Addressing the Emotional Distress of Healthcare Workers: Creating a Cohesive Resiliency Program Response to COVID-19

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline healthcare workers in Pakistan in terms of psychological factors emotional distress, insomnia, and burnout. Study Design: Observational cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at different hospitals across Pakistan and data collection was carried out from 15th June 2020 till 15th August 2020. Material and Methods: This was a questionnaire-based study aiming to compare the levels of burnout and emotional distress between frontline COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 healthcare workers. Any physician, nurse, and other healthcare workers were recruited from emergency care units and Covid-19 care units (target group), and non-COVID-19 care units (control group). Participation was voluntary and participants had to complete self-reported questionnaires and scales. A mixed-mode data collection was carried out, either in paper or web-based form to ensure maximum participation. Results: The independent t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding depression, stress, and insomnia. The study group showed higher scores for these factors than the control group. Chi-square test of association revealed significant scores of burnout and professional fulfillment in both groups. There was a higher prevalence of burnout in the study group than in the control group. Conclusion: This study concludes that there was a significant psychosocial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the frontline healthcare workers measured in terms of emotional distress, insomnia, and burnout.

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Promoting resilience in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic with a brief online intervention

10.1101/2021.07.28.21261304 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole R DeTore ◽

Louisa Sylvia ◽

Elyse R Park ◽

Anne Burke ◽

Julie H Levison ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotional Distress ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Online Intervention ◽

Psychological Wellbeing ◽

Online Course ◽

Baseline Survey ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Emotional Resilience ◽

Self Compassion ◽

Resilience Training

Introduction: The psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers has been impacted by the high levels of stress many have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a brief online course focused on introducing skills that could increase resilience and decreases emotional distress in healthcare workers during the pandemic. Materials and Methods: Employees of a large healthcare system completed a survey at baseline, one month, and two months later. The online course, called Resilience Training for Healthcare Workers, consists of three 12-20 minute videos focused on evidence-based skills that support aspects of emotional resilience: mindfulness, mentalization, and self-compassion. Results: A total of 554 participants completed the baseline survey, endorsing moderate to high levels of emotional distress. Of those who completed all three assessments and participated in the course (n = 38), significant improvements in resilience and reductions in emotional distress were found across two months, in comparison to those who did not participate in the course. Discussion: These findings suggest that a brief, online intervention can improve the mental health of healthcare workers during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Cognition, Emotions, and Language in Front-Line Healthcare Workers: Clinical and Ethical Implications for Assessment Measures

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS ◽

10.31470/2309-1797-2021-30-1-8-25 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 8-25

Author(s):

Larysa Zasiekina ◽

Tetiana Pastryk ◽

Mariia Kozihora ◽

Tetiana Fedotova ◽

Serhii Zasiekin

Keyword(s):

Protective Factors ◽

Psychological Stress ◽

Emotional Distress ◽

Professional Ethics ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Healthcare Staff ◽

Social Contacts ◽

Ethical Implications ◽

Effective Interventions ◽

Medium Level

Objectives. The article aims to reveal language-based markers of stressful experiences in healthcare workers in terms of their cognitions and emotions. The following research questions were formulated for the current study: (1) Are risk and protective factors for psychological stress in healthcare staff, working with patients with COVID-19 aligned with anxiety, depression and resilience? (2) Are there any language-based indicators for emotional distress in healthcare staff, working with patients with COVID-19? (3) What are the key cognitions, emotions, and behavioral patterns are expressed in healthcare workers’ staff language? (4) What are words-associations in the Ukrainian Associative Dictionary aligned with language-based indicators of professional ethics in healthcare staff? Materials and Methods. The study applies Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), the Psychological Stress Scale (PSM-25), and the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC 2015). Results. Results show that healthcare staff demonstrates a low level of psychological stress, depression and anxiety, and a medium level of resilience. The results of multiple linear regression indicate that the only significant negative predictor of stress is resilience. The psycholinguistic analysis of healthcare staff's narrative on their professional experience treating COVID-19 patients shows the key meaningful categories, namely social contacts, cognitive processes, and time. Social contacts are primarily represented by the category family. The word-associations from the Ukrainian Associative Dictionary indicate that feeling of guilt related to professional ethics in healthcare staff is more expressed in men compared with women. Conclusion. The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to developing effective interventions for healthcare staff during a pandemic, primarily focusing on protective factors and weakening feelings of guilt to prevent moral injury. The study also raises some issues of the clinical psycholinguistic approach to examining emotional distress. This approach would be a fruitful area for further work.

