Health-Related Quality of Life of Nurses Working in Private and Public Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is a concept that encompasses the physical and mental wellbeing of an individual over time. Since factors such as the work environment and other psychosocial factors can be considered an element in determining the health status of the HCW, HRQoL is a valuable indicator of outcomes and overall health status for HCW, particularly nurses, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because COVID-19 is a health crisis, the workload of the HCW, particularly nurses, increased significantly. With the current health threat, nurses served as the health system's frontline of defense. As such, the group is considered as one the highest risk to the infection.

The study was conducted at one private and one government hospital in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The RAND 36-Item Health Survey (Version 1.0) was used to measure the HRQoL of the respondents. All 36 questions in the SF-36 survey are categorized to each of the applicable health concept: physical functioning, role limitations due to physical health problems, role limitations due to personal or emotional problems, energy/fatigue, emotional wellbeing, social functioning, pain, and general health perceptions.

Among the eight health concepts, Energy/Fatigue (M=53.42, SD=12.431) scored the highest, followed by General Health (M=53.20, SD=20.756) and Physical Functioning (M=50.56, SD=17.359). On the other hand, Role limitations due to emotional problems (M=40.84, SD=45.987) and Emotional well-being (M=41.49, SD=37.396) scored the lowest. Conclusion: This study found that overall, nurses scored their HRQoL below average (M=47.59, SD=29.119). After the analysis of the SF-36 questionnaire, it was noted that of the eight health concepts, the respondents reported the best HRQoL in the physical domain, particularly General Health, Energy/Fatigue, and Physical Functioning. Subsequently, the nurses’ HRQoL related to the psychological domain (Emotional well-being and Role limitations due to emotional problems scored the lowest.