Introduction: Medical staff is in direct contact with the patients and experience high work pressure especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Direct contact with the patients could create some psychological problems in this group. Thus, the prevalence of such problems must be investigated.
Aims: The present research aimed to study the level of stress, anxiety, and depression among the nursing staff deputed on COVID-19 duties and routine duties across Government hospitals in Delhi.
Method: The Sample of the study population consisted of a total of 100 nursing staff; 50 deputed on COVID-19 duties and 50 on routine duties across Government hospitals in Delhi, India. The required data were collected using the electronic version of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS) tool. Descriptive statistics, as well as inferential statistics (the Pearson correlation coefficient), were used to analyse the obtained data in SPSS.
Results: The mean age of the study participants was 36.51(SD=7.84) years. The mean values of stress, anxiety, and depression in study samples were 9.76(SD=7.69), 6.58(SD=6.62), and 6.53(SD=7.11) respectively.
There was no significant difference between nurses who were on COVID or non-COVID duty in the prevalence of stress, anxiety, and depression. Also, there was no significant difference between female and male nurses in respect to the prevalence of stress, anxiety, and depression. Anxiety was statistically significant with stress at 0.01 level and depression was statistically significant with age at 0.05 level and statistically significant with stress and anxiety at 0.01 level.
Conclusion: This study revealed that the majority of the participants had a normal level of stress, anxiety, and depression. The nurses who were posted on COVID duty had a higher level of anxiety, stress, and depression as compared to the nurses who were posted on non-COVID duties. The female and male nurses had more or less the same level of stress but the prevalence of anxiety and depression was more in male nurses as compared to female nurses.