**2. Methods**

This chapter deals with the mental problems faced by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic at an international level. Academic literature and other public databases for the year 2020, when COVID-19 cases started to appear and studies on the subject were carried out all over the world, were examined. Articles published in electronic databases including CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct and Google Scholar, Scopus and related internet websites (WHO, ICN and APA) were used. Firstly, a comprehensive search of peer-reviewed journals were completed based on a wide range of key terms including "COVID-19", "health security", "mental health", "mental problems", "nurse", "pandemic", "psychological empowerment", "psychological resilience", "primary traumatic stress", "secondary traumatic stress", "burnout", "compassion fatigue", and "moral injury".

The literature search was carried out between November–December 2020 and 140 academic studies were reached as a result of the searching. The data were obtained from 53 international papers and 3 different websites (WHO, ICN and APA) that address the mental problems of COVID-19 nurses and contain prevention and strengthening studies on this issue that threatens international health

safety were included in the study. In line with the results obtained from the studies, the mental problems experienced by COVID-19 nurses were grouped under five headings, and some suggestions about protect and strengthen mental health at international level were presented.
