Assess the Level of Anxiety, Stress and Somatic Symptoms among Nursing Personnel Working During COVID 19 Pandemic Situation

The novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge to healthcare systems across the globe. Nurses have always been frontline care providers in health care sector but this time remarkable professional service to public along with keeping their personal life at stake represented them as a warrior globally. Situation is alarming as nurses are witnessing massive amount of grief, sorrow and deaths which make them vulnerable for burnout, stress, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Objectives –To identify the relationship between the level of anxiety, stress and somatic symptoms and to find association with their selected demographic variables among nursing personnel working during COVID 19 pandemic situation. Methodology – A descriptive correlational study design was used. 100 nursing personnel were selected by purposive sampling technique. Beck Anxiety Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale and Somatic symptom scale were used to collect the data from the participants. Results – The mean score of anxiety, stress and somatic symptoms were 48.96±5.69, 18.99±4.74 and 48.96±5.69 and there exists a significant positive correlation between anxiety and stress (r = 0.231, p<0.05), between anxiety and somatic symptom (r=0.20, p<0.05) and between stress and somatic symptoms (r=0.351, p<0.001) respectively. Conclusion – The work of the nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown a high risk of experiencing Anxiety, stress and somatic symptoms. So far, the nurses have tried to control stress, anxiety and somatic symptoms independently by themselves.