ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has put nurses into a severe test, both physiologically and psychologically. While being required to provide patients with high-quality medical services, nurses also bear the responsibilities and pressures from work, face trauma, disease and even death events, and are thereby more inclined to negative psychological feelings, decline in mental health, and reduction in the quality of their clinical nursing services. Under the background of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is urgent to carry out related intervention in nurses' psychological crisis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The mental health of 400 nurses from three tertiary hospitals in Shanghai, China was assessed from September to December 2020. Then, time management training was conducted for 66 nurses who were voluntarily enrolled in the study. They were divided into the intervention group (35 participants) and the control group (31 participants). RESULTS: After the 16-week intervention, (1) there is a significant decrease in the total SCL-90 score of the intervention group and significant decreases in the scores in the 9 dimensions of the scale, suggesting significant improvement in the mental health level; (2) there is a significant increase in the score of the intervention group in subjective well-being, while there is no significant increase in the control group; (3) There is a significant decrease in the score of the intervention group in work stress reaction, but there is no significant decrease in the control group, and there is a significant increase in the physiological reaction of the control group in the measurement after 8 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: It is critical to pay attention to and solve the low mental health level of nurses during the COVID-19 epidemic; Time management training can effectively improve the mental health level of nurses, and it is an effective intervention model to promote nurses' mental health and relieve their work stress.