Organizational Psychology

Purpose. The paper is aimed to study the relationship of resources with job burnout and post-traumatic stress of nurses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as strategies for coping with them. Method. The sample comprised of 130 respondents, 112 women and 18 men, ranging from 21 to 62 years old. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 81 respondents worked in the “red zone” and 49 respondents in the “green zone”. The questionnaire “Job burnout” by N. E. Vodopyanova and E. S. Starchenkova and the “Scale for assessing the impact of a traumatic event” were used to measure the level of post-traumatic stress and job burnout. The main constructs of personal resources were life-purpose orientations and social support. Coping strategies were described using the “COPE” questionnaire validated by E. I. Rasskazova, T. O. Gordeeva and E. N. Osin. The main methods of data analysis were Mann — Whitney U-test, Kruskal — Wallis H-test, and Spearman’s correlation ρ coefficient. Findings. It was shown that the level of job burnout and post-traumatic stress among employees of the “green zone” are at an average level, and among employees of the “red zone” — at a high level. At the same time, the level of professional success among employees of the “green zone” is lower than among those who worked in the “red zone” during the pandemic (p ≤ 0.05). Choosing coping strategies, workers in the “red zone” more often resort to both strategies aimed at actively solving an emerging problem and the strategy of mentally avoiding existing difficulties. Among coping resources, the greatest number of connections with the choice of adaptive coping strategies was shown by the parameters of social support. The feeling of “Emotional support” is associated with the choice of strategies such as positive reformulation and personal growth (ρ = 0.68, p ≤ 0.05), active coping (ρ = 0.63, p ≤ 0.05) and search for emotional social support (ρ = 0.47, p ≤ 0.05). Among the parameters of life-purpose orientations the largest number of correlations with the choice of non-adaptive coping strategies was shown by the orientation “Locus of control — Life”. Such external coping resources as marital status showed a negative correlation with the choice of strategies for active coping, search for emotional social support and planning (ρ = –0.41, ρ = –0.52 and ρ = –0.48 at p ≤ 0, 05 respectively). Parental status is negatively associated with the choice of the strategy for positive reformulation and personal growth (ρ = –0.37 at p ≤ 0.05). Value of the results. It has been shown that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, job burnout is more pronounced among workers in the “red zone”, but at the same time they feel more job success and significance. In addition, health workers in the “red zone” are less likely to choose non-adaptive coping strategies than workers in the “green zone”. Among the internal resources of coping, the largest number of correlations with the choice of adaptive coping strategies was shown by the parameters of social support, while with the choice of non-adaptive coping strategies — the orientation “Locus of control — Life”. In conclusion, the results obtained are interpreted in accordance with previous studies, the limitations of the study are discussed, and the possibility of drawing up recommendations and training programs for medical workers to prevent and reduce the level of job burnout and post-traumatic stress is discussed.