‘The body seems to have no life’: The experiences and perceptions of fatigue among patients after COVID-19, 2021, Bilgin et al

Abstract

Aims and Objectives
This study aimed at determining the perception of fatigue among patients with a history of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Background
Fatigue is a long-lasting distressing symptom. It is a multidimensional symptom consisting of several factors, including physiological, psychological, social and environmental. It is vital to examine and understand the perception of fatigue among post-COVID-19 participants.

Design
A descriptive phenomenological design.

Methods
The study sample consisted of 14 post-COVID-19 participants that were recruited using criterion sampling. The fatigue levels of the participants were determined using the Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS), and those with a fatigue score above 12 were interviewed. All the interviews were conducted with a smartphone due to the COVID-19. The COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used.

Results
The age of the participants varied from 24 to 67 years, with the majority of the participants being female (n = 8). The COVID-19 duration ranged from one to 11 months, and the CFS scores varied between 14 and 33. Four themes emerged following the qualitative data analysis: a new symptom beyond fatigue, fatigue increases dependency in daily life, fatigue impedes sociability and a way to hold on to life's regular rhythms.

Conclusions
This study concluded that fatigue in post-COVID-19 participants is a new experience that is difficult to define and manage and overwhelmingly affects the physical and social aspects of life. Participants look for new ways to live with fatigue and turn to traditional methods and psychosocial strategies.

Relevance to clinical practice
This study revealed the miscellaneous aspects of fatigue in post-COVID-19 participants. Nurses should evaluate fatigue with a holistic approach that includes its physical, social, emotional and spiritual aspects. Nurses can play an active role in the management of fatigue, which is a very common symptom in the COVID-19 pandemic.


What does this paper contribute to the wider global clinical community?

• This study reveals that post-COVID-19 patients experienced multi-faceted fatigue.
• This study highlights the need for a holistic approach from nurses while assessing fatigue in post-COVID-19 patients.
• This study recommends that nurses should inform post-COVID-19 patients about the possible self-coping methods to deal with fatigue.

Open access, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jocn.16153

 

It's really not getting any better, uh? The focus on "distressing" is seriously bizarre, it's like none of these people have ever had a sick day in their life and simply can't process the concept and what it means. Of course the choice to limit this to fatigue is basically the tell that it's a waste of effort.

I think it's time to say it out loud: that however bad the BPS research has been, it's basically standard to everything having to do with chronic health problems. The problems are not at all limited to the BPS ideology, they're just a concentrated version of it, but the overall quality of research on chronic health problems is just uniformly terrible and basically just pure waste, as long as it's entirely from the perspective of professionals who appear completely ignorant of basic health concepts other than as mere words and labels associated to other concepts they vaguely know.

The rest of medicine doesn't handle this any better, it's simply universally poor and dysfunctional. It's just more visible with the BPS ideologues since it's all they do and their reputation is entirely tied to it. But in the end most "research" out there appears to be mostly the equivalent of fundraising, it only serves to provide the basis for more work and for no other actual purpose than doing the type of work that is preferred.

 

Yes indeed. Indeed it is so. So it is. As it was so will it be.