Psychological Resilience, Anxiety, and Well-Being of Health Care Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background

On the frontlines of the pandemic, healthcare providers (HCPs) are overworked, anxious, and fearful. Yet, despite all the fear and anxiety, the facilitation of protective resilience and psychological well-being has become crucial to ensure that minimal intangible psychological losses are incurred due to the pandemic.

Aim

The present study aimed to examine the psychological resiliency, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and psychological well-being of frontline HCPs during the COVID-19 and to determine the association among resiliency, state-trait anxiety, and psychological well-being and their links with demographic and workplace factors.

Design and Settings

A cross-sectional study concerning frontline HCPs was conducted at two of the largest hospitals in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

Results

A significant inverse correlation was determined between resilience and state anxiety (r=−0.417, p<0.05) and between resilience and trait anxiety (r=−0.536, p<0.05). Likewise, a positive intermediate correlation between resilience and the age of the individual (r=0.263, p<0.05) and a weak positive correlation with years of experience (r=0.211, p<0.05) were established. Also, the resilience score of volunteer workers (50.9) was lower than that of regular staff (66.8) (p=0.028).

Conclusion

Resilience is a crucial factor affecting the training of individuals, which will further promote their work output and mental health capacity, thus improving their overall concept of survival in adversity.

Keywords:

• psychological distress
• anxiety
• resilience
• well-being
• COVID-19 pandemic
• health care providers

Data Sharing Statement

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article in the result section.

Ethical Considerations and Institutional Review Board Approval

Approval for the study was obtained from IAU and QCH’s ethics committee and institutional review board (IRB-2020-01-166) Participation was voluntary. We considered consent to be implicit when the participants filled out and submitted the completed questionnaire. Informed written consent was stated on the first page of the electronic questionnaire. The research is in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.