The role of nurses' professional values during the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has produced high stress in nurses, affecting their professional quality of life. Different variables affect psychological stress response and professional quality of life. In this context, the role of professional values represents an interesting object of research. Objectives: To analyze the relationship between professional values, perceived stress, and professional quality of life among nurses during the COVID-19 crisis. Research design, participants, and research context: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Participants were 439 registered nurses from the public health system. Perceived stress, professional quality of life, and professional values were evaluated by using measuring instruments adapted and validated in the geographic context of research. Data were collected online in December 2020 during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee on Clinical Research of the Principality of Asturias. Findings: Within professional values, ethics obtained higher scores showing the primacy of ethical values among nurses. Moderate correlations between ethics, mastery, expertise, and compassion satisfaction were found. Frontline nurses informed high perceived stress. The correlations between professional values and compassion satisfaction were higher in non-frontline nurses. A moderate negative correlation between perceived stress and compassion satisfaction was found in both groups, which implies that the higher the stress, the lower the satisfaction in the helping relationship. Conclusion: Professional values positively influence compassion satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compassion satisfaction presents a negative correlation with fatigue compassion and burnout in frontline and non-frontline nurses. Given the functionality of values both to guide clinical practice professionally and ethically, and prevent dissatisfaction with one’s professional quality of life by reinforcing compassion satisfaction, it is necessary to reinforce them with an intensive and cross-sectional learning during the university training.

RETRACTED: Structural equation modelling of ethicomoral values and competence of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…These events include technological advances ( Nes et al, 2021 ), changes in professional nursing practice ( Shun, 2021 ), and the diversity of patients and their belief systems (Ogbulo et al, 2018). The COVID-19 pandemic has affected how nurses perceive nursing care practice ( Chen et al, 2020 ) and their professional value system ( González-Pando et al, 2021 ), and competencies ( Li et al, 2021 ). In their study of nurses working with COVID-19-infected patients, Alloubani et al (2021) identified three themes about nurses' ethics and morality.…”

Moral distress and spiritual/religious orientation: Moral agency, norms and resilience

“…3,4 Despite the wealth of literature on moral distress, less is known about what the “moral” means in moral distress, that is, what beliefs and values undergird the nurse’s understanding of “the right thing to do.” A recent study identified ethics as the highest professional value for nurses. 5 At least two other articles have presented nurses’ perceptions of what characterizes a “good nurse” and how a nurse goes about doing the “right thing.” 6,7 These studies revealed personal virtues nurses considered important, but sources of the virtues were beyond the scope of these analyses.…”

“…A recent study identified ethics as the highest professional value for nurses. 5 At least two other articles have presented nurses' perceptions of what characterizes a "good nurse" and how a nurse goes about doing the "right thing." 6,7 These studies revealed personal virtues nurses considered important, but sources of the virtues were beyond the scope of these analyses.…”

Work immersion and perceived stress among clinical nurses: A latent profile analysis and moderated mediation analysis

“…The nurses shortage is a major global issue [1] . The situation has become even more critical with the outbreak of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID- 19), and the willingness of nurses to leave the profession has increased [2] . Clinical nurses have been faced with the uncertainty and risk of infection and a high workload, such as burdensome nursing tasks and caring for critically ill patients [3,4] , coupled with the physical discomfort and trauma from protection tools [5] , the perceived stress level of nurses is increasing and the individual's psychological defenses are constantly under attack [6] , making nurses vulnerable to low intentions to stay and physical or mental health problems, such as burnout, fatigue, acute stress disorder, anxiety, and depression [7][8][9][10][11] .…”

“…The presence and development of perceived stress has become an important in uence on nurses' professional identity and an important predictor of an individual's physical and mental health [15][16][17] . Previous research on perceived stress in clinical nurses has focused on extrinsic factors such as signi cant workload, high-risk occupational environments, complex interpersonal relationships, ethical con icts, patient mortality outcomes, and closed workplaces [18][19][20][21][22][23] . Notably, previous studies have tended to emphasize how stress affects individuals, for example, the impact of stress on work-family con ict, innovative behavior, quality of life, etc.…”