| Abstract [eng] |
Studies show that healthcare professionals are exposed to a wide range of stressors and experience high levels of stress. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, their stress levels have increased even more. Prolonged exposure to stress is detrimental to psychological and physical health. Recovery from stress helps to return to a state of psychological and physical relaxation and to restore depleted resources. It occurs as a natural part of the body's self-regulation, but it can also be promoted by various activities and experiences. Healthcare professionals face institutional and personal barriers in seeking help. Online interventions for stress reduction can be a viable alternative to overcome these challenges, but there is still a lack of research on their suitability for healthcare professionals in Lithuania. The aim of this study is to investigate changes in stress and recovery from stress among healthcare professionals after an online cognitive behavioural therapy-based intervention. The study included 28 healthcare professionals, 93% of them women. Participants ranged in age from 27 to 63 years (M = 41.68; SD = 11.51). Participants used FOREST, a six-week cognitive behavioural therapy-based online intervention. Participants were assessed before and after the intervention. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) was used to assess stress; the Recovery Experiences Questionnaire (REQ) was used to assess recovery from stress; participants were also asked to rate their subjective experience of the programme and how much time they had spent on it. The results revealed that four out of ten healthcare professionals experienced significantly less stress after participating in the online intervention, and that recovery from stress increased for about one third of them. The positive changes in recovery from stress after the intervention were associated with the activity level of healthcare professionals in the online intervention. The greater the positive change in recovery from stress experienced by healthcare professionals, the better they rated changes in their physical well-being and reported a greater awareness of themselves. Greater positive change in recovery from stress was found to be predicted by poorer recovery from stress at the start of the intervention and more time spent on the programme. |
