Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies Adopted by Nurses during Covid-19 Pandemic

During Covid-19, a global pandemic, over 30 million cases were found in India in 2020, with mortality of more than 4 lakh. Studies revealed that more than 3 lakh health workers had been infected in this outbreak with grave impact on their physical and psychological health. Nursing staff have been the pillar of healthcare system during this pandemic despite long working hours in PPE kit, fear of getting infected and staying away from near ones. The burden of mental distress revealed prevalence of depression (8.5%), anxiety (20.6%) and stress (6.3%).Hence it becomes essential to explore stress and coping among Nurses, for preparing strategic planning in future waves of Corona Virus. Following ethical clearance data was collected using perceived stress scale & COPE inventory from 50 participants selected using non-probability purposive sampling. Nurses who have worked in covid setup aged 25 years or above, and willing to participate were approached for the study. A non-experimental cross sectional descriptive research design was adopted for data collection. Results showed moderate level of stress in more than 86 percent of Nurses working in Covid set up and majority of them (86.7%) used coping strategies. The majority of the participants were in the age group 25 - 30 years (48.3%), married (75%), had no children (25%) and had family as support system. Around 38 percent had rendered 6 -10 years of service (38.3%) and had done Covid ICU duty (81.7%); 31.7 percent had worked on an average from 21 'ndash; 40 days in Covid set up and 58 percent of the participants felt that the provision of day offs was inadequate. Worldwide studies revealed that health care workers are positive for burnout, anxiety and depression which is alarming. Emotional and psychological support, incentives, appreciations and prompt identification of any psychiatric conditions may decrease the burden.