International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 10, Issue 11 (November 2023), Pages: 171-175

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 Original Research Paper

Psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and nurses' coping mechanisms: A correlational study

 Author(s): 

 Dolores I. Cabansag *, Farhan Alshammari, Petelyne Pangket, Ma. Venus F. Borja, Hazel Villagracia, Fredezwinda Majid, Maha Alreshidi, Joyce R. Rosaupan, Ma. Nieva Pineda, Marifa Briones

 Affiliation(s):

 College of Nursing, University of Hail, Hail, Saudi Arabia

 Full text

  Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4921-1709

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2023.11.021

 Abstract

Many nurses have suffered mental health problems as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses' workload and stress have increased as they care for infected patients and their families. Lockdowns and quarantines have exacerbated the problem, causing psychological distress. To determine the psychological impact of COVID-19 on hospital nurses and their coping mechanisms. A cross-sectional design and convenience sampling study using the original impact event scale (IES) and stress scale (SS) in the analysis. A total of 241 nurses from government and private hospitals in the Hail region of Saudi Arabia participated voluntarily. Most respondents were female (96.7%), 31-40 years old (48.1%), married (61.8%), dominant participants were Filipino nurses (47.7%), the majority worked in private hospitals (54.8%), and those with more than ten years of hospital experience were the largest group (39.4%). COVID-19 had a significant psychological impact on 81.33% of the respondents and a severe impact on 9.5%. The respondents' coping mechanisms are adaptive (MS=37.56, STD=4.02) in terms of complete problem-solving (MS=14.76, STD=2.93) and symptom management (MS=8.93, STD=1.90). There is a significant relationship between psychological impact and coping mechanisms, specifically in terms of social support (p-value-0.000) and symptom management (p-value-0.047). Healthcare institutions should prioritize programs to support nurses, especially during outbreaks, as this can improve patient outcomes and care for all. Healthcare workers need social support and adaptability training from policymakers to cope with stress and uncertainty.

 © 2023 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Psychological impact, COVID-19, Nurses, Coping strategies

 Article history

 Received 8 June 2023, Received in revised form 30 October 2023, Accepted 4 November 2023

 Acknowledgment 

No Acknowledgment.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical consideration 

To ensure responsibility, accountability, and transparency, the researchers presented the research proposal to the ethics review committee for approval. Following the approval, the proponents coordinated and lobbied with the various hospital administrations to conduct the study. Orientations and briefings on the study's significance, objectives, and advantages for the respondents followed. In addition, the researchers initiated a full briefing on strict adherence to ethical norms, including confidentiality. The nurses who voluntarily participated offered their prior informed consent by signing the consent form with the assurance that they may discontinue at any time should the questionnaire make them feel uneasy or threatened. It was also ensured that any data or information they provided would be kept confidential and well-secured on a hard drive, accessible only to the researchers. As the last step, the study's results will be shared with all the hospitals and participating nurses.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Cabansag DI, Alshammari F, Pangket P, Borja MVF, Villagracia H, Majid F, Alreshidi M, Rosaupan JR, Pineda MN, and Briones M (2023). Psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and nurses' coping mechanisms: A correlational study. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 10(11): 171-175

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 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

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