COVID-19 deaths among nurses: a cross-sectional study

Nurses who are one of the pivotal elements of countries' strategic responses to COVID-19 are being exposed to COVID-19.

To investigate the underlying characteristics of nurses who died due to COVID-19.

On 1 September 2020, a grey literature search was conducted. Data obtained through Medscape, Google, PubMed, government and non-government websites. The search strategy was carried out using variants and combinations of keywords related to 'nurse' and 'COVID-19' in English. Abstracted data included age, gender, type of nurse, department of nursing, country, date of death and publication characteristics.

Out of reported 1518 COVID-19-related nurse deaths, details of age, gender and department of nursing were available for 766 (50%), 945 (62%) and 153 (10%) of nurses, respectively. The median age of the nurses was 56 years. The majority of deaths were reported in the 46- to 65 (32%)-year age range. While the registered nurses had the highest number of deaths according to types of nurses (680/957; 71%), they are mental health nurses (42/153; 28%) in the department of nursing. The countries with the most reported nurse deaths were USA, South Africa, Mexico and Russia.

The predominance of deceased mental health nurses among nursing departments can be examined in future studies. Supportive health policies can be developed to increase the motivation of nurses.