I Am Not a ‘Hero’: U.S. Nurses’ Identity Overlaps and Conflict During COVID-19

The current COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies a crisis that is redefining the meaning of communication for many. Metaphors like the “hero” trope are being used to represent our frontline employees, such as nurses who work directly with COVID-19 patients. However, we know very little about how these tropes influence the identities of these nurses and how it impacts their work. This article draws on social identity theory and key works related to role and identity conflict to look at nurses’ perceptions of the hero trope being used to define them during this crisis. The study involved 23 semi-structured interviews with nurses from the United States who were working with COVID-19 patients. Nurses described how, due to COVID-19—especially in light of the hero trope–multiple identities became salient during the pandemic. Many of the identity overlaps were minimized during this time as the trope modified the meaning of how some norms around these different sub-identities were understood. This also highlights the role of communication in shaping and modifying group identity norms during crises, thus suggesting an integration of SIT with the constructivist or even some level of poststructural perspective. As a consequence of the pandemic and the minimized overlaps between the identities, nurses felt more self-doubt or failure, which impacted their overall psychological well-being as well as their efficacy at work. Nurses used communication strategies such as providing reminders, separating myth from reality, and directly approaching their managers, to cope with the identity conflicts.