An examination of the fear of COVID‐19 and professional quality of life among nurses: A multicultural study

Abstract

Aim To determine the factors that influence nurses' fear of COVID‐19 and professional quality of life as well as their attitudes towards COVID‐19 in four different countries. Background The emergence of COVID‐19 has affected the psychological and professional quality of life of the frontline health care workers, especially nurses. Design An online cross‐sectional multicultural study. Methods A total of 1071 nurses from Turkey, Brazil, Spain and Italy were selected by convenience sampling. All participants were invited to complete the Fear of COVID‐19 Scale and Professional Quality of Life Scale through online form from October 2020 to January 2021. Results It has been seen that nurses' fear of COVID‐19 has been above the average and their professional quality of life has been affected negatively during the pandemic. Almost one out of three nurses (28.6%) thought of quitting their job during the pandemic. The majority of nurses (91.0%) thought their professional quality of life changed during the pandemic. The mean score of the Fear of COVID‐19 Scale is higher in nurses who are working in Brazil, are female, have a chronic illness and are working in an outpatient clinic. Professional quality of life is even lower in nurses who are younger than 40, have a professional experience of less than 15 years, are working in Brazil and have concerns about themselves and their relatives because of COVID‐19. Conclusions It was determined that there was a relationship between fear of COVID‐19 and professional quality of life subscales of nurses. Implications for Nursing Management Nurse leaders have an important role in supporting nurses actively during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic and providing them with good working conditions, sufficient resources and rewards. In order for nurses to be able to cope with the challenges brought about by the pandemic, particularly the fear of COVID‐19, and to avoid thoughts of quitting the profession, it would be beneficial to take certain administrative measures on institutional and territorial basis. It is recommended that employees with a chronic disease work in low‐risk clinics, the number of nurses be increased in busier clinics, working hours be reduced and nurses be provided with psychosocial support by experts to cope with stress. On the other hand, effective infection control, personal protective measures and implementing institutional policies and protocols can help to reduce the fear of COVID‐19 and increase their professional quality of life.

Fear of COVID-19 Impact on Professional Quality of Life among Mental Health Workers

“…Our results are generally in line with the majority of studies which demonstrated a significant negative impact of FCV-19 on mental health outcomes, work outcomes, quality of life, and job performance in HCWs [ 8 , 11 , 32 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. However, the comparison of our results with those of the above studies should be considered with caution given that in many of them, FCV-19 was measured through ad hoc questions and not with validated tools.…”

“…According to a recent meta-review [ 10 ], our results conform to the rates of BO reported by HCWs worldwide during the third wave [ 35 ]. Additionally, these results converge to those of reports indicating low to moderate levels of STS in HCWs during the pandemic [ 32 , 36 , 37 ]. We found only two studies that examined ProQOL and its dimensions (CS, BO, STS) in MHWs during COVID-19 [ 38 , 39 ].…”

“…All these factors were not explored in this study, as its primary objective was to determine the specific impact of FCV-19 on ProQOL. Female gender increases the vulnerability towards traumatic effect, as was found in the present and previous studies on ProQOL in HCWs or MHWs [ 32 , 36 , 56 ]. Female gender of HCWs has been associated with a higher risk of poor mental health outcomes, which may be attributed to the increased burden of domestic care, including child and family care that was recorded for women during the pandemic and was combined with excessive workloads [ 10 , 58 ].…”

“…As could be expected, our results revealed a lower overall mean FCV-19 score in MHWs (13.76) compared to those reported by HCWs (19.59 to 20.86) both frontline and second line [ 11 , 32 ]. A first explanation of this may be that many HCWs perform their duties in closer proximity to patients than MHWs, which increases the risk of exposure, leading to higher levels of FCV-19 and anxiety.…”

“…STS and PTSD are highly overlapping syndromes since STS in MHWs is characterized by symptoms of reliving, avoidance, and hyperarousal in response to the traumatized patients with whom they are empathically engaged [ 30 ]. According to our findings, traumatic impact when dealing with secondary exposure to stressful events is aggravated due to FCV-19 in both MHWs and HCWs [ 17 , 21 , 25 , 32 , 56 , 57 ]. However, we found that FCV-19 explained a significant yet relatively low percentage of STS variation.…”