Religious Beliefs, Work Motivation, Risk Perception and Posttraumatic Growth in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19

Abstract

This research was conducted to assess the posttraumatic growth (PTG) experienced by the healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose was to observe whether religious beliefs predicted PTG during a pandemic and the mediating role of work motivation for the relationship between religious beliefs and PTG in the healthcare workers. It was also investigated if the risk perception regarding the virus had any implicating effects on the relationship of religious beliefs and posttraumatic growth. The sample (N=97) consisted of resident doctors (n=56), physicians (n=23), surgeons (n=03) and a nurse (n=01); which was comprised of both men (n=52) and women (n=45). The Religious Belief Scale (RBS), Work Intrinsic Extrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS), and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF) were employed to collect data. The Perception of Risk was measured through items that had been previously used to assess the risk perception of healthcare workers during Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic. The responses from participants was collected through both online and in person. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to assess the significance of relationships while Hierarchal Regression was used to assess the role of religious beliefs of healthcare workers. Moreover, PROCESS macro was used to evaluate the presence of mediation and moderation. The results revealed that religious beliefs and self-regulated motivation were significant predictors of PTG while self-regulated motivation also mediated the direct relationship between religious beliefs and PTG. Investigation of possible factors that bring about growth after experiencing trauma is an essential need of these turbulent times.

Post-Traumatic Growth of Nurses in COVID-19 Designated Hospitals in Korea

“…In the case of China, the ratio of non-religious or Chinese folk beliefs is more than 70%, whereas only 7% of the total population in Korea do not have religious or folk beliefs [49]. Similarly, a Pakistani paper examining the relationship between PTG and religious beliefs of medical staff dealing with patients infected with coronavirus, including doctors and nurses, also found that religiosity was a positive factor in PTG [50]. Private beliefs are reported to be less than 3% [49], so it is thought that similar results to this study were derived when there were many coronavirus specialists with religious beliefs.…”

“The light after the storm”: Psychosocial correlates of adversarial growth among nurses in Hong Kong amid the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…Nurses in Hong Kong did report AG amid the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the same scale (PTGI-SF), our sample seemed to report a lower level of AG than helping professionals coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, including Chinese and Taiwanese nurses (Chen et al, 2021), doctors/nurses in Pakistan (Raza & Fatima, 2022), and healthcare professionals in Spain (Moreno-Jiménez et al, 2021). However, our sample reported a comparable level of AG as Australian nurses in the acute care sector (Aggar et al, 2022) and dental practitioners in Israel, France, and Canada (Uziel et al, 2021).…”