A qualitative study of nursing practitioners' experiences with COVID-19 patients dying alone in Greece

Highlights • At least one in five healthcare professionals report symptoms of depression and anxiety. • Almost four in 10 healthcare workers experience sleeping difficulties and/or insomnia. • Rates of anxiety and depression were higher for female healthcare workers and nursing staff. • Milder mood symptoms are common and screening should aim to identify mild and sub-threshold syndromes.

Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, and is defined by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. The past 25 years of research has established the complexity of the construct, and places the individual stress experience within a larger organizational context of people's relation to their work. Recently, the work on burnout has expanded internationally and has led to new conceptual models. The focus on engagement, the positive antithesis of burnout, promises to yield new perspectives on interventions to alleviate burnout. The social focus of burnout, the solid research basis concerning the syndrome, and its specific ties to the work domain make a distinct and valuable contribution to people's health and well-being.

Highlights • Studies on the psychological experience of nurses combating COVID-19 are lacking • We investigated the psychological experience of caregivers of COVID-19 patients • Nurses showed interweaving positive/negative emotions during outbreak of COVID-19 • Negative emotions are dominant in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak • Coping styles and psychological growth are important for maintaining mental health