Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)

<i>Objectives</i>: To describe lessons learned during the first COVID-19 outbreak in developing urgent interventions to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity to cope with acute stress caused by health care pressure, concern about becoming infected, despair of witnessing patients’ suffe...

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Autores principales:	José Joaquín Mira, Ángel Cobos-Vargas, Maria Pilar Astier-Peña, Pastora Pérez-Pérez, Irene Carrillo, Mercedes Guilabert, Virtudes Pérez-Jover, Cesar Fernández-Peris, María Asunción Vicente-Ripoll, Carmen Silvestre-Busto, Susana Lorenzo-Martínez, Jimmy Martin-Delgado, Carlos Aibar, Jesús Aranaz
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	SARS Virus pandemic acute stress fatigue moral damage moral labour Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6296f819b7f448348f76c7aaebda7b76
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6296f819b7f448348f76c7aaebda7b762021-11-25T17:50:19ZAddressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)10.3390/ijerph1822120101660-46011661-7827https://doaj.org/article/6296f819b7f448348f76c7aaebda7b762021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12010https://doaj.org/toc/1661-7827https://doaj.org/toc/1660-4601<i>Objectives</i>: To describe lessons learned during the first COVID-19 outbreak in developing urgent interventions to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity to cope with acute stress caused by health care pressure, concern about becoming infected, despair of witnessing patients’ suffering, and critical decision-making requirements of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic during the first outbreak in Spain. <i>Methods</i>: A task force integrated by healthcare professionals and academics was activated following the first observations of acute stress reactions starting to compromise the professionals’ capacity for caring COVID-19 patients. Literature review and qualitative approach (consensus techniques) were applied. The target population included health professionals in primary care, hospitals, emergencies, and nursing homes. Interventions designed for addressing acute stress were agreed and disseminated. <i>Findings</i>: There are similarities in stressors to previous outbreaks, and the solutions devised then may work now. A set of issues, interventions to cope with, and their levels of evidence were defined. Issues and interventions were classified as: adequate communication initiative to strengthen work morale (avoiding information blackouts, uniformity of criteria, access to updated information, mentoring new professionals); resilience and recovery from physical and mental fatigue (briefings, protecting the family, regulated recovery time during the day, psychological first aid, humanizing care); reinforce leadership of intermediate commands (informative leadership, transparency, realism, and positive messages, the current state of emergency has not allowed for an empirical analysis of the effectiveness of proposed interventions. Sharing information to gauge expectations, listening to what professionals need, feeling protected from threats, organizational flexibility, encouraging teamwork, and leadership that promotes psychological safety have led to more positive responses. Attention to the needs of individuals must be combined with caring for the teams responsible for patient care. <i>Conclusions</i>: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has a more devastating effect than other recent outbreaks, there are common stressors and lessons learned in all of them that we must draw on to increase our capacity to respond to future healthcare crises.José Joaquín MiraÁngel Cobos-VargasMaria Pilar Astier-PeñaPastora Pérez-PérezIrene CarrilloMercedes GuilabertVirtudes Pérez-JoverCesar Fernández-PerisMaría Asunción Vicente-RipollCarmen Silvestre-BustoSusana Lorenzo-MartínezJimmy Martin-DelgadoCarlos AibarJesús AranazMDPI AGarticleSARS Viruspandemicacute stressfatiguemoral damagemoral labourMedicineRENInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 12010, p 12010 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	SARS Virus pandemic acute stress fatigue moral damage moral labour Medicine R
spellingShingle	SARS Virus pandemic acute stress fatigue moral damage moral labour Medicine R José Joaquín Mira Ángel Cobos-Vargas Maria Pilar Astier-Peña Pastora Pérez-Pérez Irene Carrillo Mercedes Guilabert Virtudes Pérez-Jover Cesar Fernández-Peris María Asunción Vicente-Ripoll Carmen Silvestre-Busto Susana Lorenzo-Martínez Jimmy Martin-Delgado Carlos Aibar Jesús Aranaz Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)
description	<i>Objectives</i>: To describe lessons learned during the first COVID-19 outbreak in developing urgent interventions to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity to cope with acute stress caused by health care pressure, concern about becoming infected, despair of witnessing patients’ suffering, and critical decision-making requirements of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic during the first outbreak in Spain. <i>Methods</i>: A task force integrated by healthcare professionals and academics was activated following the first observations of acute stress reactions starting to compromise the professionals’ capacity for caring COVID-19 patients. Literature review and qualitative approach (consensus techniques) were applied. The target population included health professionals in primary care, hospitals, emergencies, and nursing homes. Interventions designed for addressing acute stress were agreed and disseminated. <i>Findings</i>: There are similarities in stressors to previous outbreaks, and the solutions devised then may work now. A set of issues, interventions to cope with, and their levels of evidence were defined. Issues and interventions were classified as: adequate communication initiative to strengthen work morale (avoiding information blackouts, uniformity of criteria, access to updated information, mentoring new professionals); resilience and recovery from physical and mental fatigue (briefings, protecting the family, regulated recovery time during the day, psychological first aid, humanizing care); reinforce leadership of intermediate commands (informative leadership, transparency, realism, and positive messages, the current state of emergency has not allowed for an empirical analysis of the effectiveness of proposed interventions. Sharing information to gauge expectations, listening to what professionals need, feeling protected from threats, organizational flexibility, encouraging teamwork, and leadership that promotes psychological safety have led to more positive responses. Attention to the needs of individuals must be combined with caring for the teams responsible for patient care. <i>Conclusions</i>: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has a more devastating effect than other recent outbreaks, there are common stressors and lessons learned in all of them that we must draw on to increase our capacity to respond to future healthcare crises.
format	article
author	José Joaquín Mira Ángel Cobos-Vargas Maria Pilar Astier-Peña Pastora Pérez-Pérez Irene Carrillo Mercedes Guilabert Virtudes Pérez-Jover Cesar Fernández-Peris María Asunción Vicente-Ripoll Carmen Silvestre-Busto Susana Lorenzo-Martínez Jimmy Martin-Delgado Carlos Aibar Jesús Aranaz
author_facet	José Joaquín Mira Ángel Cobos-Vargas Maria Pilar Astier-Peña Pastora Pérez-Pérez Irene Carrillo Mercedes Guilabert Virtudes Pérez-Jover Cesar Fernández-Peris María Asunción Vicente-Ripoll Carmen Silvestre-Busto Susana Lorenzo-Martínez Jimmy Martin-Delgado Carlos Aibar Jesús Aranaz
author_sort	José Joaquín Mira
title	Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)
title_short	Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)
title_full	Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)
title_fullStr	Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)
title_full_unstemmed	Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)
title_sort	addressing acute stress among professionals caring for covid-19 patients: lessons learned during the first outbreak in spain (march–april 2020)
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/6296f819b7f448348f76c7aaebda7b76
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Addressing Acute Stress among Professionals Caring for COVID-19 Patients: Lessons Learned during the First Outbreak in Spain (March–April 2020)

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