The impact of occupational health, safety, workload, and stress on nurses in COVID-19 crisis

During COVID-19 crisis, health workers, especially nurses, are the most notable populations at risk of being affected both physically and psychologically. This crisis challenged them to deal with unfamiliar problem with heavier workload, while using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) continuously, haunted by the risk of contracting the disease. This study was conducted from August to October 2020 and aim to determine the conditions of occupational health and safety (OHS), workload, and work stress of nurses during COVID-19 crisis, and their relationship with nurses’ performance. A total of 144 nurses at the main referral hospital of COVID-19: RSPP Extension Jakarta were recruited for this study, all of whom had prolonged close contact with COVID-19 patients. The results of this study indicate that OHS, workload, and work stress simultaneously have a significant positive effect on the performance of RSPP Extension nurses during COVID-19 crisis with F-value =9.506 and significance p=.000. There is a significant positive effect of OHS on nurses’ performance (t-value =3.647, sig p=.000). Work stress has a significant negative effect on nurses’ performance (t-value =-2.306, sig. p=0.023). While workload is not proven to have an effect on nurses’ performance.