Effect of fear of COVID-19 pandemic on work satisfaction and turnover intentions of nurses

Abstract

Introduction Nurses are under such a tremendous amount of pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic that many have become concerned about their jobs and even intend to leave them. Aim The aim was to investigate the effect of fear of COVID-19 pandemic on work satisfaction and turnover intentions of nurses. Patients and methods A descriptive correlation research design was adopted. The study was conducted at all inpatient units (medical and surgical) and critical care units (N=15) of Damanhour National Medical Institute (nurses=210). Part I included questions related to demographic characteristics. Part II was the fear of COVID-1 9 Scale. Part III was the work satisfaction index (JSI). Part IV included two measures of turnover intention used to assess organizational and professional turnover intentions. Results The total score for the fear of COVID-19 scale was 19.01 (SD: 5.98), which was above the average. Fear of COVID-19 scale mean score was higher among nurses who had not attended COVID-19-related training than nurses who had attended the training (t=−2.349, P=0.020). Conclusion This study illuminates that the enhanced fear of COVID-19 pandemic among nurses increases their work dissatisfaction, in addition, to an increase in their organizational and professional turnover intentions. It is recommended to formulate COVID-19 training programs to enhance the capacity of nurses to effectively care for and manage coronavirus patients among healthcare organization.