Caring through crisis: The professional quality of pediatric nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study described pediatric nurses' professional quality of life during COVID-19 and explored demographic/clinical practice factors independently associated with compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout (BO), and secondary traumatic stress (STS). The Relational Caring Complexity Theory was used. This study employed a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational design to describe professional quality of life of pediatric nurses (demographic questionnaire and ProQOL 5 measure) working during the COVID-19 pandemic. From 150 pediatric nurses, the mean scores were CS 40.8 (± 4.8), BO 22.6 (± 4.7), and STS 22.8 (± 5.8). Results of the multiple regression revealed that two variables, deployed to the same unit versus not deployed (β = 2.424, p = .02) and currently practicing in perioperative/ambulation settings versus intensive care (β = -0.272, p = .03), were independently associated with CS. Deployed to the same unit versus not deployed was found to be independently and significantly associated with BO (β = -0.28, p = .005). The number of patients cared for with COVID-19 (β = 0.196, p = .03) was significantly associated with STS. While the overall response was positive, these nurses were more likely to experience BO when deployed to the same area (likely a COVID-19 adult unit) and STS as they cared for more patients with COVID-19. Leaders should be aware of the impact of caring in times of crisis. Decentralized staffing may help meet emergent needs on a particular shift, but ensuring deployed nurses are well-supported is vital.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.