Building resilience for healthcare professionals working in an Italian red zone during the COVID‐19 outbreak: A pilot study

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has placed considerable strain on healthcare workers showing high rates of stress and psychological health problems. Interventions are urgently needed to help healthcare workers perform under conditions of great risk and uncertainty. In particular, healthcare leadership is known to be critical to supporting healthcare workers to deal with an uncertain and distressing healthcare environment. This pilot study evaluated the impact of the R2 resilience program tailored for healthcare leaders working in a highly affected COVID‐19 area in Italy. Through two group cohorts, 21 healthcare leaders completed the intervention, with 17 participants providing pre‐ and post‐intervention assessment data. Sixty‐two staff members who benefitted from their coordinators' resilience‐focused leadership were also included in the study. Findings show that participation in R2 was associated with reduction in levels of perceived stress and burnout symptoms, and increases in rugged qualities, self‐efficacy and in social‐ecological resilience. Significant changes in rugged qualities, self‐efficacy and perceived stress were also detected in staff members. High rates of participants' program satisfaction have been detected. R2 is a promising intervention for healthcare professionals working in emergency settings designed to enhance the rugged qualities and resources required to deal with heightened exposure to stress.

Assessment of Acceptability and Initial Effectiveness of a Unified Protocol Prevention Program to Train Emotional Regulation Skills in Female Nursing Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Similar outcomes of other UP preventive programs in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms for adolescents and college students [27,30] have been found. Moreover, although there is little published literature on the effectiveness of psychological interventions for this specific population, several quasi-experimental studies show that programs focused on coping with stress and improving resilience in healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 crisis encountered pre-post improvements in perceived stress and burnout and were identified as potentially suitable and useful for improving psychological functioning [32,33]. However, although improvements were found in depression and anxiety in our study, a possible explanation for the decrease in the facet of burnout of personal accomplishment (i.e., feelings of competence and successful achievement in our work [40,41]) after treatment may have to do with a peak increase in COVID-19 in one of the waves, where the pressure of assistance was highest and personal accomplishment could have been difficult to maintain.…”

“…However, no pro-gram effectiveness results were published [31]. Systematic reviews of preliminary studies show that interventions focused on building resilience may decrease perceived stress and burnout [32,33] and that cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness-based interventions may be effective to treat symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to COVID-19 experiences [34].…”

Are Organizational Interventions Effective in Protecting Healthcare Worker Mental Health during Epidemics/Pandemics? A Systematic Literature Review

“…A description of the seven studies retained for data extraction and analysis is presented in Supplementary Table S1 . Five studies were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], two in the context of SARS [ 19 , 47 ]. Studies were from Canada [ 47 ], the United Kingdom [ 43 ], Italy [ 44 , 45 ], Spain [ 42 ], China [ 46 ] and Taiwan [ 19 ].…”

“…Five studies were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], two in the context of SARS [ 19 , 47 ]. Studies were from Canada [ 47 ], the United Kingdom [ 43 ], Italy [ 44 , 45 ], Spain [ 42 ], China [ 46 ] and Taiwan [ 19 ]. Study designs included a controlled prospective cohort study [ 42 ], three before-after uncontrolled studies [ 19 , 44 , 45 ] and three cross-sectional studies [ 43 , 46 , 47 ].…”

“…Studies were from Canada [ 47 ], the United Kingdom [ 43 ], Italy [ 44 , 45 ], Spain [ 42 ], China [ 46 ] and Taiwan [ 19 ]. Study designs included a controlled prospective cohort study [ 42 ], three before-after uncontrolled studies [ 19 , 44 , 45 ] and three cross-sectional studies [ 43 , 46 , 47 ]. Samples were predominantly female (at least 85% in five studies) and included mainly nursing professionals (>65% in four studies) in hospital settings.…”