A Large-Scale Survey on Perceived Risk, Risk Emotions and Humanistic Care Needs Among Nurses During the Covid-19 Pandemic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to understand the risk perception, risk emotions and humanistic care needs of nursing staff during the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on the perceived risk, risk emotions and humanistic care needs of 35,068 nurses in 18 cities of the Henan Province, China.We collected a total of 35,188 questionnaires, of which 35,068 were effectively returned, with an effective return rate of 99.7%. The collected data were summarized and statistically analyzed using Excel 97 2003 and IBM SPSS software. RESULTS: Nurses’ risk perceptions and emotions vary during the covid-19 pandemic. In order to provide nurses with targeted psychological intervention to prevent nurses from suffering from unhealthy mental states.The results show that the total score of the nurses’ risk perceptions of Covid-19 was 3.66 ± 0.39, the highest score of nurses’ risk perception part is 5 points, and ≥3 points represent high risk and 88.3% of nurses believed that the Covid-19 risk was high. There were significant differences in the nurses’ total perceived risk scores for Covid-19 based on gender, age, prior contact with patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 and previous participation in other similar public health emergencies (P < 0.050). Of the nurses included in the study, 44.8% had some level of fear relating to Covid-19 and 35.7% were able to remain calm and objective. There were significant differences in the total scores for risk emotions relating to Covid-19 based on gender, age and prior contact with patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 (P < 0.050). Of the nurses included in the study, 84.8% were willing to receive humanistic care and 77.6% of these expected to be provided with humanistic care by institutions in the healthcare sector. CONCLUSION: Nurses with different basic data have different risk cognition and risk emotions. Different psychological needs should be considered, and targeted multi-sectoral psychological intervention services should be provided to help prevent nurses from developing unhealthy psychological states.