Nurses' self‐esteem, self‐compassion and psychological resilience during COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The invasion of the novel coronavirus disease quickly overshadowed the international year of the nurses and the aftereffects of COVID-19 have continued to reverberate around the world (LoGiudice & Bartos, 2021). Nurses are the biggest workforce within healthcare systems and an integral part of the management of COVID-19 pandemic (Shechter et al., 2020).Uncertainty was the main challenge to nurses that covered a wide range of concerns including, lack of information about COVID-19, changing policies, misinformation and concerns about PPE shortages, stigmatization by the public and concerns of infecting families (Preti et al., 2020). Besides the challenge to keep patients and their families safe, the emotional challenges of nurses included fear, anxiety, exhaustion, frustration, guilt and loneliness (Nelson et al., 2021). Nurses also experienced acute stress and depressive symptoms (Shechter et al., 2020). Anxieties appear to be limited to the acute phase of pandemic exposure, but life stress and burnout can be ongoing after the pandemic (Preti et al., 2020). Individuals' reactions and coping strategies differ when they are exposed to stressful incidents and events. While some react negatively to stressful and traumatic situations, resulting in psychological distress, others quickly overcome the negative mental state and return to their normal lives (LeDoux & Gorman, 2001). This may empower people who can recover and resume their lives, which is referred as psychological resilience (Slavich et al., 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, resilience strategies can help to alleviate emotional and psychological harm and pave the way for recovery and personal growth (Greenberg et al., 2020).

Psychological resilience and cortisol levels in adults: A systematic review

“…Because of its increasing relationship to positive health outcomes, resilience has been gaining attention over the last few years. Specifically, literature has documented greater levels of mental and physical quality of life (Moore et al, 2015), higher self‐efficacy (Schueler et al, 2021) and self‐esteem (Joy et al, 2023), and fewer anxiety and depressive symptoms (Zhang et al, 2023) among individuals displaying higher resilience levels. However, pathological emotional states, such as negative affect and anxiety that often emerge in response to repeated stress have been observed in less resilient subjects; these states, in turn, have been linked to detrimental physiological processes including dysregulated circulating cortisol (Zapater‐Fajarí et al, 2021; Zautra et al, 2010).…”