Examining the Relationship Between Nurses' Fear of COVID-19 and Nursing Care Behavior

It is clear that COVID-19, and especially its highly infectious nature, has caused fear, anxiety, and worry for nurses performing active duty during the pandemic. It has thus been a matter of interest to investigate into how care behaviors have been affected by the various emotions that continue to be felt in this period. This study aimed to examine the impact of nurses' fear of COVID-19 on their nursing care behavior during the pandemic.

The data of this descriptive and cross-sectional designed study were collected from 450 nurses providing one-on-one care (at university, public, or private hospital) to COVID-19 patients from January to March 2021 and who had consented to participate in the study. A Personal Data Form, the "Caring Behaviors Inventory-24 (CBI-24)," and the "Fear of COVID-19 Scale" were used in the data collection.

The overall mean score of the nurses on the Caring Behaviors Inventory was 5.08 ± 0.59. An examination of the subscales showed that the nurses' highest scores were in the knowledge and skills subscale, whereas they scored the lowest in the loyalty subscale. The overall mean score of the nurses on the Fear of COVID-19 Scale was 18.52 ± 5.43. A negative, significant, and very weak relationship was found between the nurses' levels of fear of coronavirus and their care behaviors ( r = -0.107, P < 0.05).

Data show that nurses providing care to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic feared COVID-19, that their care behaviors were generally at a good level, and that the care behaviors of nurses with a high degree of fear of COVID-19 were negatively and significantly impacted.