Depression, Anxiety, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of the Frontline Nurses during Covid-19 Pandemic in South Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aim(s): Frontline nurses" mental health needs to be assessed and managed to defeat Covid-19. This study aimed to investigate the status of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder of frontline nurses in the Covid-19 pandemic in South Korea.

Method(s): This was a cross-sectional online survey using by Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Impact of Event Scale-Revised from November 2020 to February 2021. The subjects were 249 nurses with direct contact working experience of more than one month at the frontline field related to Covid-19. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA using SPSS 25.0 program.

Result(s): 39.4% were over the moderate levels(≥10) of depression, 49.8% were over the mild level(≥5) of anxiety. 40.1% of participants were over the partial PTSD(≥18). The Mean scores of depression, anxiety, and PTSD was 8.61±6.14, 6.08±5.44, 17.66±15.98, respectively. Also, among depression, anxiety, and PTSD of participants showed significant positive correlations.

Conclusion(s): Depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptom of frontline nurses in clinical fields of COVID-19 were prevalent. Therefore, we should develop programs for their mental health, and policies for implementation need to be legally guaranteed.