AUTHOR=Zhang Huanyu , Liu Zhixin , Liu Junping , Feng Yajie , Zou Dandan , Zhao Juan , Wang Chen , Wang Nan , Liu Xinru , Wu Lin , Liu Zhaoyue , Liang Libo , Liu Jie 

TITLE=Factors influencing nurse fatigue during COVID-19: regression vs. fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1184702

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1184702

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>Nurses during COVID-19 who face significant stress and high infection risk are prone to fatigue, affecting their health and quality of patient care. A cross- sectional study of 270 nurses who went to epidemic area to support anti-epidemic was carried out <italic>via</italic> online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic on November 2021.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>A web-based cross-sectional survey of 270 nurses in China who traveled to Heihe City in Heilongjiang Province to combat the novel coronavirus epidemic. The researchers collected information on sociodemographic variables, anxiety, transition shock, professionalism, collaboration, hours of work per day, and fatigue. Regression and fuzzy-set Quality Comparative Analysis (<italic>fsQCA</italic>) evaluated the factors’ impact on the nurses’ fatigue.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>Regression analysis showed that the psychological variables significant for fatigue, transition shock (<italic>β</italic> = 0.687, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and anxiety (<italic>β</italic> = 0.757, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) were positively associated with fatigue, professionalism (<italic>β</italic> = −0.216, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) was negatively associated with fatigue, and among the work-related variables, cooperation (<italic>β</italic> = −0.262, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) was negatively related to fatigue. FsQCA analysis showed that combined effects of work hours, anxiety, and nurses’ educational status caused most of the fatigue (raw coverage = 0.482, consistency = 0.896).</p></sec><sec sec-type="conclusions" id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>This study provides two main findings, the one is the greater transition shock experienced during COVID-19 in a new environment, low levels of professionalism, anxiety, and poor nursing teamwork situations lead anti-epidemic nurses to increased fatigue. Second, the fsQCA results showed that anxiety is sufficient for fatigue and that nurses’ educational status, daily working hours, and anxiety are the most effective combination of factors.</p></sec>