The Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Patient Communication of Midwives and Nurses

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effect of fear of COVID-19 on communication with patients in midwives and nurses.

Methods: The study was conducted with 249 midwives and nurses working in a hospital in Southeast Turkey. "Descriptive Information Form", "COVID-19 Fear Scale" and "Communication Skills Assessment Scale" were used to collect the data. Percentage, Mean, Standard deviation, t test and Pearson correlation test were used to evaluate the data.

Results: Of the participants, 40.6% were midwives, 59.4% were nurses and their mean age was 34.59±6.39 years. The FCV-19S mean score was 19.64±4.76 for the midwives and 19.90±4.16 for the nurses, showing a similar distribution (t=-.459, p=0.647). The nurses (82.1517.07) had higher CSAS mean score than the midwives (75.8322.11). In addition, there was a statistically significant weak negative correlation between the FCV-19S and CSAS mean scores of midwives and nurses (r=-0.197, p=0.002).

Conclusion: It was found that midwives and nurses had similar COVID-19 fear scale scores and that their communication skills decreased as their fear of COVID-19 increased.