Introduction
The nursing profession is known to be associated with increased tension due to a large number of tasks and an enormous responsibility. The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the amount of stress that front-line healthcare workers experience every day. According to Spoorthy et al. (2020), the pandemic caused an increased demand for healthcare personnel, which led to a shortage of nurses. Moreover, healthcare workers caught the virus from patients, which caused increased absenteeism among healthcare workers (Spoorthy et al., 2020). As a result, many nurses develop stress, depression, and anxiety. Thus, this paper claims that the COVID-19 pandemic had the most significant impact on the tension among nurses, which led to significant mental health issues among nurses supplying individual care.
This paper offers historical and mathematical perspectives on the effects of tension in the workplace environment on the mental health of nurses supplying individual care. The paper answers two historical questions associated with the problem of tension in the workplace that nurses experience. The level-one question is, “How did the pandemics affect the tension and mental health of nurses in the past?” The level-two question is, “How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect workplace tension and the associated occurrence of mental conditions among nurses in individual care?” Additionally, the paper touches upon two mathematical questions associated with the problem. The level-one question is, “What are the relevant statistics associated with workplace tension and mental health conditions among nurses in individual care?” The level-two question is, “What is the correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and the amount of tension and mental health conditions among nurses in individual care?” The present paper focuses on answering these four research questions.
Historical Perspective
Effects of Previous Epidemics on Nurse Tension and Mental Health
Nurses have been known to cope with significant amounts of stress and the workplace for a long time. Thus, the problem of increased tension among nurses is well explored. Spoorthy et al. (2020) stated that numerous individual factors contribute to workplace tension among front-line healthcare employees, such as gender, age, place of work, and department of work. Healthcare workers are also known to experience increased tension during events associated with increased risks to health, such as wars and pandemics.
Historically, the effects of the pandemic on workplace tension and nurses’ healthcare problems are discussed using qualitative methods. Shorey and Chan (2020) conducted a study that aimed at synthesizing the experiences of midwives, pregnant women, and nurses during epidemics and pandemics. The review of the literature revealed that front-line healthcare workers experienced significant tension due to the growing number of patients and healthcare concerns associated with pandemics and epidemics in the past (Shorey & Chan, 2020). Additionally, previous epidemics demonstrated nurses experienced increased tension due to the lack of protective equipment, problems with supplies of drugs, and insufficient staffing (Shorey & Chan, 2020). During the previous epidemics, nurses also had to follow a strict protocol to ensure their health and safety, which also required additional time and effort.
The increased tension harmed the employees’ mental health. Nurses reported high levels of anxiety associated with contracting the disease (Shorey & Chan, 2020). Additionally, healthcare employees reported feeling helpless during the pandemic, as they could not help their patients due to the lack of needed drugs and strict infection control (Shorey & Chan, 2020). Moreover, the nurses often felt paranoid about everyone around them having the disease, even at home (Shorey & Chan, 2020). As a result, nurses experienced insomnia and long-term depression (Shorey & Chan, 2020). Thus, historically, epidemics had a significant negative impact on workplace tension among nurses and their mental health.
Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurse Tension and Mental Health
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is similar to that of previous pandemics. Turale and Nantsupawat (2021) stated that the COVID-19 pandemic harmed clinicians around the globe. In particular, nurses experienced increased tension due to the inability to balance work and personal life. The COVID-19 pandemic forced nurses to work unsociable shifts without the ability to take much-needed leaves to recuperate. The situation was aggravated by the chronic understaffing of nurses even before the pandemic. Coronavirus aggravated the situation by infecting numerous clinicians and taking the lives of more than 2000 nurses during the first year of the pandemic (Turale & Nantsupawat, 2021). Nurses and other clinicians also felt increased fear of being infected, which led to anxiety (Turale & Nantsupawat, 2021). Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic increased tension among nurses.
