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Healthcare
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Mental Health of Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era
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Mental Health of Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2024 | Viewed by 1770

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Serena Barello

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Guest Editor
Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: patient engagement in healthcare; patient-centered medicine, communication and medical practice; assessments of patient and consumer activation; cancer and palliative care; mental health; patient education in chronic conditions; medical psychology, qualitative methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Anna Falcó-Pegueroles

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Nursing, University of Barcelona, 08907 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: advance nursing practice; bioethics; nursing care; critical care nursing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Loris Bonetti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Via Violino, 11, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
2. Nursing Research Competence Centre, Department of Nursing, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC), Viale Officina, 3, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
Interests: geriatric care; bioethics; nursing profession; nutrition; patient engagement; critical care nursing; patient-nurse relationship; mental health; quantitative research; mixed-methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 has become a public health emergency of major international concern and has placed extraordinary demands upon healthcare systems worldwide. This has caused an overload of work in every healthcare organization and elevated healthcare professionals’ work-related stress, burnout, and poor mental health. In fact, healthcare professionals were forced to work long hard shifts, stay away from their loved ones for fear of infecting them, behave in ways that often challenged them, causing ethical conflicts, and to fear for their health due to potential contagion. This situation has significantly elevated psychological suffering in health professionals.

On the other hand, it is true that healthcare professionals have often found innovative coping strategies and ways of dealing with the dramatic situation, which have allowed them to mitigate the psychological impact of the pandemic.

This Special Issue aims to provide the scientific community with evidence on both the aspects of psychological suffering experienced by health professionals during the pandemic (with its correlates such as burnout, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and ethical conflicts), and the coping strategies, resilience and adjustment processes they experienced and enacted during the pandemic.

Knowing the sources of psychological distress, but also how to cope with them, is expected to contribute towards the knowledge base in order to cope effectively with current and future health emergencies. 

This Special Issue of Healthcare focuses on mental health care and promotion in healthcare professionals. We encourage the submission of original research papers (both qualitative and quantitative), reviews, meta-analyses, and case studies that contribute new knowledge in this area. Interventional studies, trials, and epidemiological studies are also encouraged. The focus may include a specific population.

Dr. Serena Barello
Dr. Anna Falcó-Pegueroles
Dr. Loris Bonetti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • SARS-CoV-2
  • anxiety
  • depression
  • burnout
  • coping
  • resilience
  • adjustment
  • ethical conflict
  • health professionals
  • post traumatic growth

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 850 KiB  
Article
Effects of Online Health Promotion Program to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Healthcare Students: A Feasibility Study
by Maria Shuk Yu Hung, Winnie Wing Man Ng and Edward Kwok Yiu Choi
Healthcare 2024, 12(6), 682; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/healthcare12060682 - 18 Mar 2024
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Abstract
Background: Healthcare students’ health and wellbeing have been seriously affected worldwide. Research studies highlighted the need to establish health promotion strategies to improve them. Methods: A mixed method feasibility with a randomized controlled trial study followed by qualitative focus-group interviews to evaluate the [...] Read more.
Background: Healthcare students’ health and wellbeing have been seriously affected worldwide. Research studies highlighted the need to establish health promotion strategies to improve them. Methods: A mixed method feasibility with a randomized controlled trial study followed by qualitative focus-group interviews to evaluate the effect of a 24 h online health promotion program improving healthcare students’ health and wellbeing was performed in mid-2022. The study also illustrated the program’s effect, contents, and activity arrangements. Healthcare students from two large tertiary institutions were randomly assigned to intervention and waitlist-control groups. Outcomes were measured by self-completed online questionnaires at three-time points (baseline, week four, and week eight), and in-depth focus-group interviews followed. Results: Among 70 enrolled and 60 eligible students, 54 completed the study, with a 10% attrition rate. Results demonstrated a significant difference between groups at week eight. Within the intervention group, there were significant differences were found from baseline to week eight for depression (p = 0.001), anxiety (p = 0.004), and stress (p < 0.001). The program also improved certain domains of personal wellbeing and quality of life. Qualitative findings further illustrated the program contents and activities’ feasibility, acceptability, and suitability. Most participants welcomed the online mode’s flexibility and convenience. They enjoyed diversified and complementary content and activities. They had increased self-awareness of health and wellbeing. Besides, mental health knowledge enables them to ‘self-care’ and help those in need in the future. Conclusions: The results indicate the feasibility of performing full-scale research in the future and may provide more support for the students of higher education institutions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mental Health of Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era)
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34 pages, 1897 KiB  
Article
Nurses Response to the Physical and Psycho-Social Care Needs of Patients with COVID-19: A Mixed-Methods Study
by Angela Tolotti, Loris Bonetti, Corina Elena Luca, Michele Villa, Sarah Jayne Liptrott, Laura Maria Steiner, Colette Balice-Bourgois, Annette Biegger and Dario Valcarenghi
Healthcare 2024, 12(1), 114; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/healthcare12010114 - 03 Jan 2024
Viewed by 882
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted nursing care. This study aimed to understand which nursing interventions were instrumental in responding to COVID-19 patients’ needs by exploring the experiences of patients and nurses. In this mixed-method study with an explanatory sequential design, we involved nurses [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted nursing care. This study aimed to understand which nursing interventions were instrumental in responding to COVID-19 patients’ needs by exploring the experiences of patients and nurses. In this mixed-method study with an explanatory sequential design, we involved nurses caring for COVID-19 patients in intensive and sub-intensive care units and patients. In the first phase, we collected data through a survey that assessed patients’ needs from the perspective of nurses and patients, as well as patient satisfaction. In the second phase, qualitative data were collected through interviews with patients and nurses. In the third phase, we extracted quantitative data from patients’ records. Our sample included 100 nurses, 59 patients, 15 patient records, and 31 interviews (15 patients, 16 nurses). The results from the first phase showed patients and nurses agreed on the most important difficulties: “breathing”, “sleep/rest”, and “communication”. Nursing care was rated positively by 90% of the patients. In the second phase, four themes were identified through the patients’ interviews: “my problems”, “my emotions”, “helpful factors”, and “nursing care”. Five themes were identified through the nurses’ interviews: “the context”, “nurses’ experiences and emotions”, “facilitators and barriers to patient care”, “nursing care”, and “the professional role”. From the third phase, the analysis of the clinical documentation, it was not possible to understand the nursing care model used by the nurses. In conclusion, nurses adopted a reactive-adaptive approach, based on experience/knowledge, pursuing generalized objectives, and adapting their response to the clinical evolution. In difficult contexts, nursing care requires a constant competent technical-relational presence at the patient’s bedside. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mental Health of Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era)
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