Factors Affecting Fatigue among Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study identified clinical nurses’ fatigue and related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected from South Korean hospitals on 234 nurses’ general characteristics, fatigue, depression, occupational stress, insomnia, and perceived daytime sleepiness using a structured questionnaire. The prevalence of fatigue was 62.0%, depression 52.1%, insomnia 20.7%, and daytime sleepiness 36.1%. Insomnia, sleepiness, depression, and occupational stress were significantly associated with fatigue. Ward nurses who cared for COVID-19 patients within the past month had significantly higher occupational stress related to organizational climate than those who had not provided care, and ICU nurses who cared for COVID-19 patients had significantly higher job insecurity-related occupational stress. Nurses have a high prevalence of fatigue and depression during the pandemic. Thus, insomnia, sleepiness, depression, and occupational stress must be reduced to lower nurses’ fatigue. Caring for COVID-19 patients was not significantly associated with fatigue, but there were significant differences in occupational stress between nurses who provided such care and those who did not. Work environment-specific strategies are needed to reduce nurses’ occupational stress during the pandemic.

The Impact of the Working Hours Among Malaysian Nurses on Their Ill-Being, Intention to Leave, and the Perceived Quality of Care: A Cross-Sectional Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“… 42 In another study, the prevalence of fatigue was 62.0%, and depression was 52.1% among nurses. 23 Sagherian et al found that nurses who cared for COVID-19 patients for more than 40 hours per week had a significant risk for fatigue and psychosocial well-being. 11 A qualitative study found that ICU nurses felt physical exhaustion caused by wearing PPE, which minimized their working capacity and ability to focus.…”

“…Several studies have demonstrated that overtime negatively affects the health and well-being of caregivers’ quality of care. 22 , 23 Before the pandemic, Ball et al survey of nurses reported that shifts of more than 12 hours were associated with poor quality of care ratings, higher rates of care left undone, and the longer the shift, the higher the dissatisfaction level. 24 Jarrar et al examined the associations between nursing duty hour length on nurses’ reported quality and safety in Malaysian hospitals.…”

Evaluation of alarm fatigue among intensive care unit nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: An exploratory study

“…The results of a grounded theory study showed that the physical environment and inappropriate arrangement of the ward were the underlying factors affecting the severity of nurses' exposure to alarm fatigue [41]. In a study conducted in South Korea, nurses experienced high fatigue related to the physical environment, which might be due to the high workload and noise [45]. Similarly, the ndings of another study showed that the more unfavorable was the work environment, the higher was the level of fatigue [46].…”

“…Studies have reported fear of social isolation, discomfort caused by protective equipment, and multiple alarms as the main factors of nurses' fatigue [47]. Providing a standardized and safe physical environment for nurses caring for patients with COVID-19 is critical for patient and nurse safety [45,47]. Therefore, nursing managers should take the necessary measures in this eld.…”

The prevalence and factors of work-related fatigue among nurses: a meta-analysis and systematic review

“…Poor sleep conditions, insomnia and sleepiness were found to be associated with severe fatigue [28,32,52,54,63] . A bad mood, such as anxiety and depression, was found to be associated with fatigue [23] . Lower job satisfaction was found to be associated with work-related fatigue [30,34,37,44,47,53,56] .…”