Comparison of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Burnout and Psychological Distress in Nurses with and without COVID-19

Background & Aims:  Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused many psychological and social problems in people around the world, especially nurses. The present study aims to investigate and compare post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), burnout, and psychological disorders in nurses with and without COVID-19. Materials & Methods: This is a causal-comparative study. The study population includes all male and female nurses of non-government hospitals in Tehran from July to September 2021. Of these, 220 nurses (110 without COVID-19 infection and 110 with COVID-19) voluntarily participated in the study. The questionnaires were the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale. Finally, data analysis was performed using multivariate and univariate analysis of variance in SPSS v.16 software.  Results: There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of PTSD, burnout, and psychological disorders (P<0.05). Nurses with COVID-19 had higher scores in PTSD (F=96.38, P<0.001), emotional exhaustion (P<0.001, F=12.45), depersonalization (F=15.49, P<0.001), depression (F=92.97, P<0.001), anxiety (F=37.94, P<0.001) and stress (F=47.6, P<0.001). The nurses with no COVID-19 had higher score in personal accomplishment. Conclusion: Nurses who were infected with COVID-19 had lower psychological health compared to non-infected nurses.