Psychological Stress and Job Burnout of Frontline Nurses in Wuhan in the Context of Normalized Pandemic Prevention and Control for COVID-19----A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Nurses in the designated hospitals for COVID-19 in Wuhan (China) during the early period of COVID-19 outbreak may have suffered great occupational stress in the context of normalized pandemic prevention and control. The aim of this study was to make a survey on the occupational stress of nurses working in a designated hospital for COVID-19, explore their demographic data and the impact of job burnout, insomnia and psychological resilience on nurses’ occupational stress.

Methods: 552 nurses who had been working in the designated hospital for COVID-19 by January 2021 were selected to conduct the cross-sectional survey. We used self-made demographic data questionnaire, stress perception questionnaire, job burnout scale, insomnia severity index questionnaire and psychological resilience scale.

Results: Generally the average score of the stress perception of nurses working in the designated hospital for COVID-19 was 14.00 (0.00,36.00), a moderate stress level. 273 of the participants presented a mild stress level, accounting for 49.46% and 46 with severe stress，accounting for 8.33%; “no sense of job accomplishment” scored 34.00 (0.00, 48.00), an index of severe job burnout. The participants got a mean score of 5.00 (1.00,8.00), of which 115 (20.83%) presented mild insomnia, 34 (6.16%) and 4 (0.72%)severe insomnia. The results by correlation analysis revealed that stress perception was positively correlated with emotional fatigue and work indifference (p <0.05), and stress perception was negatively correlated with sense of accomplishment, strength, optimism, and tenacity (p <0.05).

Conclusions: In the context of normalized COVID-19 prevention and control, nurses in the designated hospital for COVID-19 in Wuhan presented mild work stress and little sense of accomplishment. The psychological stress and job burnout of nurses as a group can be preliminarily predicted from the dimensions of insomnia, sense of work accomplishment, psychological resilience, etc.