COVID-19 was initially identified in Hubei province, in which the number of confirmed cases increased sharply in the early stage. As a significant public health emergency, 28,600 nurses were sent to Wuhan to fight against COVID-19, accounting for nearly 68% of all frontline healthcare staff (Government of Hubei Province, 2020). These nurses risked their lives, undertook an enormous workload under high-intensity pressure, and experienced long working hours, which cause serious negative emotions (Chen et al., 2020), professional burnout (Morgantini et al., 2020), job dissatisfaction (Zhang et al., 2020 and even a tendency to leave (Song et al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the shortages of nurses that already exist, and widespread nursing shortages could lead to staff burnout and endanger patient safety.