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Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania

(1) Background. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals faced psychological and social challenges in addition to a sharp increase in workload. The aim of this work was to reveal how healthcare and pharmacy workers assessed their wellbeing and the methods of coping they employed to ove...

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Autores principales: Šmigelskas, Kastytis, Digrytė-Šertvytienė, Laura, Argustaitė-Zailskienė, Gita, Griciūtė, Aušra, Urbonaitė, Gabrielė, Banienė, Irina, Stankūnienė, Aurima, Žemaitienė, Nida
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9140779/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35627925
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10050787
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author Šmigelskas, Kastytis
Digrytė-Šertvytienė, Laura
Argustaitė-Zailskienė, Gita
Griciūtė, Aušra
Urbonaitė, Gabrielė
Banienė, Irina
Stankūnienė, Aurima
Žemaitienė, Nida
author_facet Šmigelskas, Kastytis
Digrytė-Šertvytienė, Laura
Argustaitė-Zailskienė, Gita
Griciūtė, Aušra
Urbonaitė, Gabrielė
Banienė, Irina
Stankūnienė, Aurima
Žemaitienė, Nida
author_sort Šmigelskas, Kastytis
collection PubMed
description (1) Background. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals faced psychological and social challenges in addition to a sharp increase in workload. The aim of this work was to reveal how healthcare and pharmacy workers assessed their wellbeing and the methods of coping they employed to overcome stress during quarantine. (2) Methods. The mixed-method study was conducted between August and October 2020, integrating quantitative (n = 967) and qualitative (n = 27) strategies. Doctors, nurses, healthcare administrative staff, pharmacy specialists, and other employees of the healthcare system were interviewed retrospectively about their experiences during and following lockdown (March–June 2020). (3) Results. Overall, 38.7% of the respondents reported a decrease in psychological wellbeing, while 23.4% of the respondents reported a decrease in physical wellbeing during quarantine. The healthcare professionals’ narratives identified a shift from nonspecific fears at the beginning of the pandemic to the more concrete fear of contracting COVID-19, of infecting others, and about their loved ones, as well as undifferentiated fear. Multivariate analysis revealed that a subjective decrease in wellbeing was typical in professionals who had had direct contact with patients infected with COVID-19, as well as those with stronger fears, and those who were more likely to employ compulsive distancing and substance use as ways to cope with stress. (3) Conclusions. The results suggest that lockdown had a negative impact on healthcare workers’ wellbeing during the first pandemic wave in 2020.
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spelling pubmed-91407792022-05-28 Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania Šmigelskas, Kastytis Digrytė-Šertvytienė, Laura Argustaitė-Zailskienė, Gita Griciūtė, Aušra Urbonaitė, Gabrielė Banienė, Irina Stankūnienė, Aurima Žemaitienė, Nida Healthcare (Basel) Article (1) Background. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals faced psychological and social challenges in addition to a sharp increase in workload. The aim of this work was to reveal how healthcare and pharmacy workers assessed their wellbeing and the methods of coping they employed to overcome stress during quarantine. (2) Methods. The mixed-method study was conducted between August and October 2020, integrating quantitative (n = 967) and qualitative (n = 27) strategies. Doctors, nurses, healthcare administrative staff, pharmacy specialists, and other employees of the healthcare system were interviewed retrospectively about their experiences during and following lockdown (March–June 2020). (3) Results. Overall, 38.7% of the respondents reported a decrease in psychological wellbeing, while 23.4% of the respondents reported a decrease in physical wellbeing during quarantine. The healthcare professionals’ narratives identified a shift from nonspecific fears at the beginning of the pandemic to the more concrete fear of contracting COVID-19, of infecting others, and about their loved ones, as well as undifferentiated fear. Multivariate analysis revealed that a subjective decrease in wellbeing was typical in professionals who had had direct contact with patients infected with COVID-19, as well as those with stronger fears, and those who were more likely to employ compulsive distancing and substance use as ways to cope with stress. (3) Conclusions. The results suggest that lockdown had a negative impact on healthcare workers’ wellbeing during the first pandemic wave in 2020. MDPI 2022-04-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9140779/ /pubmed/35627925 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10050787 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Šmigelskas, Kastytis
Digrytė-Šertvytienė, Laura
Argustaitė-Zailskienė, Gita
Griciūtė, Aušra
Urbonaitė, Gabrielė
Banienė, Irina
Stankūnienė, Aurima
Žemaitienė, Nida
Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania
title Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania
title_full Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania
title_fullStr Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania
title_full_unstemmed Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania
title_short Wellbeing and Stress Coping among Healthcare and Pharmacy Workers: Experiences during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Lithuania
title_sort wellbeing and stress coping among healthcare and pharmacy workers: experiences during the first covid-19 lockdown in lithuania
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9140779/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35627925
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10050787
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