The Interplay Of Stress & Empathy Among Healthcare Professionals During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: Empathy is an essential and fundamental quality necessary for any healthcare professional to provide optimum patient care and function effectively as professional. As noted by Pflanz & Ogle (2006), stress, as a psychological phenomenon, can compromise both the performance and empathy of healthcare professionals. Aim: To examine the association between stress and empathy among healthcare professionals who were Covid-19 positive and to compare them with healthcare professionals who were not infected. Design: A quantitative study was conducted with a sample of 30 Covid positive and 30 Covid- negative healthcare professionals, chosen through purposive and snowball sampling methods. Results: The analysis revealed that the Perceived Stress Scale and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire gave the p-value of 0.0164 and p-value of 0.00062, respectively. Both results were significant at p<.05. Hence, there is a significant difference between the level of empathy and stress among healthcare professionals who were Covid positive and those who were not. However, there was no significant association between empathy and stress, with correlation coefficient (rs) of 0.215 and -0.09 for the two samples. Conclusion: Results suggest that there is a significant difference in empathy and stress between the two groups of healthcare professionals. The stress as well as empathy level was higher among those who were infected by the coronavirus, possibly due to the increased sensitivity to the suffering of others resulting from being infected themselves.