available online at: http://journal.jptranstech.or.id/index.php/ACHNR Asian Community Health Nursing Research Asian Comm. Health Nurs. Res. 2021, 3(1), 9–17 ACHNR Copyright© 2021 by the authors. Submitted for open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Perceived Stress among Health Care Workers of an Emerging Infectious Covid-19 Outbreak in Indonesia Shinta Novelia 1* , Andi Mayasari Usman 1 , and Rian Adi Pamungkas 2 1 Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta 2 Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Esa Unggul University, Jakarta *Corresponding author: rian.adi@esaunggul.ac.id Type of the Paper (Article.) Received: January 11, 2021; Accepted: April 5, 2021; Published: August 13, 2021 https://doi.org/10.29253/achnr.2021.3962 Abstract: Background–During the pandemic of Covid-19 in the world, frontline health care workers have been responsible for tracing contacts of patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19). It has an impact on mental health of health care workers. This study aimed to investigate the perceived stress among health care workers who worked in health care facilities during the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia. Material and methods–A cross sectional study designed was applied in this study. The participants were midwives, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacist assistants, physicians, medical record staff, dental nurse, nutritionists and sanitarian. Demographic questionnaire was delivered to assess age, gender, marital status, job, workplace and work place province. Personal protective equipment was added to the questionnaire. A perceived stress scale was used to assess perceived stress. This research was conducted in the Health Centre, private clinic, non-referral covid-19 Hospital, referral covid-19 hospital, public health centre, and maternity clinics. A purposive sampling was used to get 196 respondents. Data were collected by electronic questionnaire. The ethical clearance was done by the letter from Faculty of Health Universitas Nasional. Results–Study questionnaires were completed by 196 respondents. The results showed that almost participants had a moderate stress (73%). Most of the subjects were in the age group of 20-30 years old (43.9%). Majority of the participants were female (89.8%). Most of the participants were married (71.4%). In 58.2% of participants’ job was midwife and in 25.5% of the participants’ job was nurse. 50% of the participants worked in Public Health Centre and 20.9% of the participants worked in referral Covid-19 Hospital. In 26 % of participants workplace Province was West Java, 17.9 % of participants work place Province was Banten and 16.3 % of participants work place Province was South Sulawesi. Conclusion–The COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia resulted in increased stress for health care workers in Indonesia. Indonesia governments should improve interventions for preventing the spread of epidemics, promote disease treatment methods, and also offer psychological support especially for health care workers. Keyword: health care worker; covid-19; perceived stress; nurses; and outbreak 1. Introduction Covid-19 spreads in many countries in the world including Indonesia. The first two cases of covid- 19 found in Indonesia were on March 2, 2020. As of May 22 nd, 2020, it has increased to 20.162 cases with 1.278 deaths (Ministry of Health of Indonesia, 2020). Coronavirus is a group of viruses that can cause