As research studies have delved to explore the impact of COVID-19 on social behavior, resiliency, and mental status, and what predictors of positive changes in behavior could be, consistently the only predictor of adherence to guidelines such as social distancing and hand hygiene was actual fear of COVID-19 that increased people's compliance. Additionally, analyzing what resilience means to individuals, and using validated scales, demonstrates how the surges of COVID-19 and the ongoing pandemic has impacted resiliency among these study participants. Healthcare providers faced unexpected, uncertain, and novel events leading to various stress reactions. Perceived risk and fear of COVID-19 positively predicts depression, stress, and anxiety, while resilience mitigates these conditions.
Resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back or recover from stress and may provide unique and important information about people coping with health-related stressors according to the Brief Resilience Scale. When healthcare providers are faced with a long-term pandemic, the ability to bounce back, or resiliency is regularly tested. It is incredibly important to understand the resiliency of our healthcare providers and their families/households to help guide what follow up and resources are needed to be prioritized or developed for them. An integrative review found that healthcare providers worldwide had moderate resiliency scores, with data from the United States showing a decrease in nurse resilience, whereas other countries and increased resilience when compared to pre-pandemic levels. Machine learning techniques on mental health during COVID-19 also found that the most important factor predicting mental health decline was the role of the individual, specifically a nurse, emergency room staff, and surgeon. Another systematic review using random forest models predicted mental health conditions. There are limited studies assessing family members or those living with healthcare providers' resiliency and the impact of COVID on their mental health.
Healthcare providers can utilize emotion-centered coping to manage stress associated with the pandemic and substantial evidence supports effective coping behaviors, resilience, and social support are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Additionally, the COVID-19 virus has affected our Black and non-white populations more adversely than other racial groups. Furthermore, with negative public sentiment due to COVID-19 being of Asian origin, there has been an increase in Asian hate crimes, which could lead to a disparate psychological impact on this population.
Many studies explored healthcare providers' resiliency and impact of COVID-19 to themselves, but few studies have explored family or roommates of healthcare providers who lived with them, or household members, during the pandemic. One qualitative study (da Silva Barreto 2022) explored coranophobia, fear of COVID-19 especially for those who lived with healthcare providers at the peak of the pandemic. A systematic review assessed the impact of occupational stress on healthcare providers' family members and found mental health outcomes like worry and anxiety, family relationships and functioning, coping skills and resilience, quality of life and social life, and practical outcomes like domestic responsibilities and impact on living location were common themes in healthcare providers' family members. The significance of this research study is to assess the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare providers and their household members, people who live with them during a time of a contagious pandemic, which differ from family members, who may or may not live with the healthcare provider.
The purpose of this study is to assess the resiliency and impact of COVID-19 on frontline healthcare providers compared to their household members in two different medical centers in northern California. The study hypothesized that healthcare providers would report stronger resiliency and stronger impact of the pandemic than a non-healthcare provider household member.