Affective Responses, Coping, and Mental Health Outcomes

Health care workers (HCWs) have shouldered the burdens during the COVID pandemic (eg, working longer hours with less community support) resulting in significant burnout, stress, anxiety, depression, direct trauma (eg, fear for own safety) and indirect trauma exposure (eg, working with trauma patients). As such, it is necessary to strengthen resilience and reduce the likelihood of burnout. This evaluation used utilization focused evaluation to understand the extent staff experience affective responses, mental health outcomes, and frequency of coping skills at this stage of the ongoing pandemic. Professional Quality of Life Scale—Health (ProQoL), Outcomes Questionnaire—30.2, and Brief COPE Scale to evaluate professional quality of life, moral distress, coping skills and mental health outcomes. Units’ staff members (n = 30), comprised of nurses (80%) and nurse technicians (20%), with 1 to 25 years’ experience, participated in the needs assessment (approximately 30.9% of units). Study findings revealed 59% would participate in external individual counseling services, 32% internal individual counseling, and 32% monthly support group. Moreover, 93% feel their work makes a difference and 71% report they are rarely unhappy at work. However, 96% say work sometimes exhausts them. One third of participants significantly struggle with mental health concerns reporting stress of 59% as moderate range and 32% severe range. Furthermore, 50% indicated various coping measures and 61% reported having someone to talk to about their struggles. Therapeutic services offered to nurses and medical professionals may improve staff psychological wellness, increase compassion satisfaction, and reduce burnout. Needs assessment yielded a need for coping strategies which are unique to intensive care and developed, led, and facilitated by staff, nurse champions, or small teams, with the goal to reduce “taking home” feelings of anxiety and for staff to “leave work at work.”