Integrated psychological intervention programme for frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic put at risk the resilience of healthcare professionals by exposing them to high levels of stress. Our aim was to identify key elements for implementing the STEP  programme, a psychological support service for healthcare professionals.

METHODS: qualitative design.  The study participants were hospital healthcare staff. Anonymous questionnaires and transcriptions  of group interventions and focus groups were used to  identify professionals' preferences to receiving psychological support, needs, concerns, resilience (STEP1.0); constrained emotions and associated thoughts (STEP1.5); perception of self-efficacy on managing emotions (STEP2.0); and the professionals' profile requiring individual therapy.

RESULTS: Three hundred professionals participated in the study, 100.0% in STEP 1.0 , 27.3% in STEP 1.5, 2.7% in STEP 2.0, and 10.0% in individual interventions. Two hundred and three (67.7%) participants reflected in the survey that they would prefer access to a face-to-face psychological service during working hours. Three consecutive phases with specific needs and concerns were identified: The "cognitive" phase, at the beginning of the pandemic, when infection and self-efficacy were major concerns, the "ventilation" phase, when constrained emotions associated with several factors were expressed; and the "recovery" phase, when the clinical overload decreased and professionals were able to focus on emotion management training. Several personal characteristics associated with referral to individual therapy were identified.  Conclusions: The key characteristics of a psychological support service are proximity, face-to-face interaction during working shifts, and a chronological phase system adapted to different emerging needs.