Nurses' mental workload and public health emergency response capacity in COVID‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

AimsThe aim of this study was to assess the level of mental workload of Chinese nurses through a latent profile analysis and to explore its relationship with public health emergency response capacity.DesignA cross‐sectional design with a convenience sample.MethodsA convenience sample of nurses from five tertiary hospitals in Chengdu between May and December 2022. Demographic, work‐related information, Nurse's version of NASA's Task Load Index Scale and Nurse's Public Health Emergency Response Capacity Scale were used in this study.ResultsThe mean scores for mental workload and emergency response capacity for nurses were (57.19 ± 15.67) and (3.58 ± 0.77) respectively. We found that the mental workload of nurses fell into three potential categories. In addition, there were differences in psychological training and supply of epidemic prevention materials in the department among nurses with different mental workload subtypes. There was a moderate negative correlation between nurses' mental workload and public health emergency response capacity.ConclusionOur results show that there is still a strong mental workload on a proportion of nurses, and enhanced psychological training and material supply support are beneficial in relieving nurses' mental workload. The better the nurses' capacity to cope with public health emergencies, the lower their mental workload.ImpactNursing managers should pay ongoing attention to the mental workload status of nurses in the latter stages of a pandemic and individual differences in nurses' mental workload. In addition, nursing managers should be aware of the impact of public health emergency response capacity on nurses' mental workload. They can intervene in nurses mental workload from a new perspective.Patient or Public Contribution560 registered nurses participated in this study.