Healthcare Workers’ Emotions, Perceived Stressors, and Coping Strategies at Workplace during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Palestine

Abstract

Evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Palestinian healthcare professionals is lacking and has been disregarded during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to describe Palestinian healthcare workers (HCWs) emotions and factors causing stress, and factors used to reduce the stress experienced at the workplace and to examine the relationships between HCWs level of stress and their coping strategies and motivational factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A self-reported online survey was completed by 506 doctors and nurses working in healthcare facilities that provide COVID-19 care. Descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariate regression models were developed to adjust for the association between HCWs coping and motivation factors with HCWs’ perceived stressors. The findings showed that 24.1% of the participants had a high-stress level, and 25.7% had a low level of stress. The participant’s main coping strategy was avoidance and the key emotional factor was the ethical and professional obligation to continue working. Additionally, a major cause of their stress was their personal safety and having the COVID-19 infection. Findings showed a positive association between stress and the younger age of participants, with physicians being less stressed than nurses. In addition, receiving no training on the treatment of COVID-19 was strongly associated with stress levels. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between stress scoring and coping strategies scoring but not with motivation score. In conclusion, this study shows that Palestinian healthcare workers experienced emotional turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results indicate the necessity of providing supervision, psychological counseling and intervention to professional healthcare workers who work directly with COVID-19 patients in health settings during the current pandemic or in the event of future outbreaks. Policymakers and managers must also conduct training and provide interventions on how to cope with stress in pandemics, in order to assist HCWs in developing their adaptive coping strategies and increase their motivation