The COVID-19 pandemic forced physicians to continuously exchange rapidly evolving clinicalevidence under acute resource scarcity. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theoryand Job Demands Resources (JD-R) insights, this study examines how knowledge sharingshapes physicians' job demands as a dual process: depleting individual resources whileactivating new resource gains. A double mediation model was tested using cross-sectionalsurvey data from 499 Spanish hospital physicians during the 2021 peak wave, analyzed viaconfirmatory factor analysis and bootstrapped mediation (PROCESS, 5,000 resamples). Resultsshow knowledge sharing amplifies job demands but also fosters communication quality, whichsequentially enhances participative decision making, mitigating those demands. We identifycommunication and participation as sequentially activated resistance resources that interruptresource loss spirals, a mechanism we term 'resistance caravans.' These findings extend CORtheory through empirical evidence of sequential resource buffering and offer practitioners adesign principle coupling participative governance with structured knowledge sharing protocols.
