Background: The epidemic of COVID-19 had brought great pressure on health care staff, and the global health care system are facing unprecedented challenges. In this difficult period, nurses and from all over China volunteered to stand in the front line to support Wuhan caring for the patients with COVID-19. Due to the lack of specific standards, inadequate and misallocated medical resources, disagreements with doctors in decision-making, front-line nurses were faced with many ethical dilemmas in caring. Meanwhile, the experience of front-line nurses in the face of ethical dilemmas was gaining widespread attention. Therefore, present study could shed some light and provide a new understanding of ethical practice nursing, so as to help nurses to deal with them better, and improve the quality of nursing services.

Aim: To describe the nurses’ experiences of ethical dilemmas while caring for patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China.

Methods: This study used a purposive method to interview eight nurses who cared for patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan. Semi-structured interviews, in a face-to-face format, were used to collect the data. The interviews were made between June 2020 to February 2021. The interview was recorded and transcribed verbatim. Analyze were done through manifest and latent qualitative content analysis.

Results: Through analysis of the interviews, one main theme “to find a balance from internal and external sources”, three categories emerged: Balance in the person; Balance of the resources and Balance in the social environment. The ethical dilemma faced by nurses is related to professional responsibilities, personal safety, resource allocation, empathy and role conflicts, and social environment.