A qualitative study about nurses' experiences of working and caring in a Palestine refugee camp in Jordan and methodological reflections while conducting a study within this field
Jordan is a developing country and there are ten Palestine refugee camps throughout Jordansince the Arab-Israel conflict in 1948 and the Arab-Israel war in 1967. The camps are run byUnited Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)which is the main provider of health care in the camp. Today, the fourth generation ofrefugees lives in the camps which are extremely overpopulated. The social and economicconditions in the camps are poor. The nurses' workload in the Health care centre in the campis getting harder and UNRWA's resources are getting strained due to funding shortfalls. Weasked ourselves the question: How do the nurses experience providing care for the patientswith limited resources? The aim of this study is to elucidate the nurses' experiences ofworking and caring in a Palestine refugee camp in Jordan and also to describe challengeswhile conducting a qualitative study within this field. Qualitative data were collected byperforming interviews with an open ended question with nurses who are working in one of theHealth care centres in the largest Palestine refugee camp in Jordan. Methodologicalreflections were made out of our experiences while conducting the study. The nurses talkedabout providing good care for the patients and their satisfaction when caring. They alsoreflected over the resources in the Health care centre. Since the Palestine refugee camp is thenurses' home and workplace, a place where they have their professional and private life, itseems that there is a very strong connection between the nurse and the patient.