Psychological effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on nurses working in tertiary women's and children's hospitals from Sichuan, China: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

The evolving COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented pressures on health systems. Accumulative studies suggest that nurses were more likely to develop negative psychiatric outcomes following a public health disaster than other medical staffs, due to their more frequent and closer contact with patients. We examined the psychological status of nurses working in the tertiary women’s and children’s hospitals in Sichuan, China, in order to explore the possible effect of the COVID-19. The cross-sectional survey was conducted at the peak period of COVID-19 among 1971 nurses. Their anxiety, depression and self-efficacy were assessed by the seven-item anxiety scale (GAD-7), the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), respectively. 1934 valid questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 98.1%. We found that 29.3% and 22.7% of the nurses were identified with anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. The median score of GSES was 30, which was at the upper middle level among all populations. Nurses having longer working years and cold-like symptoms, those who were at work during breakout period and working in pediatric ward were significantly associated with the presence of anxiety and depression. Findings suggest that the epidemic of COVID-19 does not necessarily affect the psychological health of nurses working in women’s and children’s hospitals in Sichuan. The results of this study could serve as valuable suggestions to direct the promotion of psychological well-being among targeted nurses.

Factors affecting Nurse Anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic

“…This may be related to differences in gender traits. Women are more concerned about inner experiences and self-perceptions, which makes them more fragile and sensitive, and more prone to anxiety (He et al, 2021). Agree with the results of this study, research in ICU nurses shows that female ICU nurses tend to experience severe anxiety (Heesakkers, Zegers, van Mol, & van den Boogaard, 2021).…”

Anxiety Linked to COVID-19: A Systematic Review Comparing Anxiety Rates in Different Populations

“…A greater prevalence of anxiety was found in frontline healthcare responders compared to second-line or non-COVID-19 healthcare workers, and this was highlighted in twelve papers [ 29 , 30 , 34 , 43 , 48 , 51 , 53 , 69 , 74 , 76 , 109 , 113 ]. This was further endorsed, as healthcare staff not working in COVID-19 epicentres scored lower for anxiety [ 57 ]. Amongst clinical healthcare workers, more studies found that nurses suffered to a greater level from anxiety than physicians [ 53 , 69 , 73 , 95 ].…”

COVID-19 depression and its risk factors in Asia Pacific – A systematic review and meta-analysis

“… Chen et al, 2021 ), ( Cheng et al, 2021 ), ( Fang et al, 2021 ), ( Kang et al, 2021 ), ( Khoury et al, 2021 ), ( Lan et al, 2021 ), (Y an Liu et al, 2021 ), (Yu an Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Liu et al, 2020 ), ( Mistry et al, 2021 ), ( Nkire et al, 2021 ), ( Veldhuis et al, 2021 ), ( Wang et al, 2021 ) Lack of social support / community support 10 3.95 (Feng et al, 2021), ( Glenister et al, 2021 ), ( Hong et al, 2021 ), ( Kang et al, 2021 ), ( Khoury et al, 2021 ), (Yu an Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Nkire et al, 2021 ), ( Sun et al, 2021 ), ( Wang Liu et al, 2021 ), (H. Wang et al, 2021 ) Geographical location of cohort 10 3.95 ( Ganson et al, 2021 ), ( Glenister et al, 2021 ), ( Guo et al, 2021 ), ( Rashid et al, 2021 ), ( Kim et al, 2021 ), ( Rossell et al, 2021 ), ( Wu et al, 2021a ), ( Yan et al, 2021 ), ( Yasmin et al, 2021 ), (Yunus et al, 2021) Increase workload/ workload changes / working conditions 9 3.56 (J. Chen et al, 2021 ), ( Crowe et al, 2021 ), ( Fang et al, 2021 ), ( Hammond et al, 2021 ), ( He et al, 2021 ), ( Li et al, 2021 ), (Y. Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Parthasarathy et al, 2021 ), ( ...…”

“… Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Wang Liu et al, 2021 ) Lack of education/awareness towards COVID 5 1.98 ( Cheema et al, 2021 ), ( Cheng et al, 2021 ), ( Faisal et al, 2021 ), ( Hazarika et al, 2021 ), ( Yang et al, 2021 ) Being HCW 4 1.58 (Huang et al, 2021), ( Kar et al, 2021 ), ( Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Matsumoto et al, 2021 ) Job burnout 4 1.58 (J. Chen et al, 2021 ), ( He et al, 2021 ), ( Rashid et al, 2021 ), ( Young et al, 2021 ) Others 21 8.32 ( An et al, 2021 ) (Yu an Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Robillard et al, 2021 ), ( Suzuki et al, 2021 ), ( Cheema et al, 2021 ), ( Glenister et al, 2021 ), ( Nishimura et al, 2021 ), ( Devkota et al, 2021 ), (Y. Liu et al, 2021 ), ( Matsumoto et al, 2021 ), ( Gotlib et al, 2021 ), ( Wolfson et al, 2021 ), Lietal 2021a, ( Nomura et al, 2021 ), ( Perera et al, 2021 ), (S. Sun et al, 2021 ), ( Moore et al, 2021 ) …”