COVID-19 Related Anxiety Considerations Among Providers During the Pandemic: Dysfunctional Anxiety Self-Evaluation
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Authors
Jackson, Tandrea L.
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Nursing
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Abstract
Since the COVID-19 virus global outbreak, the necessity of acquiring psychological support has grown exponentially affecting not only the general population or patients, but also healthcare workers caring for those infected with the virus (Xiong et al., 2020). The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using relaxation techniques in decreasing the level of anxiety among healthcare providers. The study used the COVID Anxiety Scale (CAS) and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and assessed the main concepts of anxiety and anxiety management techniques. The learned relaxation techniques initiated during pre-and post-implementation existed to accentuate the relaxation techniques relevance and determine if anxiety levels would decrease among healthcare providers during the COVID pandemic. Participants learned specific relaxation techniques, collected information over a four-week period and documented their habit and frequency of two techniques used consistently. There were 14 of 20 prospective participants accepted into the pilot study. Of the 14, only nine completed the post follow-up CAS and PSWQ and seven completed the feedback survey. The hypothesis testing resulted in a statistically significant p value less than 0.05 with the CAS pre- and post-intervention period (z=1.73, p = 0.085). The PSWQ pre- and post-intervention period resulted (z = 1.02, p =0.309). These results indicated no significant difference in scores. There were seven participants who completed the feedback survey reporting that they strongly agreed that the study was beneficial (3, 33.3%) in the management of anxiety and stress and that they would continue to use the techniques learned (4, 44.4%). The commonly used techniques were mediation, deep breathing, and progressive relaxation (5, 71%). Furthermore, the research outcome suggests that longitudinal studies are necessary to further validate the effects of untreated stress in healthcare providers resulting in anxiety with a comorbidity of depression.
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Capstone Project
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Hawaii Pacific University