Comparison of Life Satisfaction with Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Demographic Characteristics of Nurses in Intensive and Non-Intensive Care Units in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Nurses are exposed to depression, anxiety and stress due to direct contact with Covid-19 patients, which leads to a decrease in life satisfaction among nurses. The purpose of this study is to compare life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, stress and demographic characteristics of nurses in intensive and non-intensive care units during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The present study is descriptive-comparative. The research population includes all the nurses working in the hospitals of Zanjan province, Iran between the fourth and sixth wave of Covid-19 in 2021-2022. In this study, census sampling was used and 1355 nurses participated in this study. Demographic questionnaire, "Satisfaction with Life Scale" and "Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21" were used to collect data. The validity of the instruments in this study were limited to previous researches and reliability by internal consistency method by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS. 24.

The average life satisfaction of nurses in intensive and non-intensive care units is 21.35±7.48 and 20.44±7.66 respectively, the average depression in special and non-special wards is 11.85±4.55 and 11.54±4.48 respectively, anxiety was 11.30±4.10 and 11.00± 4.11 respectively, and stress was 13.69±4.72 and 13.05± 4.63 respectively. There was a significant correlation between life satisfaction and stress in intensive and non-intensive care units (P<0.05). But there was no significant correlation between depression and anxiety in intensive and non-intensive care units (P>0.05).

Nurses working in different wards of the hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic have different degrees of depression, anxiety and tension. It is suggested that in order to increase life satisfaction and improve the mental health of nurses working in hospitals, planning and necessary support measures should be done by nurse managers.