Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec 23:9:736099.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.736099. eCollection 2021.

The Moderating Role of Personal Resources Between Demands and Ill-Being of Romanian Healthcare Professionals in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ica Secosan  1 , Delia Virga  2 , Zorin Petrisor Crainiceanu  1 , Lavinia Melania Bratu  1 , Tiberiu Bratu  1
Affiliations

The Moderating Role of Personal Resources Between Demands and Ill-Being of Romanian Healthcare Professionals in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ica Secosan et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The illness caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) triggered considerable mental consequences for the medical staff. Our aim was to research whether frontline healthcare workers' positive psychological state-PsyCap-impacts the relationship between anxiety/depression and burnout/mental health complaints. Material and Methods: One hundred twenty-six medical professionals working on the frontline at the Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department in Romania took validated surveys between March and April 2020. All information was collected online after accessing a link that was received in an email message. The inclusion criteria concerned the categories of healthcare professionals who came into direct contact with patients during the COVID-19 global epidemic through the performed medical act, as well as time spent in the medical field of ICU an EM, namely at least 1 year in the department. We excluded from the research other categories of employees and auxiliary staff, as well as healthcare workers with <1-year experience in the medical field. The moderating role of personal resources (PsyCap) between demands (such as anxiety and depression) and ill-being (burnout and mental health complaints) of healthcare professionals were tested via hierarchical multiple regressions. Results: We tested the moderating role of PsyCap on the relation between anxiety and ill-being. The results indicated that high anxiety predicts lower emotional exhaustion and a low level of mental health complaints about Romanian healthcare professionals when PsyCap is high. The moderating role of PsyCap on the relation between depression and ill-being was tested in the second hypothesis. The results indicated that high depression predicts lower inefficacy and a low level of mental health complaints about Romanian healthcare professionals when PsyCap is increased. Conclusions: PsyCap is a crucial variable that may decrease the impact of anxiety and depression on psychological outcomes such as emotional exhaustion, inefficacy, and psychological problems among Romanian medical professionals working on the frontline during the COVID-19 global epidemic. Thus, psychological interventions that help medical staff gain personal resources are appropriate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; burnout; depression; frontline healthcare workers; mental health complaints; psychological capital.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PsyCap moderates the relationship between anxiety/depression and burnout, respectively, mental health complaints.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction effect of anxiety and PsyCap in predicting emotional exhaustion.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Interaction effect of anxiety and PsyCap in predicting mental health complaints.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Interaction effect of depression and PsyCap in predicting inefficacy.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Interaction effect of depression and PsyCap in predicting mental health complaints.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Maslach C, Schaufeli WB, Leiter MP. Job burnout. Annu Rev Psychol. (2001) 52:397–422. 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kahn JH, Schneider KT, Jenkins-Henkelman TM, Moyle LL. Emotional social support and job burnout among high-school teachers: is it all due to dispositional affectivity? J Org Behav. (2006) 27:793–807. 10.1002/job.397 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Worley JA, Vassar M, Wheeler DL, Barnes LLB. Factor structure of score. From the maslach burnout inventory: a review and meta-analysis of 45 exploratory and confirmatory factor-analytic studies. Educ Psychol Measur. (2008) 68:797–823. 10.1177/0013164408315268 - DOI
    1. Lasalvia A, Amaddeo F, Porru S, Carta A, Tardivo S, Bovo C, et al. . Levels of burn-out among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and their associated factors: a cross-sectional study in a tertiary hospital of a highly burdened area of north-east Italy. BMJ Open. (2021) 11:e045127. 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045127 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Demerouti E, Bakker A. The Job Demands–Resources model: challenges for future research. SA J Ind Psychol. (2011) 37:9. 10.4102/sajip.v37i2.974 - DOI