Determining the workload and job stress levels of nurses during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak: A cross-sectional study.

BackgroundNursing is considered to be a complex and highly demanding job. A combination of the high workplace requirements, over-responsibility, and over-authority has been identified as a major source of occupational stress among nursing staff. An increasing level of stress among health care professionals was witnessed due to the pandemic of COVID 19 outbreak.ObjectiveThis study was conducted to determine the workload and job stress levels of nurses during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.MethodsThis study was conducted as a descriptive cross-sectional study with 193 nurses working in Gaziantep University Research and Practice Hospital between October 26th and December 31st, 2020. The data of the study were collected using the Survey and Job Stress Questionnaire. In the evaluation of the data, t-test, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), pearson Correlation were used. p < 0.05 value was accepted as statistically significant.ResultsMean score of the nurses participating in the study was 16.49 ± 2.30 and 0.92 ± 0.19 for workload and job stress subscales of Job Stress Questionnaire, respectively. A significant correlation was found between the department where nurses worked during the pandemic, the fear of infecting their family with Covid-19, status of loving the profession and the status of willingness to come to the hospital on the working day and the Job Stress Questionnaire values (p < .05). A positive correlation was found between the working year and workload and work stress (p < 0.05).ConclusionOur results indicated that healthcare professionals were under a lot of stress during the pandemic, they were too tired and they had very high working hours. High fear of infecting their families with this disease due to their profession and not being willing to come to the hospital on the shift day were factors increasing stress.