Exploring Coping Strategies of Healthcare Providers with Tension Sources in Iran-Iraq War: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background: Evidence shows that people, including healthcare providers, use different coping strategies to cope with life changes and the resulting stress. War causes mortality, loss of health, and long-term physical and psychological complications for military staff, civilians, and healthcare providers. Both pleasant and unpleasant changes in human life require a readjustment. Objectives: The objective of this study was to explain the coping strategies of healthcare providers with tension resources during the Iran-Iraq war. Methods: This was a qualitative content analysis conducted during years 2015 and 2016. The researcher collected, coded, and analyzed the data. In a survey conducted by the researcher, 119 written narratives of 101 healthcare providers during the Iran-Iraq war were collected. To analyze the data, the principles of conventional content analysis were used. Results: The results of the analysis of 952 pages of written narratives in the relevant literature led to the emergence 8 themes. The main themes included acceptance, emotional release, denial and avoidance, shock and disbelieve, self-control, religious strategies, engaging in fun activities, and seeking social support. Conclusions: Transforming the experiences and tacit knowledge of healthcare providers during the war to explicit knowledge could help to identify and analyze problems and provide appropriate solutions in similar scenarios. Also, it would be an effective solution for more effective coping and prevention of mental health problems. Similar studies are recommended to determine the coping strategies of healthcare providers using other methods of data collection including interviews with participants.

Learning from critical care nurses' wartime experiences and their long‐term impacts

“…Our study adds to previous studies addressing nurses' experiences in wars 11,37,41–44 . The themes emerging from this study reflect the nurses' experiences providing critical care during wartime, showing that even after accounting for memory changes related both to time passing and participants' ages, the nurses remembered the events clearly enough to describe in detail both the challenges of their deployment and its psychological impact many years later.…”

“…Our study adds to previous studies addressing nurses' experiences in wars. 11,37,[41][42][43][44] The themes emerging from this study reflect the nurses' experiences providing critical care during wartime, showing that even after accounting for memory changes related both to time passing and participants' ages, the nurses remembered the events clearly enough to describe in detail both the challenges of their deployment and its psychological impact many years later. Importantly for the preparation of critical care nurses more generally, throughout the interviews, they related multiple ways of coping with the demands during their service, as well as their need for recognition after deployment.…”

“…A third coping strategy this study found is crying, apparently a prevalent way to release emotional and mental stress. Farsi 42 also found this to be a common strategy, especially among those facing wounded youth and patients with extensive injuries. Farsi concluded that the ability to express emotions in a stressful situation helps reduce anxiety.…”

“…There is significant evidence in the literature supporting the subtheme of Exposure to Harsh War Scenes. Many studies describe such harsh experiences, including exposure to the sights and smells of war causalities 37,42,44–46 …”

“…Finally, avoidance and denial were often used in response to trauma and/or from fear of confronting painful information, such as names or personal details about the wounded. These negative strategies, when used in the short term, may prove helpful in avoiding the stressors, but in the long term, may lead to depression and dysfunction 42,49 …”