Perceived job stress and COVID- 19 pandemic related stress predictors among Nurses working in Saudi Arabia

Objective: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hastens the global health care systems which take the lead to great psychological stress on health care professionals especially nurses with COVID-19 illness patient care. This study focused on perceived job stress and covid-19 pandemic related job stress predictors among nurses working in ministry of health hospitals and health centers in Muhayil Aseer town, Saudi Arabia during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study addressed to examine the prevalent perceived job stress and covid-19 related perceived job stress predictors among nurses. A web-based google form english questionnaire was designed in sections aimed at collecting socio demographic and job variables, including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Covid-19 pandemic related job stress predictors questionnaire. The data were collected using convenient sampling technique.Results: 164 nurses have participated in this study among them, the overall nurses 97.57 % had experienced job stress during peak time of Corona virus spread and of them more than half (59.76 %) of the (98) nurses had moderate level of job stress and the mean PSS score 21.8 that represents moderate stress level. In multivariate regression analysis model, the perceived safety risk (LR= 95.53, χ² (6) = 27.91, P=.000), perceived worry (LR= 97.23, χ²(6) = 29.60, P=.000) and perceived work difficulty (LR= 100.92, χ²(6) = 33.29, P=.000) were found as significant predictors of perceived job stress during Covid-19 pandemic. Conclusion: This study revealed that job stress is a common prevailing problem among nurses and the COVID-19 pandemic related job stress predictors were perceived safety risk and perceived worry about health while covid-19 exposure and perceived work difficulty as overworked during pandemic. Although efforts were enhanced to support their psychological well-being, more attention should be paid to the mental health of nursing staffs. The study recommends that strong strategy improvements need to be held in the health care institutions to reduce nurses' stress and enable them to combat the ongoing and future occurrences of pandemic effectively.