Abstract:
The objectives of this research and development were: 1) to develop the measurement of psychological immunity for medical and public health personnel. 2) to develop the innovative psychological counseling for enhancing the psychological immunity of medical and public health personnel. The study was divided into two phases: The first phase aimed to study and develop the measurement of psychological immunity for medical and public health personnel. The stratified random sampling technique was used to recruit 480 medical and public health, who met the inclusion criteria. Phase 2 to develop the innovative psychological counseling for enhancing the psychological immunity of medical and public health personnel. The sample consisted of 20 medical and public health personnel in Phase 1 with psychological immunity scores below the 55th percentile. They were randomly assigned into either the experimental (n = 10) and the control groups (n = 10). The instruments used in the research were: 1) psychological immunity Test with a reliability value for the whole item was .871, 2) the innovative psychological counseling. The innovative psychological counseling for enhancing the psychological immunity of medical and public health personnel were administered for 8 sessions and each session took about 60 to 90 minutes; 1st and 8th sessions using face-to-face counseling. The 2nd 5th sessions were online counseling and 6th -7th sessions were conducted through self-study counseling. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance, and content analysis were employed to analyze the data. The results of the research were as follows: 1. Psychological immunity test for medical and public health personnel consists of 4 main components, including self-control, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy. It is consistent with empirical data (χ² = 1.633, df = 1, p = 0.201, χ²/df = 1.633, RMSEA = 0.036, NFI = 0.998, NNFI = 0.996, CFI = 0.999, RMR = 0.007, SRMR = 0.007, GFI = 0.998, and AGFI = 0.983). 2. The overall level of psychological immunity among medical and public health personnel was found that a high level, with an average of 3.87. Considering each aspect, it was found that resilience with an average of 4.06, self-efficacy with an average of 3.94, optimism with an average of 3.93 and self-control with an average of 3.57. 3. The innovative psychological counseling for enhancing psychological immunity of medical and public health personnel were: 1) At post-test and follow-up, experimental group which received innovative psychological counseling obtained significantly higher score on psychological immunity than the control group at .05 level, 2) The experimental group which received innovative psychological counseling obtained significantly higher score on psychological immunity at the post-test and follow-up than pre-test at .05 level of significance. 4. The results of in-depth interviews with medical and public health personnel in the experimental group revealed that all four components of psychological immunity; self-control, optimism, resilience, and self-efficacy were present. These four elements can coexist simultaneously, with an each element capable of influencing the others. Therefore, enhancing psychological immunity should focus on regular training and self-improvement, including activities such as self-awareness, thoughtful adjustment of thinking, and reframing.