Hospital-Based Health Care Worker Perceptions of Personal Risk Related to COVID-19

Health care workers treating Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients face significant stressors such as caring for critically ill and dying patients, physically demanding care requiring new degrees of personal protective equipment use, risk of contracting the disease, and putting loved ones at risk. This study investigates the stress impact from COVID-19 exposure and how nurses and medical providers (eg, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) experience these challenges differently.

An electronic, self-administered questionnaire was sent to all hospital staff over 6 weeks surveying exposure to COVID-19 patients and degree of stress caused by this exposure. Responses from medical providers and nurses were analyzed for significant contributors to stress levels, as well as comparing responses from medical providers versus nurses.

Stress levels from increased risk of disease contraction while on the job, fear of transmitting it to family or friends, and the resulting social stigma were highest in medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared with medical providers, nurses had nearly 4 times the odds of considering job resignation due to COVID-19. However, most health care workers (77.4% of medical providers and 52.9% of nurses) strongly agreed or agreed with the statements indicating high levels of altruism in their desire to treat COVID-19 patients.

The significant stress burden placed on nurses likely contributes to increased thoughts of job resignation. However, health care providers displayed high levels of altruism during this time of extreme crisis, despite their personal risks of caring for COVID-19 patients.