Empathy and Personality Traits of Medical Doctors Working in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic doctors use their intellectual and personal potential in order to be effective in their work, as they were placed in a situation with special requirements for professional activity, creating an emotionally charged environment. Empathy, emotional intelligence (EI), and emotional stability play an important role. Our objective was to study the relationship between empathy, EI, intuition, attitudes toward uncertainty and personality traits in doctors performing their professional activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 122 doctors of different specialties (psychiatrists, pediatricians, surgeons, oncologists, etc.). Six questionnaires were used. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy and confirmatory factor analysis were used to verify the factor structure, where the original three-factor model showed the best fit. To identify the relationships between the variables, the Spearman test was used. In our sample of medical doctors, emotional stability characterizes individuals with high self-control and sociality (TEIQue scales). Our data allows us to highlight that empathy fails to be integrated with traits of emotional intelligence in the personality profiles of medical doctors. But distancing from the sphere of one’s experiences in interpersonal relationships during the COVID pandemic may be a necessary component in the personal regulation of the performance of one’s professional responsibilities.

Anxiety and Coping Strategies among Italian-Speaking Physicians: A Comparative Analysis of the Contractually Obligated and Voluntary Care of COVID-19 Patients

“…The present study could have important implications for healthcare systems worldwide. This has been explained by the concepts of 'compassion fatigue' and 'caregiving burden', as health professions require a high level of relational and empathic engagement [50][51][52]. By identifying the coping strategies and resources physicians use during a pandemic, healthcare organizations can develop targeted interventions to support physicians and mitigate the psychological consequences of pandemics.…”

Empathy and attitude to uncertainty and risk-readiness in Russian doctors

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COVID-19 Pandemisi Sürecinde Üniversite Öğrencilerinde Yalnızlık, Kaygı ve Ruh Sağlığı: Öz kontrolün aracılık rolü

“…Additionally, stress and anxiety caused by coronavirus have negatively associated with positive characteristic such as psychological adjustment, meaning in life, psychological flexibility (Arslan & Allen, 2022;. These negative states of mind might bring about a decrease in self-control (Krasnov et al, 2021;Martínez-López et al, 2021) and well-being (Arslan & Allen, 2022;González-Sanguino et al, 2020). In terms of ensuring well-being and self-control, the feeling of anxiety caused by such restrictions as social distancing and home quarantine is considered a crucial element (Brooks et al, 2020;Brydsten et al, 2019).…”