{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,23]],"date-time":"2025-09-23T00:21:39Z","timestamp":1758586899290,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]],"date-time":"2025-09-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758499200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n               <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>Stress management strategies and the ability of nursing staff to control their emotions is an important way to reduce emotional tension in a difficult situation.<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title>Aim<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>To identify the dominant stress management strategy and emotion control modality in professionally active nurses and midwives during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title>Material and Methods<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>A total of 137 nursing personnel from south-eastern Poland were studied. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected with a questionnaire developed by the authors, stress management was assessed with the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and control of emotions was examined with the Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (CECS).<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>The most common strategy for stress management strategy among nursing staff was the task-oriented strategy, the least frequently used was the avoidance. Only the avoidance style showed a significant difference in the group of midwives taking the form of seeking social contact (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a00.016). CECS in none of the subcategories showed a significant difference for the profession. It turned out that the longer the time elapsed in nursing staff from having contracted COVID-19, the less often they chose the avoidance oriented coping (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a00.022), and the presence of more post-COVID complications favoured focusing on emotions (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a00.016) and avoidance (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a00.005) in the form of initiating social contacts (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u00a0=\u00a00.003).<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>The tendency to prefer a maladaptive style of coping with stress and suppression of emotions in nursing staff is associated with the risk of psychosomatic diseases and occupational burnout. The results indicate the necessity of providing interprofessional support combined with learning to \u201cactively cope\u201d with stress at work.<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.19816","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]],"date-time":"2025-09-22T08:09:30Z","timestamp":1758528570000},"page":"e19816","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Stress management strategies and controlling emotion among Polish nurses and midwives who suffer COVID: cross-sectional study"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Barbara","family":"Zych","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Health Sciences, Medical College of Rzeszow University, Rzeszow, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anna","family":"Kremska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Health Sciences, Medical College of Rzeszow University, Rzeszow, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anna","family":"Lewandowska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Healthcare, State School of Technology and Economics, Jaroslaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ma\u0142gorzata","family":"Nag\u00f3rska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Medical Sciences, Medical College of Rzeszow University, Rzeszow, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,22]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"353","DOI":"10.4103\/1735-1995.158255","article-title":"The association of personality traits and coping styles according to stress level","volume":"20","author":"Afshar","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Research in Medical Sciences"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"190","DOI":"10.1055\/a-1159-5551","article-title":"COVID-19 pandemic: stress experience of healthcare workers\u2014a short current review","volume":"47","author":"Bohlken","year":"2020","journal-title":"Psychiatrische Praxis"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.22514\/sv.2021.023","article-title":"The analysis of emergency medicine professionals\u2019 occupational anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"17","author":"Canan","year":"2021","journal-title":"Signa Vitae"},{"issue":"1","key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"76","DOI":"10.1176\/appi.ps.56.1.76","article-title":"Psychological distress of nurses in Taiwan who worked during the outbreak of SARS","volume":"56","author":"Chen","year":"2005","journal-title":"Psychiatric Services"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"jpm.12639","DOI":"10.1111\/jpm.12639","article-title":"COVID-19 under the SARS cloud: mental health nursing during the pandemic in Hong Kong","volume":"2020","author":"Cheung","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"559","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbi.2020.04.049","article-title":"A multinational, multicentre study on the psychological outcomes and associated physical symptoms among healthcare workers during COVID-19 outbreak","volume":"88","author":"Chew","year":"2020","journal-title":"Brain, Behavior, and Immunity"},{"issue":"4","key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0238666","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0238666","article-title":"Determinants of burnout and other aspects of psychological well-being in healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic: a multinational cross-sectional study","volume":"16","author":"Denning","year":"2021","journal-title":"PLOS ONE"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-8","article-title":"WHE Regional Office for Europe COVID-19 IMST information and data hub","author":"ECDC-WHO","year":"2022"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"586","DOI":"10.3109\/15622970903397714","article-title":"Altered cardiovascular adaptability in depressed patients without heart disease","volume":"11","author":"Ehrenthal","year":"2010","journal-title":"The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.19816\/ref-10","article-title":"Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS): Manual. 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