Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the risk perception, risk emotions and humanistic care needs of nursing staff during the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on the perceived risk, risk emotions and humanistic care needs of 35,068 nurses in 18 cities of the Henan Province, China. We collected a total of 35,188 questionnaires, of which 35,068 were effectively returned, with an effective return rate of 99.7%. The collected data were summarized and statistically analyzed using Excel 97 2003 and IBM SPSS software.
Results: Nurses’ risk perceptions and emotions vary during the covid-19 pandemic. In order to provide nurses with targeted psychological intervention to prevent nurses from suffering from unhealthy mental states. The results show that the total score of the nurses’ risk perceptions of Covid-19 was 3.66 ± 0.39, the highest score of nurses’ risk perception part is 5 points, and ≥ 3 points represent high risk and 88.3% of nurses believed that the Covid-19 risk was high. There were significant differences in the nurses’ total perceived risk scores for Covid-19 based on gender, age, prior contact with patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 and previous participation in other similar public health emergencies (P < 0.050). Of the nurses included in the study, 44.8% had some level of fear relating to Covid-19 and 35.7% were able to remain calm and objective. There were significant differences in the total scores for risk emotions relating to Covid-19 based on gender, age and prior contact with patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 (P < 0.050). Of the nurses included in the study, 84.8% were willing to receive humanistic care and 77.6% of these expected to be provided with humanistic care by institutions in the healthcare sector.
Conclusion: Nurses with different basic data have different risk cognition and risk emotions. Different psychological needs should be considered, and targeted multi-sectoral psychological intervention services should be provided to help prevent nurses from developing unhealthy psychological states.
Keywords: Covid-19, public health emergencies, risk perception, risk emotion, humanistic care