Stress Level and Coping Strategies Among Medical Frontliners in Tagbilaran City, During the Covid 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Stress is the body's nonspecific response to demand. Coping refers to things people do to protect themselves from life's challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected our lives as it caused additional stress to people worldwide, especially the medical frontliners. Stress dramatically influences our mood, sense of well-being, behavior, and health. This study aimed to determine the stress level and coping strategies among the medical frontliners in Tagbilaran City. It utilized the descriptive quantitative research design aided with a self-made questionnaire based on the "Person-Environment Fit Theory" by Kurt Lewin to measure the respondent's level of stress and a standardized Questionnaire entitled "The Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (CRIS)." The questionnaire was subjected to pilot testing. The result for Cronbach's test was 0.862, which was acceptable. Forty-seven (47) respondents were randomly selected to participate in the study, 18 of the forty-seven nurses were working at Bohol Cooperative Hospital, and twenty-nine (29) were from Borja Family Hospital. Primary ethical concerns were observed throughout the study as it underwent an ethics review from the University of Bohol Research Ethics Committee. Respondents' participation was based on the signed informed consent ensuring their privacy and anonymity. Data were subjected to the Chi-Square test and Spearman Rank Correlation using SPSS. The results showed that the respondents were moderately stressed regarding work-related factors and mildly stressed with personal-related factors, which challenged their ability to manage Stress. Results further revealed that respondents were above-average stress-copers.