Professional quality of life in nurses on the frontline against COVID-19

This study aimed to investigate professional quality of life (ProQOL) in nurses who were fighting against COVID-19 in Wuhan and its related factors.

COVID-19 epidemic is a major threat to public health. Frontline nurses have engaged in infection prevention and control, isolation, containment and public health. However, available data on ProQOL in these nurses are limited.

From 15 to 21 March 2020, the Chinese version of ProQOL was utilized to survey a total of 102 nurses through an electronic questionnaire. The stepwise regression analysis was performed to determine which factors (e.g. demographic and work-related factors) were related to ProQOL.

The scores of compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout (BO) and secondary traumatic stress (STS) were 38.09 ± 5.22, 21.77 ± 4.92 and 20.75 ± 6.27, respectively. The STS and CS scores were higher than the critical value. None of the nurses reported a low level of CS or a high level of BO and STS. Nurses' ProQOL was related to working hours, workload, job satisfaction and salary satisfaction.

Nurses who were fighting against COVID-19 had better CS and BO, whereas STS was relatively worse. Nurses who worked for long hours had more severe STS. BO of nurses with heavy workload and dissatisfaction with their salary was more severe. Nurses who were unsatisfied with their job had poor CS.

It is believed that these results may help nurse managers to improve ProQOL of nurses who were fighting against COVID-19 by minimizing working hours, reducing workload and improving job satisfaction and rewards.