The empirical research of the professional reliability of 550 doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine (March-June, 2020)
Authors: Mykhalchuk Nataliia , Pelekh Yurii , Kharchenko Yevhen , Ivashkevych Eduard , Ivashkevych Ernest , Prymachok Lyudmyla , Hupavtseva Nataliia , Zukow Walery 
Published: September 2020

The purpose of the article. In the process of our empirical research, we had the aim to examine the level of professional reliability of doctors who performed their professional duties during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine. We assumed that the higher the level of professional reliability was, the more effectively doctors will perform their own professional activities in unusual, extreme conditions of their professional activity. The research involved 550 doctors of Rivne Regional Hospital (Rivne, Ukraine). Methods and methodical instrumentation of the research. To solve the problem of our research, a set of methods was used, the choice and combination of which have been determined by the subject, the purpose and the objectives of this research: - theoretical methods – theoretical and methodological analysis of scientific sources and available according to the problem of our research psychological approaches: their systematization, classification, generalization, theoretical modeling to study the phenomenon of professional reliability of doctors who worked in difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine; - empirical methods – the observation, the interview, a questionnaire, testing, the method of expert assessments, which have been used for a deeper, holistic research of the structure of professional reliability of doctors; psychological and pedagogical experiment in the form of the empirical studying of the formation of a structure of professional reliability of doctors. The results of the research. We proved, that for specialists of medical sphere of the activity with a high level of professional reliability there was a main characteristic: the ability to perform professional activities in special and extreme conditions, the formation of professional and moral culture of a doctor, the constant development of components of his/her professional competence, professional readiness and professional reflection, the ability to implement effective psychological and acmeological influences, the development of reflective culture, the formation of a harmonious “self-concept” in professional and managerial activities, the actualization of psychological mechanisms, conditions, factors and determinants of the person’s professional development, etc. In our opinion, the professional reliability of a doctor is characterized by: a high level of stable productivity (or efficiency) of the professional activity; a high level of professional qualification and developed professional competence; optimal intensity of the professional activity; a high level of accuracy and reliability; a high level of organization of the professional activity; low indirectness (depending on purely external factors); creativity; the possibility of developing the subject of the professional activity and ensuring the actual professional growth; focus on achieving positive socially significant goals and results. Conclusions. We proved that bifurcation space of a professionally reliable Doctor includes: the ability to transfer professional experience; a high stable productivity of professional activity; the responsibility for the decisions having been made and their implementation; the ability to achieve own goals in any case; professional knowledge and the experience to be the director of some medical organization; the ability to act in critical situations and situations of cognitive dissonance; the ability to control the flow of doctors’ professional activity; a high level of professional competence; the ability to make and clearly implement their own decisions. If these components of a professionally reliable Doctor are formed at a high level, the Doctor can perform his/her professional activity with a high degree of its productivity, in difficult pandemic conditions, in situations of stress and cognitive dissonance. The latter emphasizes on the difference between the capabilities and the style of internal activity of Doctors who provide their activity in a period of COVID-19 pandemic: the ability to achieve meanings until the moment of meaningful acceptance of surrounding us reality and move on – to expand the meaning of the symbolic space (which is the COVID-19 pandemic) and, according to this, to show the measures of our own meaningful space (human life in a pandemic). Such conditions significantly encourage doctors to improve themselves as real professionals, to update their own professional reliability.