The effect of Covid-19 phobia on work stress and psychological resilience of nurses exposed to surgical smoke in the operating room

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of Covid-19 Phobia on the work stress and psychological resilience of nurses exposed to surgical smoke in the operating room emergency surgical interventions. This study was designed as descriptive and correlational research, and it was conducted with 160 nurses working in the operating room units of three different hospitals in Türkiye between the dates of August 2020 and May 2021. The work stress scale, brief resilience scale, and Covid-19 phobia scale (C19P-S) were used for data collection. It was determined that the mean work stress score of the nurses was high with a score of 40.11±4.91, the mean score for psychological resilience was moderate with a score of 15.00±3.95, and the mean score for C19P-S was high with a score of 71.58±15.45. There was a significant negative strong (r: -.706) correlation found between Covid-19 phobia and psychological resilience. It was found that there was a positive moderate significant correlation (r: .589) between Covid-19 phobia and work stress (p<0.05). Covid-19 phobia was determined high for nurses exposed to surgical smoke, Covid-19 phobia increased work stress for nurses and negatively affected their psychological resilience level.