Factors associated nurses’ willingness to respond against COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review

Abstract

Objective: to assess the overall factors affecting nurses’ willingness to respond against COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology: A narrative review was conducted on Pubmed database for relevant papers published from April 2020-the first wave of COVID-19 - to January 2021, with search terms used including only English papers and included “COVID-19” AND or OR “Nurse” AND or OR “Willingness to respond”.

Results: Ten articles meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. The research results revealed 3 main groups of factors influencing nurses’ willingness to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, including the group of factors related to the individual nurse (knowledge about COVID-19 management, awareness of ethical responsibilities, influences of nurses’ psychological status - stress, anxiety, and depression); factors related to medical facilities where nurses worked and factors outside the medical facilities (support from government management system).

Conclusions: The results from this narrative review show that it is needed to develop plans preparing necessary resources including psychological support to enable nurses be always ready to respond to pandemics or natural disasters in the future.