Determination of Covid-19 stress level in intensive care nurses after pandemic

Abstract

Introduction and aim Intensive care nurses faced many psychological problems during the Covid-19 disease process, which emerged as a global health threat. The aim of this descriptive and cross-sectional study was to determine the stress level in intensive care nurses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods The study was conducted online with 88 nurses working in intensive care. Data were collected with a personal information form comprising 21 questions and the Covid-19 Stress Scale. SPSS version 29.0 program was used for data analysis. In addition to descriptive statistics, t-tests and one-way analysis of variance were used in statistical evaluation. The significance level was accepted as p < 0.05. Results The mean age of the nurses was 34.50 ± 8.16 years. Among the nurses who participated in the study, 70.5% stated that they were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It was determined that nurses had SARS-COVID-19 infection an average of 1.30 ± 0.56 (min: 1, max: 4) times. 85.2% of the participants stated that the Covid-19 pandemic positively affected the nursing profession and 90.9% stated that it positively affected them professionally. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the duration of working in the Covid-19-related service and the level of traumatic stress (p < 0.05). When the scale sub-dimension scores were analyzed, it was found that the sub-dimension with the highest mean was the danger and contagiousness sub-dimension (29.17 ± 11.86). Conclusion It was concluded that the level of traumatic stress increased with the increase in the working time of the nurses in the Covid-19 service and the nurses experienced the most problem with the risk of danger and contagiousness. In line with these results, in order to prevent nurses from contacting patients with infectious diseases for a long time during pandemic periods, it is recommended that nurses working in the pandemic service should work in other services during the process, and rest periods should be planned. It is also recommended to develop training and procedures to take measures to minimize the risk of contagiousness.