Psychiatry Investig.  2021 Apr;18(4):357-363. 10.30773/pi.2021.0019.

Resilience and Work-Related Stress May Affect Depressive Symptoms in Nursing Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

• Hong Y
• Lee J
• Lee HJ
• Kim K
• Cho IK
• Ahn MH
• Shin YW
• Park J
• Chung S

• KMID: 2515121
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2021.0019

Abstract

Objective
We aimed to investigate the effect of nursing professionals’ resilience on their mental health, work-related stress, and anxiety in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
We conducted an online survey in the Asan Medical Center and Ulsan University Hospital, South Korea. We extracted data of 824 nursing professionals who consented to participate, including demographic variables and the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-9 (SAVE-9), PHQ-9, GAD-7, and Brief Resilience Scale scores.
Results
Resilience was negatively correlated with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) (rho=-0.23), Generalized Anxiety Scale-7 items (GAD-7) (rho=-0.25), Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidem-ics-6 items (SAVE-6) (rho=-0.15), and Stress And anxiety to Viral Epidemics-3 items (SAVE-3) (rho=-0.13, all, p<0.001). Logistic regression analysis adjusting age, marital status, and years of employment revealed that high level of general anxiety [adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=1.40, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.31–1.50], work-related stress during viral epidemics (aOR=1.16, 95% CI=1.03–1.29), and a low level of resilience (aOR=0.91, 95% CI=0.85–0.97) were expecting variables for the depression of healthcare workers.
Conclusion
Nursing professionals’ level of resilience may be associated with low level of work-related stress and anxiety induced by a viral epidemic. We need to explore further the possibility of resilience as coping strategy of healthcare workers in this pandemic era.

Keyword

Resilience, Occupational stress, Health personnel, COVID-19, SAVE-9