Community Health Nursing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Korea: Consequences, Challenges, and Directions.

Purpose: To explore the consequences, challenges, and future directions based on community health nurses' experiences during COVID-19.

Design: Qualitative study. Four focus group interviews were conducted with 27 community health nurses.

Findings: Three major themes emerged: 1) Coordination of roles and duties, 2) Identifying deterioration of patients' health and increasing demand for visits, and 3) Changing service delivery strategies: a testing ground for new services.

Conclusions: Community health nurses were essential public healthcare providers during the pandemic. The findings are informative for nurses and policy makers who can develop and suggest different services in the post-COVID era.