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. 2022 Dec 14;19(24):16789.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416789.

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

Anna Stefanowicz-Bielska  1 , Magdalena Słomion  1 , Małgorzata Rąpała  2
Affiliations

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

Anna Stefanowicz-Bielska et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

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: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; infections; life; nurses; occupational stress; satisfaction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study design.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a,b) Influence of the nurses’ ages on their satisfaction with life.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a,b) Influence of the nurses’ levels of education on their satisfaction with life. 1—Master of nursing, 2—Bachelor of nursing, 3—Secondary education in nursing.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a,b) Influence of the nurses’ self-assessed knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 infection on their satisfaction with life.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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