Protective Factors against Emergency Stress and Burnout in Healthcare and Emergency Workers during Second Wave of COVID-19

Monia Vagni, Tiziana Maiorano, Valeria Giostra and Daniela Pajardi
Additional contact information
Monia Vagni: Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy
Tiziana Maiorano: Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy
Valeria Giostra: Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy
Daniela Pajardi: Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Working as healthcare workers (HCWs) and emergency workers (EWs) during the first wave of COVID-19 has been associated with high levels of stress and burnout, while hardiness, coping strategies and resilience have emerged as protective factors. No studies have so far investigated these psychological factors during the second wave. We aimed to verify the trend of stress levels, burnout, coping strategies and resilience during the pandemic in Italian healthcare and emergency workers by comparing a first sample recruited from the first COVID-19 wave (N = 240) with a second sample relating to the second wave (N = 260). Through an online platform we administered questionnaires to measure stress, burnout, resilience, hardiness and coping strategies. The results showed that in the two waves the total stress levels of HCWs and EWs did not differ, while the physical stress and hardiness scores in the second wave were greater. No differences were found in the coping strategies used. An analysis of burnout levels in the second wave sample found that stress showed a high predictive power in the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scales. Hardiness and resilience emerged as protective factors in reducing stress. The implications for the need to provide support and to improve hardiness for HCWs and EWs are discussed.

Keywords: healthcare workers; emergency workers; COVID-19; second wave; stress; burnout; resilience; hardiness; coping strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/5/178/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/5/178/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:5:p:178-:d:557126

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().