The aim of this study was to investigate the level of work-related stress and its reasons, expressions and coping strategies among nurses during the COVID-19 situation.

Methods. A quantitative research strategy was applied for the study. Data were collected using a structured survey. Nurses answered 92 questions divided into four sections: reasons of stress (32 questions); the impact of stress on personal health (20 questions); stress coping strategies (31 questions); sociodemographic data and stress level (9 questions). 83 items were rated by the Likert scale from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. In total, 180 nurses participated in the study.

Results. The main reasons of work-related stress to occur were the risk of contracting (67.2%) or transmitting (87.1%) the virus to family members, requirements for the use of personal protective equipment (61.1%), changes in a work organization due to increasing workload and working time (56.9%), lack of nursing staff (64.2%) and high media attention exclusively for doctors rescuing the lives of those suffering from the disease and thus ignoring the contribution of nurses (52.3%). To cope with stress, nurses mostly used to follow the work under COVID-19 situation guidelines (82.1%), to stay calm and not think a lot about the pandemic (71.7%); specific relaxation techniques or spiritual interventions were rarely used.

Conclusions. Nurses expressed work-related stress concerned with the specific reasons of the coronavirus pandemic: fear to be infected or transmit infection to family, unforeseen clinical situations, permanent use of personal protective devices and shortage of human resources in the unit. Use of education and information tools, the application of relaxing methods and a rational approach to the critical situation were the most common work-related stress reduction methods used by nurses during the coronavirus pandemic in Lithuania.

Design and Methods. This cross-sectional comparative study employed an online questionnaire survey to collect data.

Participants. The snowball sampling method was used to recruit a convenience sample of 1092 adult participants in Turkey.

Results. The participants were following the agenda on COVID-19, their perceptions were alerted, their anxiety level was quite high and they were well-informed about precautions. More women than men responded positively to the assumption that alcohol and smoking raise the effect severity for COVID-19 disease. Women in relation to men were more undecided about the real danger of COVID-19 as it is told. The anxiety that appears from the fear to be infected with the virus or die because of COVID-19 was higher in women than men. Everyday checks for COVID-19 symptoms were more relevant for higher school graduates than for respondents with university education and for the youngest group of respondents than for older ones. Perceptions and precautions of higher educated individuals were higher and more correct. A larger proportion of persons of older age (46–72 years) was more sure that COVID-19 was a disease which more severely manifests in men compared with women and less believed in a statement that COVID-19 disease was a political game controlled by developed countries in relation to other age groups. The youngest respondents ignored the fact that this pandemic was a wrath of God against corrupted communities at a larger extent than the older participants of the study.

Conclusion. There are significant differences in the perception of healthy adults from Turkey towards the new coronavirus disease, their anxiety caused from this and precautions that are applied for prevention of the infection in relation to their gender, age and education level. The findings of this study suggest that educational precautions should be taken for individuals with lower education and precautions for mental health promotion should be taken regarding women. Policymakers and healthcare professionals should announce the confirmed scientific information on COVID-19 pandemic to the public to prevent information pollution.