Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate which protective strategies against occupational stress were developed for health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was an integrative literature review conducted in 2021. The Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online and the Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences databases were searched using the Boolean operator AND and the controlled vocabularies "health professionals" AND "occupational stress" AND "COVID-19", both in English and Portuguese. After applying the inclusion criteria and reading the selected articles, a final sample of 24 articles was obtained. Protective strategies against occupational stress developed by institutions included psychological support, support from managers and team leaders, provision of personal protective equipment, appropriate schedules and workload, and training. As for the strategies developed by health professionals themselves, these included resilience, peer support, and self-care. Several protective strategies during the pandemic were observed, but institutions still need to develop and/or improve practices to offer better psychological conditions to health professionals in general.