A post-COVID-19 assessment of resilience of nurses and paramedical workers in municipal hospitals of urban Pune, India.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the resilience of primary healthcare workers (HCWs) by determining the factors associated with developing resilience post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

STUDY DESIGN

A cross-sectional study in selected municipal hospitals.

METHODS

Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was used to assess the resilience of the 245 HCWs, including the nurses and paramedics working in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) hospitals in Pune City. Data were analysed using the Chi-square test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent-samples -test and correlational analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28.

RESULTS

The mean resilience score of the HCWs in PMC hospitals post-COVID-19 was 75.09 (±9.25). The score for hardiness, optimism, resourcefulness and purpose was 20.15 (±3.87), 21.22 (±3.39), 17.24 (±2.76) and 16.40 (±2.17), respectively. Seven factors were significantly associated with the resilience of nurses and paramedics, namely age ( < 0.001), work experience ( < 0.001), monthly income ( < 0.001), having faced financial problems during COVID-19 ( < 0.001), hospital setting ( < 0.05), marital status ( < 0.01) and professional category ( < 0.001). In addition, 60% of the participants reported mental health issues due to routine workloads such as irritation/anger, frustration and tension/worry, fatigue and work-related stress, and sadness and anxiety. Suggestions for improvement were mainly increasing human resources, proper management, skilled staff, improved facilities and funding, and cooperation among staff.

CONCLUSION

The resilience of primary HCWs in Pune post-COVID-19 was higher than HCWs in other countries assessed during COVID-19. Further, resilience was found more among nurses than paramedics. Modifiable factors affecting resilience must be addressed to improve the resilience of HCWs to build everyday resilience and strengthen health systems for public health emergencies.