Aim: This cross-sectional study, conducted from August to September 2020, examined nurses' stress, self-efficacy and nursing intentions when caring for COVID-19 patients and identified the predictors of nursing intentions during the pandemic.
Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has increased nurses' role expectations and imposed a heavy social responsibility. In particular, frontline nurses are under significant stress when caring for patients during a novel epidemic because of the lack of accurate information.
Methods: A total of 232 nurses with experience in providing care for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients from seven large hospitals in three cities in Korea completed the Perceived Stress Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale and Predictive Nursing Intention Scale.
Results: Multiple regression confirmed that completing COVID-19-related education and self-efficacy were significant predictors of nursing intentions during the current pandemic; the regression model explained 22.0% of the variance in nursing intentions.
Conclusion: Stress did not affect frontline nurses' nursing intentions towards COVID-19 patient care, but completing COVID-19-related education and higher self-efficacy predicted improved nursing intentions.
Implications for nursing management: Nurse leaders should recognize that to improve nursing intentions during a novel infection outbreak, infection-related education should be provided and strategies to improve self-efficacy should be implemented.
Keywords: intention; nurses; pandemics; self-efficacy; stress.
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.