Resilience and spirituality of Medicine students during social isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the mental health of university students. In this period of uncertainty and challenges, the development of resilience, that is, the ability to deal with and recover from adverse situations, was necessary. From the perspective of social isolation, spirituality is shown to be an important resource for resignification, which can have a positive impact on students’ resilience. Objective: To identify the degree of resilience of medical students during the social isolation caused by COVID-19 and its relationship with spirituality and personal factors. Methodology: A mixed cross-sectional study carried out with medical students from Brazilian private and public institutions. Data were collected from June to September 2020 using a questionnaire containing sociodemographic and opinion questions about positive and negative aspects of social isolation, the Resilience Scale and the Spirituality-Related Attitudes Scale (ARES). For the analysis of the open responses to the questionnaire, a content analysis was performed with categorization of responses by topic. Result: 308 students participated in the study. The average scores found showed that the students showed moderate resilience and high spirituality. A weak positive correlation was observed between the degree of spirituality and resilience. The variables that positively impacted both resilience and spirituality were high level of satisfaction in studying to become a doctor, high level of happiness with life in recent months, better quality of life during isolation, having a religion and high importance attributed to the fact of having a religion. Female students aged over 25 years old showed greater spirituality. The most often cited positive points were related to social relationships, leisure and personal development. The most frequent negative points and difficulties were mental-physical-social health and remote teaching/adaptation to a new routine. Conclusion: The study suggests that students with greater spirituality are more resilient, being better able to deal with stressors; to adapt and have a positive view of adverse situations. These results can contribute to a reflection on educational strategies that aim to help students in coping with stressful situations, such as those experienced as a result of social isolation.