Psychological Distress, Social Support, and Coping during the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Healthcare Volunteers in New York City

Background and Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact across the globe, compromising the social, physical, and economic fabric of many societies. Healthcare providers have been critical responding to the pandemic through provision of medical and psychological aid to COVID-19 affected individuals and families. Front-line healthcare providers have been exposed to high levels of personal risk, as well as increased workloads and responsibilities on the job. These pressures have put providers at risk for mental health challenges including secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and anxiety. Protective factors, however, may buffer the risk of psychological distress among healthcare workers. Our study examined psychological distress and factors influencing mental health outcomes among healthcare volunteers who worked at a field hospital in New York City during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods. This cross-sectional study was conducted with fifty-seven healthcare volunteers from a temporary field hospital in New York City in June 2020. Participants completed measures of PTSD, anxiety, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, social support, and coping. Pearson’s correlations and one-way ANOVA analyses explored the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics and survey measures. Three separate multiple linear regression analyses assessed predictors of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD). All analyses were conducted in SPSS 27.0.

Results. Participants primarily identified as male (n=36), White (n=43), were between 26-35 years old (n=26), and volunteered at the field hospital for 2-4 weeks (n=25). Sixteen percent (n=9) scored above the clinical cutoff for PTSD, 57% (n=30) experienced mild burnout, and 70% (n=40) reported high levels of secondary traumatic stress. Bivariate correlations illustrated significant and positive linear relationships between PTSD, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and avoidant coping. Burnout was inversely and significantly related to higher levels of social support and adaptive coping. Regression analyses indicated that avoidant emotional coping (B=.78, t (51)=4.84, p<.001) and number of hours worked per week during deployment (B=.2.90, t (51)=2.11, p<.05) predicted higher levels of secondary traumatic stress.

Conclusions and Implications. Exploring the psychological impact of COVID-19 among healthcare volunteers is a crucial first step towards understanding the toll of the pandemic on this group. Our study illustrated that volunteers experienced heightened rates of mental health symptoms, however, protective factors including social support and adaptive coping were associated with lower symptomology. Interventions designed to increase protective factors and reduce pandemic related psychopathology can aid healthcare providers both during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the longer-term recovery.