A STUDY TO ASSESS THE OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG THE FRONTLINE NURSES WORKING IN GOVERNMENT MEDICAL COLLEGE HOSPITALS IN THE WESTERN DISTRICTS OF TAMIL NADU DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic had posed a great challenge to the nursing speciality. Factors such as increased workload, long hours of work, need to wear the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the duty hours, etc. imposed great deal of stress. Thus we performed a cross sectional study among the COVID-19 frontline nurses working in the Government medical college hospitals in the western districts of Tamil Nadu. Totally 360 responses were analysed. It was found that the stress was of moderate intensity in 15.3% of the respondents. The measures to overcome the stress among the front line workers in the future pandemics is also mentioned in this study.