Volume 25, Issue 117, November 2021

A cross-sectional study of perceived stress caused by COVID-19 pandemic and the coping skills used by health care professionals of a government medical college from central India

Shilpa Avinash Telgote¹, Swapnil Ganesh Karwande², Ajinkya Sureshrao Ghogare^3♦

¹Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Akola, Maharashtra, India
²Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Akola, Maharashtra, India
³Consultant Psychiatrist, Manoday Mansopchar Clinic, Akot, Akola, Maharashtra, India

^♦Corresponding author
Dr. Ajinkya Sureshrao Ghogare, Consultant Psychiatrist, Manoday Mansopchar Clinic, Akola Road, Akot, Tehsil , Akola, Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Novel corona virus has spread rapidly which created a crisis situation and took toll of lots of people all over the world. This sudden upsurge of patients with high infectivity rate and unexpected complications placed health care system under burden all over the world. Particularly at places like India, where there was scarcity of resources and health care professionals more stress was expected. Although there was enormous stress, yet the individual perception varies and accordingly coping strategies also. Aim: So, we tried to assess the perceived stress and coping strategies used by health care professionals during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We collected data of 153 participants by using Perceived Stress scale and Brief COPE scale. Data was analyzed using Mann Whitney U test and Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: We found high levels of perceived stress among 18-45 years age group when compared to older population. We found more use of total avoidant coping style and humor among participants staying alone than those staying with families. We also found more use of coping style humor among males and younger population. We found more use of coping style religion among females and participants staying with family. We found positive but weak correlation between perceived stress and total avoidant coping styles. Conclusion: Present study highlighted the need of support groups and special training programs for health care professionals to deal with the pandemic stress. We also recommend workshops for promoting positive coping strategies among health care professionals so that they can deal with stressful conditions of the pandemic in better ways.

Keywords: COVID-19, Stress, Coping, Physicians

Medical Science, 2021, 25(117), 2931-2944

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