The grit of nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many new challenges to whole society, and especially to health systems, including nurses who had to find the strength and perseverance to overcome all obstacles and challenges. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of perseverance among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine the influence of age, gender, level of education and work experience on their perseverance. The study includeed 109 respondents (88.1% females), in the Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation Krapinske Toplice during February 2021. The validated GRIT questionnaire was used as a research instrument, which contains 12 statements to which respondents responded on a Likert scale from 1 to 5. The data was analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics, and presented at the significance level of P<0.05. Analyzing the collected data, the mean value of perseverance was 3.59±0.49. There was no difference in perseverance between participants in terms of age, gender, ward they work in, and their work experience. A statistically significant difference was found regarding the level of education. The highest level of perseverance was found among nurses with a specialist degree (4.22) or a university graduate professional studies degree (3.97), and the lowest level of perseverance among those with completed undergraduate professional nursing studies (3.51; P=0.042). The results point to a difference in the level of perseverance of nurses depending on the level of education, but not on the workplace. The research on the perseverance of nurses is important for the further development of the nursing profession.