Psychological well-being in nurses performing renal replacement therapy in times of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to deterioration of mental health in health care professionals, and the situation of nurses caring for patients with chronic kidney disease is currently unknown. Objective: To identify psychological well-being and differences according to demographic and professional variables in nurses performing haemodialysis in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study carried out on 52 nurses performing renal replacement therapy in intensive care and renal therapy units in COVID-19 times, who gave their consent. Sociodemographic, academic and work-related variables were obtained and the PGWBI scale was used to establish levels of psychological well-being. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskall-Wallis tests were used, and Dunn's post-test was performed to compare differences between the variables studied. Results: The mean age of the nurses studied was 36.56±6.95 years. The levels of psychological well-being were positive in all the categories of the scale, with the exception of anxiety and depression. Similarly, it was found that the variables gender, marital status, job stability, length of service, salary remuneration and academic training showed differential behaviour in the categories assessed by the instrument. Conclusions: High levels of psychological well-being were identified in nurses providing care in renal replacement therapy patients in times of COVID-19 pandemic, where factors such as marital status, post-graduate training and having job stability with better salary income positively influence the categories that contributed to the psychological well-being scores of the nurses assessed.