Healthcare workers’ stress when caring for COVID-19 patients: An altruistic perspective

Background: When the contagious COVID-19 spread worldwide, the frontline staff faced unprecedented excessive work pressure and expectations of all of the society. Objective: The aim was to explore healthcare workers’ stress and influencing factors when caring for COVID-19 patients from an altruistic...

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Published in:Nursing ethics Vol. 27; no. 7; pp. 1490 - 1500
Main Authors: Wang, Hui, Liu, Yu, Hu, Kaili, Zhang, Meng, Du, Meichen, Huang, Haishan, Yue, Xiao
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.11.2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Adult
Altruism
Capital cities
Caregiving
China - epidemiology
Codes of conduct
Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections - therapy
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Cross-Sectional Studies
Discomfort
Epidemics
Ethics
Families & family life
Fear & phobias
Female
Health care
Health services
Humans
Informed consent
Male
Marriage
Medical ethics
Medical personnel
Medical technology
Motivation
Nurses
Nursing Staff, Hospital - psychology
Nursing Staff, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Occupational stress
Occupational Stress - epidemiology
Pandemics
Patients
Personnel, Hospital - psychology
Personnel, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral - therapy
Prevention programs
Relatives
Research ethics
Risk Factors
Safety equipment
Science and technology
Statistics
Stress
Tertiary Care Centers
Workers
China
COVID-19
stress
Altruism
nurses
healthcare workers
ISSN:0969-7330, 1477-0989, 1477-0989
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Summary:Background: When the contagious COVID-19 spread worldwide, the frontline staff faced unprecedented excessive work pressure and expectations of all of the society. Objective: The aim was to explore healthcare workers’ stress and influencing factors when caring for COVID-19 patients from an altruistic perspective. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary hospital during the outbreak of COVID-19 between February and March 2020 in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province in China. Data were collected from 1208 healthcare workers. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Ethical considerations: Research ethics approval (with the code of TJ-IRB20200379) was obtained from Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Written informed consent was also received from participants. Results: Less than 60% of participants chose moderate or severe stress on all stressors, indicating a low stress level among healthcare workers. The main source of stress among frontline healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients came from the fear of being infected, the fear of family members being infected, and the discomfort caused by protective equipment. Frontline staff who were nurses, were married, and had worked more than 20 days suffered higher stress, whereas rescue staff showed lower stress. Conclusion: The healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 had low stress level, although they still had the fear of being infected or uncomfortable feeling caused by personal protective equipment. A low stress level among healthcare workers indicated their professional devotion and altruism during COVID-19 epidemic. Medical institutions and the government should continue to strengthen infection prevention measures and provide more comprehensive care involving families of frontline healthcare workers, especially nurses and married staff. It will be a lesson to other countries that awaking healthcare workers’ inside motivation and providing necessary support from government and society were significant.
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ISSN:0969-7330
1477-0989
1477-0989
DOI:10.1177/0969733020934146