Protecting the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 emergency

Abstract

Healthcare workers employed in the COVID-19 emergency are at high risk of stress, burnout and post-traumatic stress disorders. The most important occupational risk factors that employers should address include insufficient staff training and resources available, and lack of training and treatment protocols. In Italy, recent guidelines were released for providing all healthcare workers who are employed in this emergency with psychological support services based on coping strategies for managing stress. We suggest that preventive measures and a psychological intervention plan should be framed within the mandatory occupational health surveillance programme, and carried out by occupational physicians in cooperation with mental healthcare providers in the workplace.

The relationship between psychological resilience, burnout, stress, and sociodemographic factors with depression in nurses and midwives during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional study in Turkey

“…The program to be implemented is advised to cover two main areas: providing enough information and training to healthcare professionals and giving psychological support to overcome anxiety. The measures to be taken and programs to be implemented should also include extreme scenarios 27 . The most important point to be considered for policy makers is the protection of the mental well‐being of healthcare professionals, because as the physical and mental burdens on healthcare professionals increase, they tend to make more mistakes and may be more susceptible to infections 27 .…”

“…The measures to be taken and programs to be implemented should also include extreme scenarios 27 . The most important point to be considered for policy makers is the protection of the mental well‐being of healthcare professionals, because as the physical and mental burdens on healthcare professionals increase, they tend to make more mistakes and may be more susceptible to infections 27 . In their systematic review, Bianchi et al 28 discovered that burnout and depression were different in terms of their connections to job‐related and generic factors.…”

“…Emotional exhaustion, which can be defined as the feeling of excessive physical and emotional fatigue, is related to excessive workload, time pressure, job stress, lack of adequate PPE, and exposure to COVID‐19 patients 2,6,22 . Similarly, in Italy, intense emotional and mental burden was found to create anxiety and depression, which may eventually cause burnout syndrome and suicidal thoughts among professionals 27 …”

The mediation effects of coping style on the relationship between social support and anxiety in Chinese medical staff during COVID-19

“…In conclusion, healthcare workers are on the front line of the battle against COVID-19 and are paying the highest price for this global health emergency [ 43 ]. Protecting healthcare workers by providing psychological support and emotional skills to deal with anxiety is a priority [ 12 , 44 ]. Sufficient social support affirmatively reduced the anxiety of healthcare workers.…”

Burnout among Portuguese healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) has been tremendous. The impact is not only related to increased workload, but also fear of the disease being contracted by themselves and their families, working with new and frequently changing protocols, limited personal protective equipment, caring for patients who are very sick and quickly deteriorating, and caring for colleagues who have also fallen ill [1][2][3][4]. This pandemic has exacerbated stressors in healthcare systems, in which HCWs burnout in response to workplace stress is already an epidemic [5].…”