Stress Impact on Nursing Professionals on the Care Front Line with COVID Patients.

Abstract

Introduction. The SARS-CoV-2 virus disease has posed a challenge to health services worldwide. The uncertainty due to the lack of knowledge and experience in its therapeutic management has produced an important stress factor for health personnel. The Ministry of Health, through the INSABI program, hired nurses to work in the COVID unit at the Manzanillo General Hospital, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the workload and the uncertain atmosphere that prevailed as a result of the pandemic. Therefore, our objective was to document the effect of emotional stress on the nursing staff of the COVID-19 unit of the General Hospital of Manzanillo. Methodology. The study was a cross-sectional, descriptive, non-probabilistic, convenience sampling study. Thirty-four professionals, both sexes, aged 20 to 41 years, participated in the study. Data on somatometry and vital signs were obtained before and after admission to the COVID-19 unit, in addition to a questionnaire to determine their perception of stress, which used as a reference the items assessed by the IMSS work stress test and the Work Stress Instrument for Mexican doctors. The data were analysed with the Graph Pad statistical program. Results. 61.8% were found to be overweight or obese, a risk factor associated with infection. A significant increase in respiratory rate (18.9±0.3 to 20.3±0.4) and heart rate (79.7±1.8 to 84.7±1.9) was observed. In the case of stress perception, 79.4% reported feeling some degree of stress. Increased vital signs values may favour the development of other diseases. Most of the nursing staff at COVID-19 reported some degree of stress. It is therefore necessary to strengthen actions to manage stressful events. Conclusion. It is concluded that the perception of stress is sufficient for nursing staff to develop burnout syndrome in the short and/or medium term, as a result of the overload of stressors in the development of their.