Abstract
BackgroundAlthough mental health disorders of health care workers in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been focused, little is known about the psychological impact on nurses and the influence on their behavior and awareness, such as professionalism and views on life and death, in Japan where there are fewer cases of infection and deaths than in other countries. Moreover, the influence of the pandemic on nursing students is still unclear.MethodsAn online questionnaire survey was conducted among nurses and nursing students. Feelings during the state of emergency (at the peak of the pandemic) in Japan, changes in behavior and awareness after the rise of COVID-19, and the associated factors influencing these changes were analyzed, comparing nurses with nursing students.ResultsSignificantly increased scores of anxiety/fear (p < .005) and voluntary restraint (p < .005) and significantly decreased score of motivation (p < .005) were observed during the state of emergency in both nurses and students. Scores of experience of discrimination (p < .005) and consideration of premature retirement (p < .01) were significantly increased in nurses. Moreover, preventive behavior (p < .005), lifestyle (p < .005), anxiety about nursing (p < .005) and views on life and death (p < .005) significantly changed after the rise of COVID-19 in both nurses and students. Only nurses reported significant damage to their professionalism (p < .01). Anxiety/fear and/or voluntary restraint and/or decreased motivation during the state of emergency were major factors associated with these changes. Also, the type of hospital, experience of care of infected patients and sex affected some of the changes. Voluntary restraint (p = .008), increased preventive behavior (p = .021) and decreased motivation (p = .005) were more marked in nurses than in students, while change in views on life and death was greater in students than in nurses (p = .002).ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a psychological impact on nurses and nursing students, associated with changes in behavior and awareness even in Japan. Of note, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nurses’ professionalism and views on life and death. This study demonstrates the importance of having a coping strategy for anxiety and damaged professionalism in nurses, and education on life and death in nursing students.
Highlights
Mental health disorders of health care workers in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been focused, little is known about the psychological impact on nurses and the influence on their behavior and awareness, such as professionalism and views on life and death, in Japan where there are fewer cases of infection and deaths than in other countries
Demographic characteristics Among the 439 nurses and 340 current nursing students asked to participate, 214 nurses (48.8%) and 320 nursing students (94.1%) responded to the online questionnaire survey, of whom 59 nurses (27.6%) and 5 nursing students (1.4%) were excluded because of missing data, which resulted in a sample of 155 nurses and 315 nursing students (Table 2)
101 (65.2%) nurses worked in hospitals that accept patients with COVID-19, and 30 (19.4%) nurses had experience of care of patients with COVID-19
Summary
Mental health disorders of health care workers in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been focused, little is known about the psychological impact on nurses and the influence on their behavior and awareness, such as professionalism and views on life and death, in Japan where there are fewer cases of infection and deaths than in other countries. To suppress spread of the virus during the expansion phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, several governments declared a state of emergency and implemented “lockdown” which imposed restrictions on movement, behavior, work and school attendance. Facing this critical situation, health care workers, especially nurses who are directly involved in the treatment of COVID-19 patients and are confronted with the crisis of medical collapse, are at risk of psychological distress, anxiety, fear, alienation, exhaustion and sometimes discrimination [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing students is still unclear
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