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Lessons From the First Wave of COVID-19: Work-Related Consequences, Clinical Knowledge, Emotional Distress, and Safety-Conscious Behavior in Healthcare Workers in Switzerland

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.628033 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Marco Riguzzi ◽

Shkumbin Gashi

Keyword(s):

Risk Perception ◽

Emotional Distress ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Physical Contact ◽

Clinical Knowledge ◽

Physical And Mental Health ◽

Work Situation ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The Government

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) imposes an unusual risk to the physical and mental health of healthcare workers and thereby to the functioning of healthcare systems during the crisis. This study investigates the clinical knowledge of healthcare workers about COVID-19, their ways of acquiring information, their emotional distress and risk perception, their adherence to preventive guidelines, their changed work situation due to the pandemic, and their perception of how the healthcare system has coped with the pandemic. It is based on a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 185 Swiss healthcare workers directly attending to patients during the pandemic, with 22% (n = 40) of them being assigned to COVID-19-infected patients. The participants answered between 16th June and 15th July 2020, shortly after the first wave of COVID-19 had been overcome and the national government had relaxed its preventive regulations to a great extent. The questionnaire incorporated parts of the “Standard questionnaire on risk perception of an infectious disease outbreak” (version 2015), which were adapted to the case of COVID-19. Clinical knowledge was lowest regarding the effectiveness of standard hygiene (p < 0.05). Knowledge of infectiousness, incubation time, and life-threatening disease progression was higher, however still significantly lower than regarding asymptomatic cases and transmission without physical contact (p < 0.001). 70% (95%-confidence interval: 64-77%) of the healthcare workers reported considerable emotional distress on at least one of the measured dimensions. They worried significantly more strongly about patients, elderly people, and family members, than about their own health (p < 0.001). Adherence to (not legally binding) preventive guidelines by the government displayed patterns such that not all guidelines were followed equally. Most of the participants were faced with a lack of protective materials, personnel, structures, processes, and contingency plans. An increase in stress level was the most prevalent among the diverse effects the pandemic had on their work situation. Better medical equipment (including drugs), better protection for their own mental and physical health, more (assigned) personnel, more comprehensive information about the symptoms of the disease, and a system of earlier warning were the primary lessons to be learned in view of upcoming waves of the pandemic.

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Bibliotherapy: Reading OVID During COVID

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2020.567539 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Emmanuel Stip ◽

Linda Östlundh ◽

Karim Abdel Aziz

Keyword(s):

Emotional Distress ◽

Medical Humanities ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Psychological Impact ◽

Historical Background ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Personal Problems ◽

Journal Clubs ◽

Reading Materials ◽

Need Support

An epidemic of an infectious disease such as COVID-19 is often a source of emotional distress, even among those who have not been directly exposed to the disease. The period following the acute phase of the coronavirus epidemic and the mitigation measures will likely be hardest for medical professionals in terms of psychological impact. Bibliotherapy is a systematic intervention regarding the use of carefully selected reading materials in order to help persons to cope with stress and personal problems. This therapy can be used easily during the pandemic. The review of evidence shows that this kind of intervention can be helpful in educational and clinical contexts. During the crisis, it can be an alternative to video and film entertainment and a transition from serious medical journal clubs to a softer medical humanities experience. In this article, we summarized the historical background of bibliotherapy. We also proposed a reading list from different times, and cultures relating to pandemic, quarantine, symptoms, confinement, and social impacts (e.g., Camus, Moravia, London, Le Clezio etc.). Bibliotherapy can be a way for doctors and healthcare workers fighting on the frontline of the pandemic to find psychological support and for debriefing. Bibliotherapy can help individuals that need support for emotional distress during the pandemic to verbalize their feelings and emotions and identify new ways of addressing problems.

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Preserving Organizational Resilience, Patient Safety, and Staff Retention during COVID-19 Requires a Holistic Consideration of the Psychological Safety of Healthcare Workers

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17124267 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (12) ◽

pp. 4267 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Pavani Rangachari ◽

Jacquelynn L. Woods

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Healthcare Worker ◽

Emotional Distress ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Psychological Safety ◽

