Evaluation of Factors Affecting Job Stress in Nurses Caring for COVID-19 Patients

The Covid-19 pandemic, with its widespread prevalence, confronted the nursing profession with specific occupational stressors. Job stress has a significant effect on nurses' performance and jeopardizes the provision of high quality and safe care. The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting job stress in nurses caring for Covid-19 patients.

This cross-sectional study was performed in the first 6 months of 2020. 90 nurses caring for Covid-19 patients were selected by census method. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire on nurses' occupational stressors (validity score between 0.7 and 1 and reliability with Cronbach's alpha of 84%) which was provided to nurses online.

37 (41.1%) nurses were male and 53 (58.9%) were female. The mean age of nurses was 31.39±6.32 years (range 21-45 years) and the mean job history was 10.82±5.31 years. Managerial, personal, physical, patient care and interpersonal factors were identified as sources of stress in nurses caring for Covid-19 patients, respectively.

Since managerial factors were recognized as the most source of stressors, it is preferable to plan on the managerial level to reduce stressors in nurses and subsequently improve the quality of nursing care for COVID-19 patients.