Health professionals coping with stress related to extraordinary situations scale: A scale development study

Regardless of whether disasters have natural or technological origins, healthcare personnel play an active role in response processes, from the scene of the incident through triage areas and hospital procedures. The primary goal in disasters is to save as many lives as possible in the shortest time possible. Therefore, healthcare workers engage in prolonged contact with disaster victims and assume both physical and emotional responsibilities. This situation increases the stress levels of healthcare personnel and makes stress management skills crucial. In this study, the aim was to develop the 'Stress Coping Scale for Healthcare Workers in Extraordinary Situations (SOSBÇÖ)’ to assess the stress-coping levels of health professionals in emergency situations. During scale development, a methodological and cross-sectional research design was used, and the population was reached through convenience sampling. The study universe consisted of healthcare workers in Erzincan and Gümüşhane provinces (n=1010). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for n=706 and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for n=304 were conducted, yielding high validity and reliability indices, including Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO=0,976), Cronbach's Alpha (α=0,949), and McDonald's Omega (ω=0,953). In conclusion, considering Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, a scale consisting of 30 items was developed, covering five sub-dimensions: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization, using a 5-point Likert scale. Under criterion-related validity, it showed a statistically significant correlation with psychological resilience (p<0,05). It is believed that the scale will be a useful tool, especially for assessing the stress-coping levels of healthcare professionals in extraordinary conditions, planning interventions to support psychological resilience, and conducting comparative assessments with normal conditions