Healthcare workers face significant difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic such as increased workloads, long hours, risk of infection, and limited resources. This can lead to psychological issues like anxiety, burnout, and secondary trauma. Resilience is the ability to recover from difficulties and can be improved by enhancing positive coping skills, social support, stress mitigation, and avoiding negative coping strategies. The document provides tips for healthcare workers to build resilience such as taking breaks, connecting with coworkers, focusing on purpose, limiting misinformation, and ensuring adequate sleep and self-care.

1. Resilience and Healthcare Workers:
In times of COVID-19

2. What is Resilience
• Resilience is capacity of an individual to recover quickly from
difficulties

3. Difficulties faced by Healthcare Workers
in the current scenario
• Increased workload and long working
hours
• Assignments in non-trained roles
• Perceived inadequacy of skill and
training
• Risk of contracting infection
• Management of many critically-ill
patients and rising death toll
• Limited resources
• Inadequate and uncomfortable Personal
Protective Equipment

4. Possible psychological issues
• Anxieties about magnitude of cases,
readiness, resources, rapid spread of
infection etc
• Despair from unchecked mortality
• Burn out
• Frustration, poor self-care, blaming
others, irritability…
• Loss of sense of purpose and role
• Secondary traumatisation
• Nightmares, numbing, social withdrawal

5. How to improve Resilience?
• By enhancing positive coping
skills and social support
• By reducing vulnerability and
negative coping strategies
• By mitigating stress and the
perception of stress

6. For enhancing resilience!

7. Plan and prepare in advance

8. Break challenges into simple small steps

9. Take short breaks to rejuvenate and focus

10. Connect regularly with co-workers
who make you feel safe

11. Indulge in music for relaxing the tone of
muscles and the turbulence of mind

12. Avoid overflow from the stress bucket:
Negative emotions/ thinking, undue risk, conflicts

13. Take few minutes of rest and
recharge after each challenging task

14. Remind yourself about why you chose this
profession: Have a sense of purpose

15. Count 3 blessings in your life
during 20 seconds of hand-washing

16. Complement at least one co-worker daily
for his/ her contribution

17. Permit yourself to slow down
and sit down at times

18. Share suffering of people:
Simple listening helps

19. Make time to talk to persons who matter in
your life. Share feelings…

20. Unwind and rest at the end of the day.
Do something unrelated…

21. Remind yourself that your safety is important
for continued contribution to the cause

22. Remind yourself that the issue is situational:
“This too shall pass”

23. Ensure adequate sleep

24. To enhance resilience!

25. DO NOT…Give in to misinformation.
Cut down on social media time and rumours

26. DO NOT…Miss vital information.
Be aware of updates from reliable sources

27. DO NOT…Indulge in alcohol, tobacco or other
drugs of abuse for coping with situation

28. Some anxiety in abnormal situation is
normal. Recognize and deal with it

29. Summary
• Demands on Healthcare workers are immense, during the COVID 19 crisis
• Many psychological problems are likely over time, in the line of duty.
• Resilience-building is the key to withstanding these stresses healthily, and to
recovering quickly
• Following the do’s and don’ts of enhancing resilience will ensure mental
well-being among Healthcare Workers
The photographs used in this presentation are for the purpose of public education only
and no copyright infringement is intended.

30. Department of Psychiatry
Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India
Thank you