The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has, by all means, affected the patterns of providing quality care and the well-being of nurses in general. Hence, the PICOT question of the research concerns the extent to which the implementation of psychotherapy or counseling might affect the call-off and shortage rates among nurses. The present paper is comprised of the relevant research articles that would serve as a foundation for the research. Such platforms as PubMed, Springer, Wiley, and Elsevier were used to search for the material using such keywords as “nursing shortage,” “therapy,” “intervention,” “COVID-19,” mental health,” and others. The articles found were then grouped according to the topic: nursing shortage during COVID-19, the level of mid-pandemic emotional distress among nurses, and the therapeutic interventions and coping mechanisms to reduce the stress.
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The workload and systemic distress of the global pandemic have significantly affected the nurses’ motivation and resources to work. In a primary quantitative study presented by McGarry et al. (2020), the researchers attempted to analyze the extent to which the pandemic period was associated with the pandemic outbreak. Data collected from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) COVID-19 Nursing Home Database demonstrated that more than 95% of the nursing homes in question reported both the shortage of staff and personal protection equipment (PPE) at the time (McGarry et al., 2020). Hence, lack of protection and safety is highly associated with distress and mass nurse call-off (Halcomb et al., 2020). Another primary cohort study on nurses in nursing homes also reported an interrelation between the lack of PPE, nurses’ distress, and abundant shortages (Xu et al., 2020).
The turnover intention, however, was detected not only among practicing nurses. According to the primary quantitative online survey conducted among nearly 1,000 undergraduate nursing students, the fear of the pandemic and low life satisfaction are the prevailing factors that make the respondents reluctant to pursue a career (Lin et al., 2021). Finally, in a qualitative study that conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 nursing professionals, the shortage reasons included lack of preparedness, PPE shortage, and anxiety and fear (Nyashanu et al., 2020). Hence, it becomes evident that anxiety and fear become the priority mental concerns associated with the shortage.
Undeniably, the mental health status of the workers faced with a pandemic crisis has been affected significantly. In a quantitative survey conducted among more than 4,000 Chinese healthcare employees, the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and psychological distress has been associated with working with COVID-19 patients and being a nursing professional (Liu et al., 2020). Another primary study focused on both long-term effects and interventions for psychological distress reduction among nurses, concluding in the higher issue probability for the insecure frontline workers (Cai et al., 2020). The prevalence of anxiety among nurses was also recorded in the study by Xiong et al. (2020), as this cross-sectional survey of 223 nurses demonstrated that nearly half of them manifested anxiety symptoms.
One quantitative study even demonstrated evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic could be perceived as a traumatic experience potentially leading to post-traumatic growth (PTG). Thus, according to Cui et al. (2021), guided deliberate rumination of the COVID-related events may become a beneficial healing technique for the employees. Hence, given the justification of prevalent depression and anxiety issues, it is necessary to dwell on the other potential intervention techniques.
Some of the most commonly mentioned coping strategies with the stress associated with the pandemic are self-care and self-efficacy. The latter stands for one’s ability to believe in oneself to such an extent they one cope with the challenges faced along the way (Xiong et al., 2020). Hence, as far as self-care is concerned, the quantitative survey by Labrague and de Los Santos (2021) demonstrated that it could be achieved through building personal resilience toward a stressful environment. Other interventions that contributed to the reduced levels of anxiety included social and organizational support (Labrague & de Los Santos, 2021). Self-efficacy, for its part, has demonstrated a negative correlation with depression and anxiety in a large cross-sectional survey by Hu et al. (2020), whic
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