Keeping Nurses’ Mental Health Front and Center

In May 2023, the World Health Organization declared that Coronavirus (COVID-19) was no longer a public health emergency of international concern. The timing of the announcement, 1 week before International Nurses’ Day, was unintentionally apt, highlighting COVID-19’s effects on nurses worldwide. Today, case counts are rising again, as they have the last three winters (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024; Wiemken et al., 2023). In anticipation of greater job-related strain on their colleagues, occupational health nurses (OHNs) should consider their fellow nurses, particularly those who are younger, at increased risk for depression, anxiety, and burnout.

All over the world, nurses worked long, frequent, and difficult shifts treating patients with COVID-19. A study of 11 facilities in Iran found that nurses were experiencing significant burnout, with workload as the major contributor (Zare et al., 2021). Thousands of nurses were infected or experienced a deterioration in their mental health. A global systematic review found that 38.6% of healthcare workers infected with COVID-19 were nurses, the largest of any healthcare professional group (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2020). A survey of 13 African countries found a 10-fold increase in nurses reporting daily depression symptoms since COVID-19 (Debes et al., 2021). One meta-analysis found a pooled prevalence rate of depression of 30% among nurses (Pappa et al., 2020). The profession has lost workers, particularly young workers, who otherwise might have provided decades of nursing care: A projected shortfall of 10 million nurses by 2030 has been increased to 14 million (Downey et al., 2023).

While it is unlikely that COVID-19 will return to previous levels, OHNs should nevertheless exercise caution. Nurses showing signs of depression and anxiety should be screened and referred as appropriate. Occupational health nurses may also consult the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH, 2022) collected healthcare-worker-specific online training modules and factsheets on topics such as stress, fatigue, substance abuse, and suicide. The American Nurse Association’s (ANA, 2020) Wellbeing Initiative also includes a collection of nurse-oriented educational materials and mental health resources, including a toll-free mental health hotline specifically designed for nurses, a podcast, and sources of discounted therapy.

Beyond helping individuals, OHNs can also advocate for supportive organizational-level practices: clear communication from management, onsite mental health programming, and scheduling that minimizes role changes and allows for paid time off (Smallwood et al., 2023). These organizational changes can benefit nurses both now and in the future.