Stress and Resilient Coping among Nurses: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

(1) Background: the COVID-19 pandemic is still taking over the world, and with new virus strains, the burden on the health systems and healthcare teams is yet to end. The study explored stress and employed resilient coping measures among nurses working with COVID-19 patients. (2) Methods: the current study used a convergent triangulation design using a qualitative and quantitative approach, with a sample of 113 nurses working at Beni-Suef University Hospital between November 2021 and April 2022 using an online form. Data were collected using a sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, the Nursing Stress Scale, Brief Resilient Coping Scale, and a qualitative interview. (3) Results: the studied nurses experienced severe stress, with moderate-to-low resilient coping in total. There was a strong negative highly statistically significant correlation between stress and coping. Qualitative data analysis showed that attention to the spiritual side, communicating with friends and family, accepting the current situation, and helping others in need were key themes that emerged to moderate studied nurses’ stress. (4) Conclusions: nurses who work with COVID-19 patients experience high levels of stress regardless of their characteristics; spiritual coping strategies, communication with family, and helping others were the dominant resilient coping approaches employed by nurses to moderate stress.

Evaluation of an arts therapies approach to team development for non-acute healthcare teams in low control and high-pressure environments

“…We know that during the pandemic stress, anxiety and depression approximately quadrupled in the healthcare population in the UK and our findings are consistent with other studies showing that the rate of recovery has been slow (Gilleen et al, 2021). Therefore, it is not surprising to find in our study that the BRCS did not demonstrate any significant change after one day of workshops, which would be consistent with similar recent population-based studies using the BRCS with a healthcare population (Collantoni et al, 2021;Magdi, 2022;Temsah et al, 2022;Tsehay et al, 2020).…”

“…However, according to previous studies (Aguilar-Raab et al, 2015), EVOS appears to be a sensitive instrument when used in the context of intimate relationships. For example, whilst, contextually different, EVOS has been used with various studies investigating family and couple relationships, demonstrating that EVOS is sensitive to changes in the relationality of participants (Aguilar-Raab et al, 2018, 2022Grevenstein et al, 2019). The Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) describes participant inclinations to cope with stress adaptively.…”

Postpandemic fear of COVID‐19, psychological distress, and resilient coping among frontline health workers in Ghana: An analytical cross‐sectional study

“…Secondly, to determine the prevalence of psychological distress, we further dichotomized the KPDS into no distress and mild-to-severe distress, using a cut-off total KPDS score of < 20 and ≥ 20, respectively. 30 We also computed the prevalence of mild-toextreme fear of COVID-19 by dichotomizing scores into no fear (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21) and mild-to-extreme fear (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35). Third, multiple linear regression was performed with psychological distress as outcome and fear of COVID-19 as predictor while adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.…”

“…Resilient coping enables individuals to psychologically reframe the potency of a stressful event to reduce the impact of the stressor 18 . Healthcare workers who have higher resilient coping tend to experience less perceived stress 19 . Resilience coping is also known to moderate the effects of adverse stressors on psychological outcomes including depression, anxiety, and distress.…”

“… 18 Healthcare workers who have higher resilient coping tend to experience less perceived stress. 19 Resilience coping is also known to moderate the effects of adverse stressors on psychological outcomes including depression, anxiety, and distress. Specifically, higher resilient coping reduces the impact of a stressor on psychological outcomes.…”