The increased tension harmed nurses’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses are known to experience post‐traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, high stress, depression, and moral suffering due to the increased tension associated with the pandemic. Additionally, researchers reported a growing number of suicide attempts among nurses (Turale & Nantsupawat, 2021). Thus, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tension and mental health of nurses is tremendous and is expected to grow.
Mathematical Perspective
Mental Health Problems Statistics among Nurses
The purpose of this section was to identify the prevalence of depression and other mental health problems among nurses before the pandemic. The number of relatively recent studies on the subject was limited. However, a recent quantitative study revealed that the prevalence of depression among nurses differed significantly among nurses around the globe. According to Maharaj et al. (2019), around 18%-35% of US nurses experienced depression symptoms, and 35% of Chinese nurses had depressive symptoms during one year. The situation was much worse in Brazil, where 51% of nurses experienced depressive symptoms before the pandemic (Maharaj et al., 2019). In Iran, up to 81% of nurses experienced depression before the pandemic (Maharaj et al., 2019). The lowest prevalence of depression symptoms among nurses was found in Canada, which was 10% (Maharaj et al., 2019). Thus, the occurrence of depression among nurses was high before the pandemic.
The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was also high among nurses in different countries. In particular, up to 24% of American nurses demonstrated symptomology of PTSD before the pandemic (Maharaj et al., 2019). The prevalence of PTSD among nurses in different countries was 32–43% in China, 40–46% in Iran, and 44–66% in Brazil (Maharaj et al., 2019). Research demonstrates that at least of nurses around the globe experience increased amounts of tension (Maharaj et al., 2019). However, in some areas, up to 90% of nurses experience extreme tension in their workplaces (Maharaj et al., 2019). Thus, the problems of increased tension and mental health problems among nurses were present before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mental Health Problems Statistics among Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A recent study compared the prevalence of various mental health problems in nurses before and during the pandemic. The results of the research demonstrated a significant increase in depressive symptoms, anxiety, and PTSD in the populations under analysis (Allan et al., 2020). Approximately 23.3% of nurses experienced PTSD in the acute phase, while the same prevalence was only 11.9% (Allan et al., 2020). Similarly, the prevalence of general psychiatric caseness was 34.1% among nurses, while before the pandemic, the occurrence was 29.3% (Allan et al., 2020). The prevalence of mental health problems in doctors and nurses during the pandemic was similar. Therefore, it may be stated the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the prevalence of mental health conditions among nurses. However, there is no evidence that the pandemic had the most significant effect on tension and associated mental health conditions among nurses.
Conclusion
The present paper claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic had the most significant impact on workplace tension and associated mental health disorders. Historical analysis revealed that nurses experienced significant tension due to the growing number of patients and healthcare concerns associated with pandemics and epidemics in the past. The COVID-19 pandemic was not an exception, as the researchers reported increased numbers of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicide attempts. The mathematical analysis demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic increased the prevalence of mental health conditions among nurses. However, this prevalence was also high before the pandemic. Therefore, no evidence was found to support the claim that the COVID-19 pandemic had the most significant impact on workplace tension and associated mental health disorders.
References
Allan, S. M., Bealey, R., Birch, J., Cushing, T., Parke, S., Sergi, G., & Meiser-Stedman, R. (2020). The prevalence of common and stress-related mental health disorders in healthcare workers based in pandemic-affected hospitals: a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1810903.
Maharaj, S., Lees, T., & Lal, S. (2019). Prevalence and risk factors of depression, anxiety, and stress in a cohort of Australian nurses. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(1), 61.
Shorey, S., & Chan, V. (2020). Lessons from past epidemics and pandemics and a way forward for pregnant women, midwives and nurses during COVID-19 and beyond: A meta-synthesis. Midwifery, 90, 102821.
Spoorthy, M. S., Pratapa, S. K., & Mahant, S. (2020). Mental health problems faced by healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic–A review. Asian journal of psychiatry, 51, 102119.
Turale, S., & Nantsupawat, A. (2021). Clinician mental health, nursing shortages and the COVID‐19 pandemic: Crises within crises. International Nursing Review, 68(1), 12-14.