The pandemic heroes: but what for? a critical plot twist on the study of nurses’ wellbeing

The symposium situates the burgeoning domain of studies on nurses’ well-being, and within the broader mainstream view of nurses as Pandemic heroes. Studies on nurses place a particular emphasis on wellbeing as the ultimate outcome of psychological investigations and applied psychological interventions. Moreover, implicit thinking in personal and professional ideologies echoes the focus on wellbeing when denoting nurses as “heroes” of the pandemic. Coupling psychosocial, psychodynamic, and organizational approaches, the symposium draws on a pluralistic approach to argue that while studying nurses’ wellbeing is worthwhile, this nonetheless risks neglecting intra-subjective and inter-subjective mechanisms (e.g., cognitive-affective processes) leading to question the meaning of nurses’ wellbeing. Accordingly, we advance a critical plot twist on the study of nurses by which foreshadowing theoretical and methodological perspectives. The symposium combines the following contributions: a scoping review on burnout among intensive care unit nurses during the pandemic; a mixed methods study on the nurses’ meaning and subjective wellbeing; a quantitative study on nurses’ emotions self-regulation; a qualitative investigation into the dark side of being “heroes” based on nurses’ narratives.