Determination of stress, depression and burnoutlevels of front-line nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

All healthcare professionals, especially nurses, are affected psychosocially due toreasons such as uncertainty and work intensity experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In thisdescriptive study, it was aimed to determine the stress, depression and burnout levels of front-linenurses. Data were obtained from 705 nurses who worked at hospitals during the COVID-19pandemic between May and July 2020, using a Personal Information Form, the Perceived StressScale, Beck Depression Inventory and Maslach Burnout Inventory. The data collection tools weresent online to nurse managers, requesting front-line nurses to answer the forms and scales. Thenurses were mostly women and had bachelor’s degrees, single and worked as nurses for between 1and 10 years. They had high levels of stress and burnout and moderate depression. Those who wereyounger and had fewer years of work experience felt inadequate about nursing care and had higherlevels of stress and burnout. More burnout was detected in nurses who had a positive COVID-19test and did not want to work voluntarily during the pandemic. The authors suggest that preventiveand promotive interventions in mental health should be planned and implemented to improve themental health and maintain the well-being of front-line nurses during the pandemic, and to preparenurses who may work during pandemics in the future.