Work anxiety factors, coronavirus anxiety and job satisfaction of Polish nurses facing COVID-19 pandemic outbreak

Background

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as in past disasters and emergencies, nurses around the world play an important role. What is more, the unprecedented pressure exerted by the pandemic on healthcare systems in every country brings big challenges to nurses, which may affect their well-being, work efficacy and job satisfaction.

Objective

The main objective of the presented studies was to describe anxiety factors related to the work of nurses during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; to assess the intensity of coronavirus anxiety and job satisfaction experienced by nurses at that time; to assess predictors of job satisfaction of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic; to assess the differences in the intensity of job satisfaction and coronavirus anxiety depending on the selected variables related to their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Anonymous questionnaire surveys were conducted online among the participants between 23 June 2020 and 23 March 2022 in Poland.

Participants

433 nurses from 15 Polish provinces were included in the studies (age range 22–68; M = 41.63). Nursing seniority M = 18.6.

Methods

The studies were based on: Satisfaction with Job Scale (SSP), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), and a self-report structured questionnaire.

Results

The most respondents indicated that they were afraid of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 (25.4 %), transmitting infection to the family (22.4 %), becoming sick with COVID-19 and experiencing health complications (6.7 %) and of excessive work responsibilities and physical fatigue (6.5 %). Based on the bivariate correlation, it can be concluded that job satisfaction of the respondents during the COVID-19 pandemic was on an average level (M = 19.9); coronavirus anxiety was on an average level (M = 4.9), and stress at work was on a high level (M = 7.1). Coronavirus anxiety did not constitute statistically significant predictors of job satisfaction of subjects studied during the pandemic (SE = 0,048; β = 0,05; p = 0.942).

Conclusions

Coronavirus anxiety wasn't associated with job satisfaction of nurses directly. Job satisfaction of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic was likely to be shaped by a range of different factors.

Tweetable abstract

In Polish nurses coronavirus anxiety was average and wasn't associated with their job satisfaction.