Negative Social Stigma Impact on Nurses’ Anxiety (In The Covid-19 Pandemic Disaster)

Abstract

a new psychosocial problem. In society, stigmatizing nurses can contribute to nurses' anxiety. The purpose is to analyze the social stigma impact on nurses' anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The design in this research was Cross-Sectional. The population was all nurses in the Kediri city, with a sample size of 577 respondents. The formula to get this sample size used the Slovin formula with accidental sampling. The independent variable was social stigma impact and the dependent variable was anxiety. The research instrument was the Zung self-rating anxiety scale questionnaire. Statistical test using Odd Ratio and Spearman-rho with α <0.05.

Results: The results showed that most nurses were affected by negative stigma (61.4%) in public, with 9.4% of nurses being affected by the extreme impact in public. Most of the respondents experienced mild anxiety (54.6%) and 6.6% of respondents experienced extreme anxiety. The results showed that social stigma had an effect on nurses' anxiety (ρ=0.000) with a sufficient level of correlation coefficient (0.432). The negative social stigma impact can be 6,7 times exposed anxiety from mild to extreme anxiety.

Conclusions:  Social stigma can cause anxiety; it was necessary to have proper health education and information related to the COVID-19 Pandemic Disaster to change perceptions and improve stigmatization conditions in nurses.