The Relationship between Emotional Stability, Psychological Well-Being and Life Satisfaction of Romanian Medical Doctors during COVID-19 Period: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Lorena Mihaela Muntean,Andreea Sima-Comaniciu,Emese Lukacs,Elena Gabriela Strete,Aurel Nireștean,Dana Valentina Ghiga,Cosmin Octavian Popa

doi:10.3390/ijerph19052937

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the fast progression of modern society, occupational stress has recently reached alarming levels with consequences for doctors’ psychological well-being. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship among emotional stability, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction of medical doctors. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 280 medical doctors from Romania between February 2021 and September 2021, in the period between the third and fourth pandemic waves, who were evaluated by the DECAS, ASSET, and Satisfaction with Life scales. Our results showed that emotional stability is negatively correlated with psychological well-being (r = −0.526, p < 0.000) and positively correlated with life satisfaction (r = 0.319, p < 0.0001). Between psychological well-being and life satisfaction, we found a negative correlation (r = −0.046, p < 0.001). This study shows that there is a correlation among emotional stability, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction, which is why it can be considered that Romanian doctors have generated coping mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Stress is a widely studied concept and refers to how each of us responds positively or negatively to an internal or external stimulus/condition that often exceeds perceived coping abilities [1]
Physicians must constantly face high standards at the workplace, and they frequently face problems such as lack of time due to the increased number of patients, inability to cope with situations due to a lack of skills needed in the specialty they practice, as well as a lack of support from their colleagues [4], and increased number of hours spent in the hospital, especially night shifts with sleep deprivation [5]
The present study investigated the correlations among emotional stability (ES), one of the dimensions of the Big Five Model, psychological well-being (PWB), and life satisfaction (LS) in medical doctors in the period between the third and fourth pandemic waves of COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

Stress is a widely studied concept and refers to how each of us responds positively or negatively to an internal or external stimulus/condition that often exceeds perceived coping abilities [1]. These stressors can be divided into three categories: circumstantial, occupational, and personal [2]. Physicians must constantly face high standards at the workplace, and they frequently face problems such as lack of time due to the increased number of patients, inability to cope with situations due to a lack of skills needed in the specialty they practice, as well as a lack of support from their colleagues [4], and increased number of hours spent in the hospital, especially night shifts with sleep deprivation [5]. It has been demonstrated that the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019

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