The interaction effect between gender and profession in posttraumatic growth among hospital personnel

Abstract

Aim: To explore if there is an interaction effect between gender (men and women) and profession (nurses and physicians) in posttraumatic growth (PTG). Background: PTG is defined as a positive psychological change experienced as a result of struggling with highly challenging life circumstances. It may take the form of improved self-image, a deeper understanding of self, increased spirituality, and/or enhanced interpersonal relationships. Gender and profession were found separately to be associated with PTG, but to date were not examined under interaction effect. Methods: We employed a cross-sectional study conducted in the tertiary medical center in Israel using a convenience sample. One hundred and twenty-eight nurses and seventy-eight physicians gave their consent and agreed to fill out self-report questionnaires regarding personal and professional data and PTG Inventory. Findings: The correlation matrix revealed that being a woman was associated with higher PTG total scale (r = 0.242; P ≤ 0.001) and its subscales except for spiritual change that showed no evidence of statistical effect. Similar pattern was found for being a nurse with PTG total scale (r = 0.223; P ≤0.001) and its subscales except for relating to others that showed no evidence of statistical effect. However, the interaction effect revealed that among men, there was no difference in the level of PTG and its subscales based on profession (Physicians men = 62.54 (20.82) versus Nurses men = 60.26 (22.39); F = 9.618; P = 0.002). Among women, nurses had a significantly higher scores in PTG (Physicians women = 61.81 (18.51) versus Nurses women = 73.87 (12.36); F = 9.618; P = 0.002) and its subscales in comparison to physicians except for subscale relating to other. Conclusions: Our findings suggest implications for research and practice namely exploring PTG among nurses and physicians would benefit from applying interaction effect of gender and profession. For practice, advocating PTG within the health care organization is needed to be tailored with gender and professional sensitivity.

Post Traumatic Growth During COVID-19 Outbreak and the Affecting Factors: Results of a Cross‐Sectional Study among Turkish Nursing Students

“…The studies have found that women are more affected by the side effects of traumatic events and are more prone to develop psychopathology, but have higher PTG scores than men (Li et al, 2019;Hamama Raz, 2020;Jonsen and Afgun, 2020;Chen et al, 2021). Our study found that female students compared to male students had higher total scores from change in self-perception, change in philosophy of life and PTG (P < 0.05).…”

“…The form created by the researchers upon literature review (Li et al, 2019;Aslan and Pekince,2020;Hamama Raz, 2020;Jonsen and Afgun, 2020;Chen et al, 2021) comprises 22 questions about the personal characteristics of the participants and their experiences during the COVID-19 process defining personal traits such as age, gender, economic status, having a chronic disease, being infected with COVID-19, the level of exposure to the disease, and alcohol use/smoking habits, the issue that needs the most support in the social isolation in pandemic .…”

Finding the positives from the COVID-19 pandemic: factors associated with posttraumatic growth among nurses in Hong Kong

“…Age, years in the profession, marital status of the nurses were not significantly associated with their PTG (Hamama-Raz et al, 2020 ; Jurišová, 2016 ; Peng et al, 2021 ), implying that those variables did not significantly differ in the tendency to experience PTG. On the contrary, having full-time employment was associated with lower PTG.…”

“…Prior research has examined PTG among those having experienced chronic health conditions, natural disasters, and man-made disasters (Zoellner & Maercker, 2006 ), fewer studies explored that in the context of emerging infectious diseases. Recent studies have suggested that nurses and healthcare professionals in China, Taiwan, and Israel experienced PTG (Chen et al, 2020 ; Cui et al, 2021 ; Hamama-Raz et al, 2020 ). Given that studies targeted at local nurses in Hong Kong are limited, we aimed to examine factors associated with PTG among those nurses during COVID-19.…”

Posttraumatic Growth as a Model to Measure and Guide Implementation of COVID-19 Recovery and Resiliency

“…Therefore, PTG may function as an important buffer of resource gain against loss secondary to acute stressors. 13 PTG has been demonstrated among health care providers, and has been studied in pediatric intensive care, 14 mental health, 15 women's health, 16 and other areas of nursing and health care. 17 While the relationship of resilience and coping to PTG varies among groups and studies, work-related trauma can act as a catalyst for PTG in nurses.…”