Exploring Nurses' Work Resumption Behaviour and Its Related Factors Under Emerging Infectious Diseases Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM: In December 2022, a large population infected with COVID-19 emerged in China, including frontline nurses. To maintain the medical system's function, many infected nurses returned to work before full recovery. This study aims to examine the characteristics of work resumption behaviour among the infected nurses and its influencing factors.

DESIGN

A nationwide cross-sectional study utilising questionnaire data.

METHODS

An indicator was developed to assess the work resumption behaviour: work resumption type (autonomous work resumption, constrained work resumption). As the possible influencing factors of work resumption type, professional commitment, organisational commitment and psychological capital were included and measured by the Professional Commitment Scale (PCS), Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), and Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ). The logistic regression models were applied to estimate the association between the score of the PCS, OCQ, PCQ, and work resumption type.

RESULTS

A total of 30,062 nurses were included. The mean time of nurses returning to work after infection was 1.8 days, with 88.6% exhibiting autonomous work resumption behaviour. One standard deviation increment in the score of the PCS, OCQ, and PCQ was associated with a 41% (OR = 1.41), 29% (OR = 1.29) and 42% (OR = 1.42) average increase in the odds of having an autonomous work resumption, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The majority of nurses returned to work before full recovery during the pandemic. Elevated professional commitment, organisational commitment and psychological capital were associated with autonomous work resumption behaviour.

IMPACT: The large-scale work resumption in this emerging infectious disease outbreak demonstrated that the healthcare system should reevaluate nursing workforce growth targets for pandemics. It is still warranted for future research to explore the long-term effects of work resumption on individual and organisational levels.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese clinical trial registry: ChiCTR2300067706 (January 8, 2023).