Assessment of the mental workload of nurses in the Covid-19 pandemic

Nurses are at the front line of treatment and coping with Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study investigates the pandemic’s impact on nurses ’mental workload and determines its predictor factors.

This descriptive-analytical study was done on 234 nurses in two groups working in Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 wards in 2020. The criteria for entering the study was not having psychological problems. For data collection, the General Health Questionnaire, NASA-TLX, and Demographic Questionnaire, and for data analysis, SPSS software were used.

The mean of the overall mental workload score in the group of nurses working in the Covid-19 wards (70.09± 2.51) was higher than the group of nurses working in the non-Covid-19 wards (66.55± 2.02). This difference was significant (P = 0.01). There was a significant difference between the mean score of the mental demand, the physical demand, the temporal demand, and the frustration level of the two groups. Except for performance, the group of nurses working in the corona ward had a higher mean score in all aspects. In the proposed linear model, 16% of the overall changes in mental workload depended on two variables of age, and work experience. The work experience was the most influential factor in predicting nurses' mental workload.

The findings of the present study showed the importance of paying attention to the mental workload of nurses as well as personal and occupational factors affecting mental workload in the conditions of the covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, control and management of effective factors can help reduce mental workload, especially in pandemic conditions.