The mental health status among nurses from low‐risk areas under normalized COVID‐19 pandemic prevention and control in China: A cross‐sectional study

Chen, Xian; Arber, Anne; Gao, Junyu; Zhang, Li; Ji, Meili; Wang, Dan; Wu, Jinfeng; Du, Junjie

This study aimed to investigate the mental health status of nurses from low‐risk areas of novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic, its potential impact factors, and the main stressors under the normalized prevention and control in China. A mobile phone app‐based survey was conducted among registered nurses in Jiangsu province via a region‐stratified sampling method. The questionnaire consisted of items on the demographic characteristics of the nursing staff and their Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale‐21 (DASS‐21) along with questions for self‐assessment of stressors that are associated with COVID‐19. STROBE guideline was used. Among 1803 nurses who were working in the low‐risk areas in Jiangsu, 22.0%, 29.8%, and 16.1% of them reported moderate to extreme levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. Having 11–15 years of working experience and being a fixed‐term contract nurse were associated with experiencing worse mental health outcomes while supporting‐Wuhan working experience and having mental health preparation course training were independent factors that had beneficial impact on their psychological well‐being afterward. In terms of source of pressure, a key finding of this study is that the main stressor among these nurses was the lack of patient’s understanding and cooperation (71.2%) which calls for better psychosocial communication between nurses and patients. The present findings would provide information for other regions at low risk of COVID‐19 and may aid the provision of support and interventions for the benefit of the psychological well‐being of nurses who are exposed to life‐threatening occupational risks and are more vulnerable to the pandemic than others.