Occupational stress and quality of life in nurses

The purpose of the study is the assessment of the features of a decrease in the quality of life among nurses providing care in specialized COVID-19 hospitals, multidisciplinary hospitals, and polyclinics during the pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19, as well as early diagnosis, prediction, and prevention of the decrease in the qual ity of life in this category of nurses. Material and research methods. The study was carried out on the basis of the Department of Occupational Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology named after honored scientist of the Russian Federation professor V.V. Kosarev, FSBEI HE Samara State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and the Department of Occupational Pathology, Regional Center for Occupational Pathology of the Samara City Hospital No. 5. The study was performed within the framework of a complex theme “Systematic approach to early diagno sis, prevention, and prediction of the impact of low-intensity production factors on workers’ health” (state registration number AAAA-A18-118122190069-6, registration date – Decem ber 21, 2018) of the Department of Occupational Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology named after honored scientist of the Russian Federation professor V.V. Kosarev, FSBEI HE Samara State Medical University. The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the FSBEI HE Samara State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on November 23, 2021. Patient consent. Each participant of the study gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study and publish personal medical information in an anonymized form. The study included the following categories of medical workers: group 1 consisted of nurs es, working in COVID hospitals (in the “red zone”) (n=29); group 2 included nurses working in multidisciplinary hospitals (n=31); group 3 consisted of nurses working in polyclinics (n=29); group 4 was the control group (n=190) comprising workers of engineering, technical, and economic specialties not related to medical organizations (healthy). To assess the psychophysiological state and quality of life of medical workers during the pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19, the SF-36 questionnaire [J.E. Ware, 1993], designed to study all components of the quality of life, was used. The obtained data were processed using the Statistica package from StatSoft (USA). Results. The professional activities of nurses providing medical care in the “red zone”, mul tidisciplinary hospitals, and polyclinics are associated with their exposure to a number of risk factors in the working environment and the labor process, interrelated with the provision of regular or occasional care to COVID-19 patients, which, under conditions of exposure to increased levels of occupational stress, leads to a decrease in the quality of life in these categories of nurses. The decrease in the quality of life among nurses of medical institutions of various profiles during the pandemic of the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19 is due to the fact that nurses faced many additional difficulties during this period: sleep deprivation, stress, strain, and fatigue which can affect behavior, communication, learning, and deci sion-making, which generally leads to decreased quality of life in these samples of nurses. Conclusion. Thus, the obtained data indicate that when identifying risk factors for a decrease in the quality of life among nurses providing care in situations of high epidemic risk, there is the need to use specialized rehabilitation measures for medical workers with relaxation techniques, art therapy, as well as professional adaptation programs, physiotherapeutic techniques, such as electrosleep and reflexology, and, if possible, resort treatment in health care centers, local sanatoriums, etc. with visits to psychotherapy offices, as well as psychopharmacological medications.