Work engagement and organizational justice of nursing staff during COVID-19

During COVID-19 health crisis, the working conditions for nursing personnel in public hospitals were modified, nevertheless some factors remained present contributing to maintain their willingness to accomplish their duties. This article aims to analyze the effect of the pandemic on the Work Engagement and Organizational Justice of nursing staff in a public hospital. A quantitative correlational study that applied an online questionnaire to nursing personnel who remained active during the COVID-19 pandemic at a public hospital located in northwestern Mexico. In this study the 17-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale was used to assess Work Engagement, and the 40-item Colquitt scale was used to assess Organizational Justice. For test the differences between before and during the pandemic an ANOVA for repeated measurements or a t-Student test was used. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. A SPSS v21 software was used for statistical calculations. During the pandemic, a slight decrease in the Work Engagement of the nursing staff, without changes in the Engajamento no Trabalho were observed. For staff with lower academic degrees, the decrease in Work Engagement was greater. In Work Engagement`s dimensions vigor and dedication decreased significantly; these dimensions decreased to a greater degree among nursing staff with a lower academic degree or a lower job status. The nursing staff showed few variations in their levels of Work Engagement and Organizational Justice during the COVID-19 health crisis, confirming what other authors have found about their high level of vocational sense. Also, the perception of nursing personnel regarding what is fair from managers remained despite the pandemic. The COVID pandemic had a mild effect on Work Engagement and Organizational Justice in nursing staff of a public hospital.