Abstract: Objective: To explore the cognitive, emotional and volitional experiences of nurses caring COVID-19 patients who were critically ill. Methods: Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method was used in the study to analyze data and extract main themes. In-depth interviews were conducted on eleven nurses in the intensive care unit of a designated COVID-19 hospital in Wuhan from February 4th to 29th, 2020. Results: Through data analysis, seven themes were summarized: infection risk, high work intensity, inadequate capacity to respond to public health emergencies, tension and anxiety, guilt and helplessness, problem-centered coping and emotion-centered coping. Conclusion: By analyzing the real experiences of nurses caring critically ill COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, the measures to control psychological stress of nurses was necessary and put out, which could provide references for the development of training system for managers.

Key words: COVID-19; public health emergency; rescue nurses; qualitative research