Protective Factors and Coping Styles Associated with Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Hospital or Care Institution and Private Practice Nurses

In France, nurses work either in hospitals and care institutions or in private practice, following physicians’ prescriptions and taking care of patients at their homes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these populations of nurses were exposed to numerous sources of stress. The main objective of the present study was to identify the protective factors they mobilized to face the crisis and how these factors contributed to sustaining their quality of life (QoL). A cross-sectional study was conducted to answer these questions. Overall, 9898 French nurses participated in the study, providing demographic information and filling out QoL (WHOQOL-BREF), perceived stress (PSS-14), resilience (CD-RISC), social support (MSPSS), and coping style (BRIEF-COPE) questionnaires. The results revealed very few differences between the two groups of nurses, which is surprising given the drastically different contexts in which they practice. Social support and two coping strategies (positive reframing and acceptance) were associated with a high QoL, whereas perceived stress and four coping strategies (denial, blaming self, substance use, and behavioral disengagement) were associated with poor QoL. In the light of these results, we recommended promoting social support and coping strategies to help nurses cope during the pandemic.