{"id":7236,"date":"2025-06-28T17:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T17:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T05:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T05:08:32","slug":"its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published as: It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19<\/strong><\/p>\n

Original Article Link: Read Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n

Download PDF: Click Here to Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h2>\n

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand the challenges that nurses and midwives face when seeking to practice social distancing within the various clinical settings in a hospital work environment during COVID-19. Background: COVID-19 has had a significant impact on nurses and midwives internationally. With the ease of transmission of COVID-19 and the limitations in pharmaceutical interventions, other measures had to be implemented across communities and in healthcare settings. These public health measures were enacted in various ways throughout the world. A key measure employed globally was social distancing. Australia was no different, initiating community wide interventions to apply social distancing principles and action, in an effort to reduce transmission. Whilst at their places of work, nurses and midwives were also encouraged to practice social distancing. Design and methods: Using convenience sampling, 579 nurses and midwives employed within one local health district in NSW, Australia completed an online questionnaire during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, a thematic analysis was undertaken as a way of categorising data from the 216 (37%) qualitative responses with regards to social distancing. This study adhered to The Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) guidelines. Results: Overwhelmingly, responses indicated that participants found it challenging to practice social distancing in their workplaces across various clinical settings within the hospital. The two major themes identified were: 1) challenges relating to social distancing with patients and 2) challenges related to social distancing with colleagues. Several sub themes were also identified. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a number of challenges for healthcare professionals, social distancing being a key challenge. Social distancing is argued to be almost impossible in various clinical settings within a hospital where patient contact and provision of care in a team environment occurs.
\nWhat is already known about the topic?<\/p>\n

Social distancing has been demonstrated as an effective public health intervention to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, such as MERS, SARS and Ebola.<\/p>\n

What this paper adds:<\/p>\n

During COVID-19, social distancing practices in acute healthcare environments have been enforced. However, this creates difficulties for health professionals such as nurses and midwives when providing quality care.
\nThe results showed that social distancing has been more difficult than anticipated to adhere to in the work environment.
\nThe built environment of hospitals (physical layout) and working in multidisciplinary teams made social distancing particularly challenging for nurses and midwives.<\/p>\n

Authors<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Cassandra Hobbs<\/li>\n
  • Lorna Moxham<\/li>\n
  • Heidi Green<\/li>\n
  • Elham Almasi<\/li>\n
  • Rebekkah Middleton<\/li>\n
  • Elizabeth Halcomb<\/li>\n
  • Ritin Fernandez<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Keywords<\/h2>\n

    Registered nurses, midwifery, acute care, nurse-patient relationship, COVID-19, social distancing<\/p>\n

    References<\/h2>\n

    References not available for this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This article was originally published as: It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[4094,1060,3912,4120,4119,2101],"class_list":["post-7236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-acute-care","tag-covid-19","tag-midwifery","tag-nurse-patient-relationship","tag-registered-nurses","tag-social-distancing","wpcat-124-id"],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19 - IJSSASS Repository<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19 - IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article was originally published as: It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IJSSASS Repository\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-28T17:34:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-29T05:08:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\"},\"headline\":\"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-28T17:34:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-29T05:08:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\"},\"wordCount\":485,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"acute care\",\"covid-19\",\"midwifery\",\"nurse-patient relationship\",\"Registered nurses\",\"social distancing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\",\"name\":\"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19 - IJSSASS Repository\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-28T17:34:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-29T05:08:32+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"description\":\"Open Access Library\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization\",\"name\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\",\"alternateName\":\"IJSSASS\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":195,\"caption\":\"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19 - IJSSASS Repository","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19 - IJSSASS Repository","og_description":"This article was originally published as: It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work...","og_url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/","og_site_name":"IJSSASS Repository","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass","article_published_time":"2025-06-28T17:34:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-29T05:08:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":195,"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771"},"headline":"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19","datePublished":"2025-06-28T17:34:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-29T05:08:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/"},"wordCount":485,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"keywords":["acute care","covid-19","midwifery","nurse-patient relationship","Registered nurses","social distancing"],"articleSection":["Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/","name":"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19 - IJSSASS Repository","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-28T17:34:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-29T05:08:32+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/its-just-not-that-easy-challenges-faced-by-nurses-and-midwives-in-the-work-environment-in-adhering-to-social-distancing-during-covid-19\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It\u2019s just not that easy! Challenges faced by nurses and midwives in the work environment in adhering to social distancing during COVID-19"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","description":"Open Access Library","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization"},"alternateName":"IJSSASS","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#organization","name":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES","alternateName":"IJSSASS","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/c-users-user-desktop-logo-pnglogo-3.png","width":300,"height":195,"caption":"INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ijssass"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/adf9bae5731958270e2140cfc1af3771","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2404e10f252fd74bce698fdfc0296b3cfb701b99d14951364bf9586aaa0c4a8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal"],"url":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8157,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236\/revisions\/8157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}