Coping with COVID-19 by physicians: an integrative review

Abstract

Doctors were one of the health professionals who suffered the most from the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: to search the literature for what has already been published on the confrontation of COVID-19 by doctors. Method: integrative review of the literature, carried out in the Virtual Health Library from the intersection of the descriptors “medical” and “psychological adaptation” and “COVID-19”, being selected 12 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Results: all articles were in English and indexed in medline. Several negative factors were reported and strategies that helped these professionals face the pandemic were described. Conclusions: the repercussions of stressors (fear, worry, depression, anxiety and anguish) occurred in the mental, physical, spiritual and social spheres and to face COVID-19, strategies were used such as the use of social networks to relieve, psychological resources, the search for knowledge about the disease, faith, in addition to humor and a positive attitude towards events.