WORKLOAD AND NURSES' QUALITY OF LIFE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstrak

COVID-19 pandemic might expose nurses to higher occupational stress, contributing to the nurses' low quality of life and potentially impacting patient safety and the quality of nursing care offered to patients. Therefore, this systematic review examines the relationship between nurses' workload and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides recommendations to improve nurses' quality of life. A systematic review of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis was used as the methodology (PRISMA). Search articles were conducted from PubMed, BMC Nursing and Science Direct, Scopus, and Taylor and Francis online with the keyword "Nurse AND Workload AND Quality of Life AND COVID-19". The articles are then reviewed based on the finding of current research. All the literature revealed a statistically significant and inverse relationship between workload and nurses' quality of life. The lack of prediction during the COVID-19 pandemic increased the workload on professional nurses at the frontline, consequently reducing the quality of life in all aspects of the physical-psychological domain. Human resource management and educational institutions should pay more attention to nurses' quality of life to minimize the potential effect on direct and indirect patients, such as by training and mentoring nursing students in specific psychological resources, including resilience skills, while hospital management analyzes the required needs of the workforce gradually, especially when the workload surges.  Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, nurse, workload, quality of life