Promoting resilience in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic with a brief online intervention
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Abstract
Introduction The psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers has been impacted by the high levels of stress many have experienced during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a brief online course focused on introducing evidence-based skills that could increase resilience and decreases emotional distress in healthcare workers during the pandemic.Materials and methods Employees of a large healthcare system completed a mental health survey at baseline, and then one month and two months after some employees participated in an online resilience-enhancement course consisting of three 12-19 min videos focused on mindfulness, mentalization, and self-compassion.Results A total of 554 participants completed the baseline survey, endorsing moderate to high levels of emotional distress. Of those who completed all three assessments and participated in the course (n = 38), significant improvements in resilience and reductions in emotional distress were found one and two months later, in comparison to those who did not participate in the course (n = 110).Discussion These findings suggest that a brief, online intervention can improve the mental health of healthcare workers during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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It was demonstrated in this review that psychoeducation is a way to improve mental health.
“It was also demonstrated in this review that psychoeducation is a way to improve mental health (29, 34, 41, 44, 45, 51, 55).”
From Digital resilience interventions for healthcare workers: a systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [34]
The Methods (Resilience training course; page unavailable) describe an online course with didactic materials and skills exercises, and the Abstract (Results; page unavailable) reports improved resilience and reduced emotional distress among participating healthcare workers. The study evaluated the combined course, not psychoeducation alone, so it does not establish that psychoeducation independently improves mental health. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn included studies, resilience was linked to emotional distress and empathy.
“Resilience was also linked emotional distress (34) and empathy (32).”
From Digital resilience interventions for healthcare workers: a systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [34]
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- Authors
- DeTore, N. R., Sylvia, L., Park, E. R., Burke, A., Levison, J. H., Shannon, A., Choi, K. W., Jain, F. A., Coman, D. C., Herman, J., Perlis, R., Fava, M., & Holt, D. J.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- DeTore, N.R.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Psychiatric Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-02
- Volume
- 146
- Pages
- 228-233
- ISSN
- 0022-3956 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8572311
- OpenAlex
- W3212026836
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12
- FWCI
- 5.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Psychiatric Research (publishedVersion)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21HD096369)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- resilience, healthcare workers, COVID-19 pandemic, online intervention, mindfulness, mentalization, self-compassion, emotional distress, psychological well-being, feasibility and acceptability, mental health interventions
- MeSH terms
- Internet-Based Intervention, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Self-Compassion, Health Personnel, Humans, Resilience, Psychological, Pandemics
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