Effect of COVID-19 fear on nurse performance through insecurity and job satisfaction

Abstract

Apart from physical health problems, the COVID-19 outbreak also affected psychological health, causing extreme fear of this pandemic. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between nurse performance and the fear of COVID-19 mediated by job insecurity and job satisfaction with conservation of resources theory as the lens. Data from 260 nurses were collected through an online structured questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modeling-partial least squares. The direct effect findings show that COVID-19 fear influences job insecurity (p < 0.05) but does not influence job satisfaction and nurse performance (p > 0.05). Besides, job insecurity significantly influences job satisfaction and nurse performance (p < 0.05). On the other hand, job satisfaction has no effect on nurse performance (p > 0.05). Then, the indirect effect results show that job insecurity fully mediates the influence of COVID-19 fear on job satisfaction and nurse performance (p < 0.05). Likewise, job satisfaction partially mediates the influence of job insecurity on nurse performance (p < 0.05) but does not mediate the fear of COVID-19 on nurse performance (p > 0.05). These findings provide evidence that the fear of COVID-19 plays an essential role for job insecurity, influencing job satisfaction and nurse performance. These results can develop strategies for better human resource management in nursing staff and provide pragmatic insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. AcknowledgmentThe authors thank Universitas Negeri Padang for its support in completing this article. We also thank all members for their support and cooperation.