A recent study in International Nursing Review shows that the first 3 years of the pandemic were hard on nurses around the globe, leading to increased stress, burnout, and other mental health challenges in nurses from both high-, middle-, and low-income countries.
Though pandemic-related healthcare worker stress and burnout have all been described in recent studies, most of that research is limited to high-income countries, the authors said. The study is based on respondents to a survey sent by the Global Consortium of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, and it includes nurses from 35 countries.
Nurses reported widespread loss
In total, researchers surveyed 9,387 nurses from July 2022 to October 2023 about stress, loss, aggression, and home and professional life since the pandemic began.
Most notably, nurses cited loss as the most consistent challenge in the pandemic era. Notably, 20% of nurses surveyed suffered the loss of a family member, 35% lost a friend, and 34% a coworker to COVID-19.
"The staggering personal losses of friends, family, and coworkers and their effects on nurses’ mental health should not be underestimated," the study author wrote.
And despite high numbers of nurses saying they lost a friend or family member during the pandemic, overall participants said work was more stressful than home life since 2020. Only 24% said their workplace had adequate mental health services.
Among those who reported work-related mental health issues, 57% noted increased fatigue, 44% cited anxiety, and 41% said they felt overwhelmed at work. Approximately 18% of the sample reported experiencing some symptoms of workplace burnout.
Nurses experienced aggression from public for their jobs
Almost half of those surveyed, 48%, said they experiencing violence and aggression during the pandemic because they were a nurse. The study authors noted this was an extremely concerning finding.
Overall, national rates of anxiety and depression in nurses ranged from 23% to 61% and were highly variable. Almost 70% of nurses in Brazil said they experienced workplace stress, compared with 23.8% in Indonesia.
We are seeing alarmingly high levels of stress and burnout in nurses across the world.
"This study supports what ICN [the International Council of Nurses] has been reporting since the pandemic: we are seeing alarmingly high levels of stress and burnout in nurses across the world," said Pamela Cipriano, president of the ICN, in a New York University press release. "This is causing some nurses to leave the profession, which added to the aging workforce, will only exacerbate an already severe global shortage of nurses."
