The impact of fear of COVID-19 on job stress, and turnover intentions of frontline nurses in the community: A cross-sectional study in the Philippines.

This study aimed to assess fear of COVID-19 among nurses in a community setting. The COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to the nurses’ physical and psychological well-being. Mounting studies discussed the well-being of nurses in hospital setting, and very little attention was directed toward frontline nurses in the community. This study used a cross-sectional design using self-report questionnaires. Results revealed that nurses display moderate to high fear of COVID-19 and that the female gender, t = −2.11, p = .036, is correlated to fear of the virus. Moreover, the nurses’ fear influences their job stress (β = 0.35, p = .001) and organizational (β = 0.24, p = .001) and professional (β = 0.23, p = .001) turnover intentions. Fear of COVID-19 is universal among nurses. Fear of COVID-19 is associated to the community nurse’s work-related distress and may influence their intention to leave their jobs and the nursing profession. There is a need to assess the factors associated with the fear to better address the nurses’ psychological well-being and to avoid turnover intentions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)