Occupational stress and coping strategies of nursing staff in times of Covid-19

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The increase in the workload of health professionals and the degree of complexity of patients, attribute greater risk to psychosocial stress. Objective: To evaluate the associations between occupational stress, quality of life at work, and coping strategies by the hospital nursing team during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Cross sectional, quantitative study with convenience sampling, data collection from August to December 2020; in two units of the private hospital network, with sociodemographic, occupational and health questionnaires; visual analogue scale for assessing quality of life at work; Demand-Control-Support (DCS); Occupational Coping Scale. Results: The total sample consisted of 196 nursing professionals. There was significant certainty (negative, however, the dimension "Demand" of the DCS and QWL (<0.001, r=-0.367). Control over work-related work has a significant quality (but the "Control" dimension of the DCS and QWL (=0.025, r=0.160); and significantly negative, however, between the "Social Support" dimension of DCS and "Negative Equivalence" of Coping (p=0.003, r=-0.2013). Conclusion: The findings of this study allowed the correlation between occupational stress, coping and quality of life at work, showing that the lower the social support, the greater the use of avoidance strategies and consequently decline in quality of life at work. They also allowed us to identify the coping strategies used by the nursing staff and quality of life at work in the face of occupational stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.