Interventional Studies on Nurses’ Mental Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This systematic review’s primary aim is to examine the interventional studies on the mental health of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the secondary aim is to determine the interventions that can be planned for future pandemics. For this, databases were searched, and a total of 12 studies meeting the inclusion criteria were included. It was determined that most of the studies were conducted online due to pandemic restrictions. The effects of the interventions (diaphragmatic breathing relaxation, emotional freedom techniques, sending motivational messages, a mobile wellness program, acceptance and commitment therapy, a neuro-meditation program, laughter yoga, gong meditation, distant Reiki, e-aid cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based breathing, and music therapy) on the parameters affecting the mental health of the nurses working actively in the COVID-19 pandemic were examined. In these studies, the interventions applied to nurses were seen to have positive results on mental health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic, which is a traumatic experience for healthcare professionals, shows that more interventional studies are needed to protect and improve the mental health of nurses who take care of critically ill patients during difficult times.

Mindfulness-based interventions for improving mental health of frontline healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

“…While there are other systematic reviews on this topic, some do not exclusively focus on mindfulness-based interventions (psychosocial interventions [31][32][33], music therapy [34], reiki [34], support programs for healthcare workers' families [35]), or they only include a specific group of HCPs (e.g., nurses) [34,36], or they do not exclusively focus on interventions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic but rather on previous years [31,[36][37][38].…”

Interventions to reduce burnout and improve the mental health of nurses during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials with meta‐analysis

“…Therefore, current literature heavily emphasises the need for timely interventions to support nurses' mental health (Chigwedere et al., 2021; Ching et al., 2021; Galanis et al., 2021). However, to the best of our knowledge, only one review has been conducted to investigate the effects of such interventions implemented during the pandemic (Köse & Murat, 2022). That review was conducted in June 2022 and since then, more trials have been conducted on this topic.…”