Can Psychological Resilience Protect the Mental Health of Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period?

Abstract

It is important to protect the mental health of healthcare employees who are facing the difficult experience of a pandemic. There are proofs indicating that the state of mental well-being is related with the levels of psychological resilience. It may be important for reducing the psychological issues and emotions of burnout in healthcare professionals by increasing their psychological resilience levels during this process in which disease anxiety and fear of death develop. The purpose of this review study was to attract attention to the mental issues and psychological resilience of healthcare professionals who have the closest contact with the patients.

Correlation between anxiety and resilience of healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic in the southwest of Iran

“…According to a study conducted in China on healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients, depressive symptoms were reported by 50.4% of all participants, insomnia by 34.0%, psychological distress by 71.5%, and anxiety by 44.6%. (Bahar et al 2020).…”

The Mental Health and Job Burnout of Nurses During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Resilience as a Mediator

“…Control refers to the belief that one can deal with various challenging situations rather than being negatively affected by them. Finally, challenge is the expression of one's belief in change (42). These characteristics may enable the healthcare staff to cope more effectively with challenging situations during the COVID-19 outbreak.…”

COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health of Nurses: Impact on International Health Security

“…The ways individuals see and relate to the world in the face of problems, the availability and quality of social resources, and certain coping strategies contribute to adaptation [55]. Psychological resilience, which increases the ability to cope with and resist difficulties, ensures that healthcare workers are less affected by the consequences of the stress they face and are more successful in crisis management, and it helps them recover more easily after the pandemic [56]. At the same time, resilience plays a role as a protective factor so that mental problems might not develop in all individuals exposed to high adverse effects or crisis situations [37,57].…”

“…When all these factors are considered, it is seen that high levels of psychological resilience are important for healthcare workers to effectively combat COVID-19 infection and maintain mental health. To increase nurses' psychological resilience, needs should be determined early, initiatives should be made to reduce or eliminate factors that have negative effects on mental health, and approaches to increase mental health protective factors should be determined [15,25,48,56,58]. Taking effective psychological support measures, and removing and balancing the fear, anxiety or sadness caused by the epidemic will help healthcare professionals to feel psychologically safe.…”