Life Satisfaction of Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland

Anna Stefanowicz-Bielska (), Magdalena Słomion and Małgorzata Rąpała
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Anna Stefanowicz-Bielska: Division of Internal and Pediatric Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences with the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland
Magdalena Słomion: Division of Internal and Pediatric Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences with the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland
Małgorzata Rąpała: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Marciniak Hospital, 50-041 Wroclaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Health care practitioners are at highest risk of COVID-19 disease. They experience an enormous overload of work and time pressures. The objective of the study was to assess nurses’ life satisfaction. Method: The study included professionally active nurses. The research method was an author’s questionnaire and a standardized questionnaire, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Results: The study group included 361 working nurses. The mean raw score and the sten score of the nurses’ responses to the statements on the SWLS questionnaire were 21.0 (SD ± 5.6, range = 5–35) and 5.73 (SD ± 1.94, range = 1–10), respectively. It was shown that lower life satisfaction was experienced by nurses aged 51 to 60 (raw score: p = 0.003, sten score: p = 0.005), as well as nurses with secondary and undergraduate nursing education (raw score: p = 0.061, sten score: p = 0.043). Nurses who had a higher self-evaluation of the level of knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 infection experienced greater life satisfaction (raw score: p = 0.008, sten score: p = 0.022). Conclusions: The majority of Polish nurses surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic had a low or medium level of life satisfaction. The low response rate to the survey was most likely due to work overloads during the pandemic. Working in a public service profession, a nurse is exposed to stressful conditions related to protecting human health. Constant difficult and stressful situations and total fatigue experienced by nursing professionals can be the cause of a lack of motivation, occupational burnout, listlessness and mental and physical disease. Further research is necessary to assess the factors positively influencing the level of life satisfaction.

Keywords: nurses; life; satisfaction; SARS-CoV-2; infections; COVID-19; occupational stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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