Anxiety, Resilience and Occupational Fatigue in Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran

Background: The COVID-19 virus epidemic has caused a major physical and psychological burden on nurses in Iran and around the world. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of anxiety and resilience in predicting occupational fatigue in nurses during the COVID ‐ 19 virus epidemic in Iran. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional online survey was conducted on the nurses of Razi and Porsina public hospitals in Rasht, north of Iran. A total of 160 nurses of were selected using simple random sampling method. Data were collected using the Swedish occupational fatigue inventory (SOFI), the corona disease anxiety scale (CDAS) and the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC). Results: Participation rate was 87.5%. The score level of most nurses in CDAS was low to moderate. The CDAS score was higher in women and those who work in the COVID units than those who work in both the COVID and non-COVID units. The CD-RISC score was higher in married people than singles and in people with permanent employment status than in contract and temporary employment status. SOFI was positively correlated with CDAS and negatively correlated with CD-RISC; But CDAS and CD-RISC were not significantly related (p<0.05). In multivariate linear regression model. Anxiety was the only significant independent predictor of occupational fatigue (B=1.16, P<0.001). Conclusion: Despite the COVID-19 epidemic crisis in the fourth wave and high mortality, anxiety level in nurses was low and moderate, which can be attributed to the COVID-19 vaccine. But the anxiety score still played an important role in occupational fatigue. It is suggested that appropriate interventions be developed and implemented to improve nurses' anxiety to stressful epidemic conditions of Covid-19 and thereafter.