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Aims To assess nurses' burnout and its association with their perceived quality of patient care and occurrence of adverse events (AEs) during COVID‐19. Background Burnout is a serious problem among nursing staff internationally with negative impacts on the quality of care and patient safety. Methods We conducted a cross‐sectional online study among 1,004 Iranian nurses through the convenience sampling technique. Data were collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, five items of questions related to self‐reported poor patient care quality and estimated occurrence of AEs. Results Prevalence of high burnout among nurses was 31.5%. The risk of AEs ranged from 26.1% to 71.7%. Self‐reported quality of patient care was found to be poor. A positive correlation was found between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scores and patient care quality, whereas a negative correlation was found between personal accomplishment scores and all poor care item scores. Depersonalization was found to increase the risk of the onset of all AEs (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06–1.08). Also, Personal accomplishmentreduced the risk of occurrence of ‘medication errors’ (OR = 0.99) and the onset of ‘patient and their family verbal abuse’ (OR = 0.97). Conclusions Our findings confirmed the hypothesis that a higher degree of burnout is correlated with a perceived higher number of AEs and reduced perceived patient care quality. Implications for Nursing Management Reducing burnout among nurses through implementing interventions may be an effective strategy to enhance patient care quality and reduce the number of AEs in Iranian public hospitals. Therefore, in order to minimize work burnout, primary approaches include access to psychosocial support, including Web‐based services, psychological first aid, mental support hotlines and self‐care techniques during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Background: There is an acute shortage of nurses worldwide including Iran. Quality of work life is important for nurses as it affects the safety and quality of care provided for patients as well as organizational factors. The aim of this study was to describe the status of quality of work life and to explore its predictors among nurses in Iran. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2391 nurses in 85 Iranian public hospitals, selected through the convenience sampling. Data were collected using demographic information and the quality of work life questionnaires. Results: The mean score for total quality of work life was 2.58, indicating a low level of self-reported quality of work life, with 69.3% of nurses dissatisfied with their work life. The major influencing factors were inadequate and unfair payment, lack of solving staff problems by organization and poor management support, job insecurity, high job stress, unfair promotion policies, and inadequate involvement in the decision-making. Significant predictors in the multivariate analysis for lower quality of work life were male gender, being single, older age, having lower educational levels, and working in teaching hospitals. Conclusion: The quality of nursing work life was at a low level and needs improvement interventions. The predictors identified allow for more targeted interventions. Nursing managers and policymakers should develop and implement successful strategies appropriately to improve the quality of work life. This includes the payments, organizational and managerial support, job security, fair promotion policies, and measures to reduce job stress.