Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction among Nurses in Critical Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health of nurses; hence the existence of the stress that has had implications in job satisfaction, challenging and testing the emotional capacity of the professional.

Objective: To describe the stress levels among nurses and their relationship with job satisfaction in critical services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study was carried out with 30 nurses who worked in the intensive care unit for adults and neonates in a public hospital in Jaén (Cajamarca, Peru), between November and December 2022. Two Likert-type instruments were used: The Nursing Stress Scale, (reliability of 0.919) and the Health Personnel Satisfaction Scale (reliability of 0.97). Descriptive statistics were used to process and analyze the data, using the software IBM SPSS version 27; and Pearson’s chi-square test was used to establish the relationship between the variables.

Results: Pearson’s chi-square test showed a significant correlation between the variables (p = 0.020), given that p is lower than 0.05. The level of stress that prevailed was high (53.30 %), followed by medium (23.30 %) and low (23.30 %). The predominant level of job satisfaction was low (53.30 %), followed by medium (26.70 %) and high (20%).

Conclusion: A significant relationship was found between stress and job satisfaction. According to the results, one of the most effective ways to increase satisfaction in the healthcare environment is reducing stress levels.