Pandemic Lessons for Future Nursing Shortage: A Prospective Cohort Study of Nurses' Work Engagement before and during 16 Months of COVID-19

Aim. To measure how nurses' work engagement developed during the first three COVID-19 waves and to compare this with the data collected just before the outbreak. Background. The shortage of nurses is a threat to population health. COVID-19 posed nurses with personal and professional challenges that affected their work engagement. Insights into how the pandemic affected their work engagement may help hospitals retain and recruit nurses in the future. Methods. A single centre prospective survey study was conducted using the UWES-9. Results. In total, 1,697 nurses (90.5% female, mean age 41 years) completed four assessments. Each assessment showed a significant decrease in work engagement compared with that before COVID-19. Work engagement stabilized in the last two assessments. Conclusion. Work engagement decreased significantly compared with that in March 2020, just before the outbreak. Although the decrease stabilized from the 8(th) month to the 16(th) month, it did not return to pre-COVID-19 levels. Whether this stabilization was the beginning of a recovery in work engagement or reflected a permanent decline needs to be established. Implications for nursing management. Nurse leaders should facilitate nurses' self-regulation processes and encourage them to develop resources in order to maintain work engagement at a high level.