Factors associated with poor mental health outcomes in nurses in COVID-19-designated hospitals in the postepidemic period in Guangdong Province: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic placed enormous pressure and subsequent negative psychological problems on nurses, but at this stage of the year-long COVID-19 outbreak, the level of stress and negative emotions that nurses experience is unclear. Our study attempted to assess the factors influencing mental health status in nurses during the postepidemic period of COVID-19. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: COVID-19 designated hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: 1284 Chinese nurses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Electronic questionnaires, including the Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS) and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), were distributed for self-evaluation. Regression analysis was used to analyse the associated factors of psychological stress among variables such as age, years of nursing experience, weekly working hours, anxiety symptoms, somatisation symptoms and compulsive symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 1284 respondents from COVID-19-designated hospitals in Guangdong Province were studied. The average CPSS score for all respondents was 22.91±7.12. A total of 38.5% of respondents scored ≥26 on the CPSS, indicating a significant degree of psychological stress. Nurses with high psychological stress had higher levels of anxiety symptoms (41.7% vs 8.0%), somatisation symptoms (31.4% vs 7.7%) and compulsion symptoms (62.3% vs 27.0%) than nurses with low psychological stress. Stepwise multiple linear regression revealed that weekly working hours, years of nursing experience, anxiety symptoms, somatisation symptoms and compulsion symptoms had a linear relationship with the participants’ psychological stress scores. CONCLUSION: Nurses experienced significant physical and psychological risk while working in the postepidemic period. Our findings suggest that nurses still need support to protect their physical and mental health.