Stress and Fear of Covid-19 Infection among Nurses during the Covid-19 Pandemic, In Bengkalis District

Abstract

Introduction: Nurses who provided care for patients infected with Covid-19 have experienced significant mental health issues due to increase workload, transfer infection, and limited psycho-social support access. Purpose: This study aimed to analyse the stress and fear of Covid-19 among nurses. Method: This study was an analytic correlation study that utilizes a cross-sectional approach. Between June and August of 2022, 70 nurses providing nursing care to Covid-19 patients were recruited from one referral hospital in Bengkalis, Riau. The DASS-S 42 and Fear of COVID-19 questionnaires were used to assess stress and fear of Covid-19 infection. The data were primarily analysed using multiple linear regression. Result: The nurse's mean fear of Covid-19 score is 18.87. The nurse's mean stress score is 8.6. This study found that stress is a predictor of fear of COVID-19 among nurses (p-value = 0.040). The stress variable affected 23.1 percent of the fear of the Covid-19 infection variable. Conclusion: Stress is a predictor of fear of Covid 19 among nurses. Therefore, appropriate intervention to reduce stress is needed in order to decrease the fear of covid-19 among nurses.