An Acute Stress Scale for Health Care Professionals Caring for Patients With COVID-19: Validation Study

Area of Science:

• Psychological impact of pandemics
• Health workforce well-being
• Mental health assessment tools

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted healthcare professionals' mental health, causing acute stress reactions.
• Spanish healthcare workers faced severe challenges during the pandemic's initial waves, requiring psychological support.
• Assessing and addressing this stress is crucial for maintaining healthcare system capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate the Self-applied Acute Stress Scale (EASE) for measuring acute stress in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To provide a reliable tool for quantifying psychological distress experienced by frontline medical staff.
• To facilitate timely and appropriate psychological interventions for healthcare professionals.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative research for item generation and content validity.
• Scale development and evaluation using psychometric analyses (Cronbach's α, McDonald's ω, Confirmatory Factor Analysis).
• Validation through construct and criterion validity assessments, including back-translation for English and Portuguese versions.

Main Results:

• The EASE scale demonstrated good internal consistency (McDonald's ω = .87).
• Confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure, explaining 55% of the variance.
• Higher stress levels were reported by professionals in areas with more COVID-19 deaths.

Conclusions:

• The EASE scale possesses adequate metric properties for consistency and construct validity.
• This validated scale can identify acute stress levels in healthcare workers during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The EASE scale supports the provision of tailored psychological support based on identified needs.