Gushchin, Maxim V.

Relevance. The article presents the results of published studies’ review and the empirical study, targeted to estimate job stressors and proactive coping strategies in nurses during COVID-19 pandemic. The research urgency is connected with the necessity to evaluate psychological availability of nurses to be resistant to high work strain and risk of SARS-CoV-2 contamination.

Objectives. The research aim: to compare stress level, job stressors evaluation and proactive coping strategies in nurses with high and low chronic states.

Methods. Diagnostic set included: Chronic stress and fatigue inventories by A.B. Leonova; Job stress survey by Ch. Spielberger; Professional burnout inventory by N.E. Vodopyaynova; Proactive coping inventory by E. Greenglass; checklist “Means states’ optimization” by A.S. Kuznetsova.

Sample. Hospital nurses (n = 306; age 43,2±10,9; service 20,7±11,5). 

Results. Revealed job stressors are typical for nurses: inadequate salary, insufficient time for breaks, excessive paperwork and increased responsibility. Strong differences in job stressors evaluation are found between nurses of risk group (with high level of chronic states) and nurses with no chronic states (well-to-do group): in risk group, perceived job stress is significantly higher. Proactive coping strategies are quite high. Regression analysis did not reveal coping strategies as stress predictors. Three months after well-to-do nurses still perceived no high job stress, while in risk group perceived job stress increased.

Conclusions.Under pressure of unmanageable pandemic strain, self-evaluation of proactive coping possibilities in risk group and well-to-do group significantly diverged. Most likely perceived stressors are connected with the inability to manage work strain and to minimize the impact of its negative effects.