Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic also presents high mental health challenges for medical staff. The present study highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed Italian medical staff and how dehumanization of patients and colleagues has been associated with distress, alienation, and moral injury. The results show that the processes involved in humanizing care in medicine strengthen the patient-centered relationship but may have been affected by the impact of the pandemic. It is necessary to generate more indepth research on the relationship between dehumanization, humanization, and medical staff well-being. Regarding humanization of care in medicine, the results suggest that training needs to be both implemented to enable medical staff to learn how to properly manage relationships and communication with patients and colleagues and conducted by mental health professionals.
