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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Perceived Stress and Coping Styles of Frontline Health Care Staff During COVID-19 Outbreak - Preliminary Report

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Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak has posed a great threat to public health worldwide. Health care workers fighting against the epidemic on the frontline may be under great physical and psychological distress. That psychological distress was predominantly described as symptoms of tension, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Effective personal coping methods are notably important to protect against short- and long-term effects of stress. Methods: The study was conducted in three public healthcare units in Poland. The group of 109 people participated in the study, including 42 medical doctors aged 43.12 ± 12.49 and 67 nurses aged 47.26 ± 9.58 years. The following questionnaires were used for the research: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and authors’ demographic data questionnaire. Results: Taking into consideration perceived stress, an average score of 16.64 ± 6.45 points in PSS-10 was obtained. There were results of 55.04 ± 9.90 points in the task-oriented subscale, 34.23 ± 10.91 points in the emotion-oriented subscale, and 43.65 ± 8.46 points in the avoidance-oriented subscale ofthe CISS. Significant negative correlations between the results obtained in PSS-10 and the results obtained in task-oriented subscale were noted. Additionally, significant positive correlations were observed between results of PSS-10 scale and emotion-oriented subscale. The task-oriented style is a protective factor against high levels of perceived stress. No significant correlations were noted between average age of respondents and perceived stress. Conclusions: The results of this study show relatively moderate levels of perceived stress among health care workers during the first wave of pandemic. The main coping style among health care professionals was task-oriented style. The task-oriented style may play a protective role against the perceived stress.