Comparison of job stress of nurses working in COVID-19 ward and other wards and its relationship with their level of knowledge about COVID-19

Considering the challenges that COVID-19 disease has created in human life, the study of its various dimensions is one of the topics of interest today. Considering the important role of nurses in combating this disease, in this study we examined the level of knowledge and job stress of nurses working in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 wards and their relationship with each other.

 We assessed the awareness and job stress of 215 nurses working in COVID-19 wards and also 142 nurses working in other wards in Imam-Reza and Ghaem hospitals in Mashhad, using a researcher-made questionnaire as well as the JRTI questionnaire.

 The mean score of nurses' knowledge was 68.19 ± 17.44. The level of knowledge of nurses working in COVID-19 ward was significantly higher than nurses working in other wards (p = 0.002). The mean score of job stress in nurses was 58.82± 13.17 and there was no significant difference between job stress of nurses working in COVID-19 wards and nurses working in other wards (p = 0.134). There was a negative relationship between awareness and job stress of nurses (r = -0.14, p = 0.007).

Increasing the level of nurses 'awareness reduces their job stress, which shows the importance of increasing nurses' awareness about COVID-19 disease by providing appropriate training.