The United States ◽

Health Concern ◽

Organizational Resilience ◽

Staff Retention ◽

Worker Support

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are fighting a lethal virus with acute shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). These unprecedented circumstances have amplified the sources of emotional distress and worker burnout. However, many healthcare organizations (HCOs) in the United States, have opted for a “stoic approach” to healthcare worker support, i.e., no additional support beyond federal and state policy protections for the licensing and liability of healthcare workers. In this scenario, a key public health concern is sustaining an adequate healthcare workforce, both by way of quantity (adequate numbers) and quality (maximizing clinician resilience to provide safe care to large volumes of patients under challenging conditions). Therefore, it is imperative for HCO leaders to recognize that a limited view of worker psychological safety, without due consideration for the broader emotional distress created by the pandemic, could have the effect of restricting organizational resilience and adversely impacting patient safety and staff retention during and beyond the pandemic. This paper uses the organizational resilience framework to discuss the potential impact of a stoic approach to healthcare worker support on patient safety and staff retention in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU) during COVID-19. The discussion in turn, helps to develop recommendations for HCOs to overcome these challenges.

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Effect of Rational-Emotive Distress Management Intervention on Work-Related Emotional Distress among Primary Healthcare Workers

Global Journal of Health Science ◽

10.5539/gjhs.v12n10p1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Uchenna C. Ugwu ◽

Emmanuel K. Nwala ◽

Uchechukwu A. Ezugwu ◽

Nnagozie Chukwuebuka

Keyword(s):

Treatment Group ◽

Emotional Distress ◽

Primary Healthcare ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Irrational Beliefs ◽

Emotional Health ◽

Control Group ◽

Management Intervention ◽

Work Related ◽

Rational Emotive

Emotional distress is associated with irrational beliefs, psychopathological conditions, and maladaptive behaviors. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of rational-emotive distress management intervention -REDMI on work-related emotional distress among primary healthcare workers -PHCWs in Nigeria. A pretest-posttest randomized control group design was adopted by the investigators. Using convenient sampling procedure, 52 PHCWs were studied. These participants were assigned to either treatment (n=26) or control (n=26) groups respectively. Only the treatment group received rational-emotive distress management intervention. The profile of emotional distress –PED (internal consistency=0.94) was used for the pretest and posttest data collection. The IBM SPSS version 22 was employed for all statistical data analysis. The study participants in treatment group scored lower (10.87±2.63) in the posttest measure when compared to pretest scores (18.24±2.88). This implied that REDMI was effective in managing work-related emotional distress in a sample of primary healthcare workers in Nigeria. The REDMI is effective in managing work-related emotional distress among PHCWs in Nigeria. Professionals and experts in emotional health are therefore encouraged to adopt management intervention programs such as REDMI in helping workers and clients to manage emotional distress.Emotional distress is associated with irrational beliefs, psychopathological conditions, and maladaptive behaviors. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of rational-emotive distress management intervention -REDMI on work-related emotional distress among primary healthcare workers -PHCWs in Nigeria. A pretest-posttest randomized control group design was adopted by the investigators. Using convenient sampling procedure, 52 PHCWs were studied. These participants were assigned to either treatment (n=26) or control (n=26) groups respectively. Only the treatment group received rational-emotive distress management intervention. The profile of emotional distress –PED (internal consistency=0.94) was used for the pretest and posttest data collection. The IBM SPSS version 22 was employed for all statistical data analysis. The study participants in treatment group scored lower (10.87±2.63) in the posttest measure when compared to pretest scores (18.24±2.88). This implied that REDMI was effective in managing work-related emotional distress in a sample of primary healthcare workers in Nigeria. The REDMI is effective in managing work-related emotional distress among PHCWs in Nigeria. Professionals and experts in emotional health are therefore encouraged to adopt management intervention programs such as REDMI in helping workers and clients to manage emotional distress.

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The Globalization of an Interaction Ritual Chain: “Clapping for Carers” During the Conflict Against COVID-19

Sociology of Religion ◽

10.1093/socrel/srab044 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alexandre Rigal ◽

David Joseph-Goteiner

Keyword(s):

Emotional Distress ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

World Society ◽

Focused Attention ◽

Global Cities ◽

Theoretical Possibility ◽

Substantial Evidence ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Interaction Ritual ◽

Interaction Rituals

Abstract Sociologists have long been interested in the theoretical possibility of a universal ritual. Despite a growing number of indicators of world society and globalization, there have not been attempts to observe and analyze the international reach of particular rituals. We propose an extension of the “interaction ritual chain” by theorizing how an interaction ritual might be created and diffused internationally. We look at the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created shared conditions of social distancing and emotional distress. We analyze a discontinuous chain of urban and national interaction rituals that focused attention on the efforts of healthcare workers fighting the virus. We count clapping and noise-making in 101 countries and 26 global cities. While we find similar ritual forms and international symbols of solidarity, there was also substantial evidence of conflict and particularism.

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