Background of the study: As the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline health care workers (HCWs) are among the most vulnerable groups at risk of mental health problems. Understanding the extend of mental health issues and psychological impact they go through during this pandemic time related to continuous routine Covid duties, working at the frontline with infected patients and related issues are essential in planning necessary strategies and resources to endure various challenges faced by the health care providers ,especially the frontline nurses who are there with the Covid 19 positive patients through out during their hospitalization. Aim of the study: This study attempts to understand the psychological impact of Covid 19 pandemic on frontline nurses from a tertiary care hospital. Methodology: Descriptive survey design was adopted and data was collected from 92 frontline nurses from a selected tertiary hospital. The data collection was done through online survey using Google form platform. .The data collection tools used were sociodemographic proforma, and a Impact of Event scale–revised (IES-R) to measure the psychological impact of nurses. Results: The psychological impact of COVID-19 outbreak, as measured by IES-R scale, revealed a mean score of Mean (±SD) is 36.39 ± 20.07. 30 (33 %) had minimal psychological impact due to COVID-19 outbreak. Around 13 (14.0%) had mild psychological impact (IES-R score of 24–32) and 23 (25%) had moderate psychological impact (IES-R score of 33–36). However, 26 (28%) reported severe psychological impact (IES-R score of >36). Regression indicated that nurses who stayed with family during covid duty days had more psychological distress as measured by IES-R scores (B = -.250, p<.05) compared to nurses who stayed single or without family at workplace. For all other socio demographic variables no significant association with psychological impact of nurses was noted. Conclusion: Understanding the psychological impact of front line covid nurses will help the administration to implement measures to create a working situation which will strengthen the health man power resources. The findings of this study can be used to frame appropriate psychological interventions for health care providers to avert occurrence of mental health problems preventing psychological crises.
