Shared trauma during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Psychological effects on Israeli mental health nurses

Abstract

Mental health nurses, tasked with the constant care of clients undergoing mental health treatment, have faced unique challenges arising from the uncertain outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shared exposure of both nurses and their patients to a traumatic event such this pandemic leads to additional challenges and ways of coping. The psychological effects of this shared trauma on mental health nurses arising from the pandemic are the subject of this study. An online survey was used to examine personal levels of anxiety and concern, personal and national resilience (NR), and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among 183 mental health nurses working in mental health services in Israel. Overall, the study revealed moderate levels of concern and relatively low levels of anxiety, with significant negative correlations between personal and NR and levels of concern and anxiety. Higher levels of personal and NR were related to lower levels of concern and anxiety, and there was a significant positive correlation between assessments of personal resilience and NR. A significant positive correlation was found between personal and NR and PTG. Higher religiosity was associated with higher resilience, and higher professional seniority was related to higher PTG. Finally, results for particular demographic subgroups indicate that in Israel, special attention should be given to those mental health nurses who have immigrated to Israel, are non-Jews or have less professional experience.

Resilience and mental health nursing: An integrative review of updated evidence

“…Authors' referred to knowledge of resilience derived from several fields including psychology ( n = 5; Chang et al, 2019; Delgado et al, 2020; Delgado et al, 2021; Delgado et al, 2022; Foster et al, 2020), nursing ( n = 5; Dahan et al, 2022; Dogan & Boyacıoglu, 2021; Henshall et al, 2020;Majrabi et al, 2021; Xu et al, 2021), both nursing and psychology ( n = 4; Abram & Jacobowitz, 2021; Dehvan et al, 2018; Ramalisa et al, 2018; Xu et al, 2022) and mental health nursing (Sukut et al, 2022). One study acknowledged there is a lack of an agreed definition of resilience in mental health nursing (Delgado et al, 2020), and two others noted that the primary focus of resilience research in mental health nursing has been on individual resilience rather than inclusive of its complex and multidimensional nature (Dahan et al, 2022; Delgado et al, 2020). Several studies identified that personal resilience was dependent on sociocultural context and that cultural differences in understandings and expressions of resilience might result in variation in resilience scores between studies (Chang et al, 2019; Dahan et al, 2022; Dehvan et al, 2018).…”

“…One study acknowledged there is a lack of an agreed definition of resilience in mental health nursing (Delgado et al, 2020), and two others noted that the primary focus of resilience research in mental health nursing has been on individual resilience rather than inclusive of its complex and multidimensional nature (Dahan et al, 2022; Delgado et al, 2020). Several studies identified that personal resilience was dependent on sociocultural context and that cultural differences in understandings and expressions of resilience might result in variation in resilience scores between studies (Chang et al, 2019; Dahan et al, 2022; Dehvan et al, 2018).…”

“…Three studies used the 25‐item Connor‐Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC; Connor & Davidson, 2003) (Dehvan et al, 2018; Majrabi et al, 2021; Sukut et al, 2022), and one used the 10‐item abridged version of the scale (CD‐RISC‐10; Campbell‐Sills & Stein, 2007) (Dahan et al, 2022). Two of these measured MHNs' resilience levels as moderate (CD‐RISC = 67.33, n = 100 Turkish MHNs; Sukut et al, 2022) or high (CD‐RISC‐10 = 3.09, n = 183 Israeli MHNs; Dahan et al, 2022). Dehvan et al (2018) concluded that their sample of n = 60 Irani MHNs participated in the study were ‘resilient’ (CD‐RISC = 63.9).…”

“…The remaining six studies drew on recent socio-ecological theories of resilience to conceptualize resilience as a dynamic process of positive adaptation and recovery (Foster et al, 2020;Sukut et al, 2022) that involves interaction between personal, interpersonal and environmental factors (Dahan et al, 2022;Delgado et al, 2020Delgado et al, , 2021Delgado et al, , 2022. Four studies specifically investigated workplace resilience concepts and definitions to explain the self-regulatory processes (affective, cognitive and behavioural) MHNs use to overcome work-related challenges, and emphasized the crucial role of a supportive external environment to aid these processes (Delgado et al, 2020(Delgado et al, , 2021(Delgado et al, , 2022Foster et al, 2020).…”

A phenomenological exploration of work-related post-traumatic growth among high-functioning adults maltreated as children

“…A second branch of studies has explored the impact of vicarious exposure created by working with traumatized populations, including various negative effects as well as PTG ( Cohen and Collens, 2013 ). Recently, studies have also examined PTG in the context of a shared traumatic reality ( Baum, 2014 ), i.e., when professionals experience the same traumatic event or series of events alongside their clients ( Finklestein and Laufer, 2021 ; Dahan et al, 2022 ).…”