and the family. It is also worth noting the rational control of the situation, because in the dialysis units there is great experience in controlling the transmission of infectious diseases.

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