COVID-19 Emergency and Psychosocial Well-Being of Healthcare Professionals: A System-atic Literature Review

Journal title PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE
Author/s Leda Marino, Cristina Curcio, Ilaria Marinaro, Morena Mosca, Vincenza Capone
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/2 Language Italian
Pages 24 P. 76-99 File size 283 KB
DOI 10.3280/PDS2021-002006
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The emergency from COVID-19 places health organizations in front of a challenge and involves unprecedented work overload for healthcare workers. Doctors and nurses were bear-ing significantly increased workload in a consequent reorganization of the work with the shortage of protective equipment, isolation, and directly contacting with COVID-19 patients. This has a negative impact on performance and psychological well-being. This paper aimed at reviewing findings from the literature concerning the well-being and malaise of healthcare workers during the initial stage of the COVID- 19 malaise. Three main themes emerged from the analysis: (1) work-related stress and psychophysical malaise; (2) differences in the role and socio-demographic characteristics of healthcare workers; (3) training, support, and organi-zational learning. The studies focused on health workers’ stress and burnout without ever con-sidering, in a positive psychology perspective, the analysis of mental well-being levels. Differ-ences emerged between roles, age, and role. This systematic review highlights the need to de-velop practices to support healthcare workers involved in the COVID-19 emergency, also considering the differences in gender, role, and professional setting. Individual interventions to manage stress, group support, and an engaged organizational culture could help prevent psy-chosocial risks during the pandemic. Among the limitations, mainly cross-sectional studies and the inclusion of very different geographic realities and health organizations.

Keywords: COVID-19; health care workers; stress; burnout; training protocols; systematic literature review.

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  • Mental Well-Being and Job Satisfaction of Hospital Physicians during COVID-19: Relationships with Efficacy Beliefs, Organizational Support, and Organizational Non-Technical Skills Vincenza Capone, Roberta Borrelli, Leda Marino, Giovanni Schettino, in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health /2022 pp.3734
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Leda Marino, Cristina Curcio, Ilaria Marinaro, Morena Mosca, Vincenza Capone, Emergenza da COVID-19 e benessere psico-sociale degli operatori sanitari: una revisione sistematica della letteratura in "PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE" 2/2021, pp 76-99, DOI: 10.3280/PDS2021-002006