The Psychological Impact of Epidemic and Pandemic Outbreaks on Healthcare Workers: Rapid Review of the Evidence

Abstract

Purpose of Review We aim to provide quantitative evidence on the psychological impact of epidemic/pandemic outbreaks (i.e., SARS, MERS, COVID-19, ebola, and influenza A) on healthcare workers (HCWs). Recent Findings Forty-four studies are included in this review. Between 11 and 73.4% of HCWs, mainly including physicians, nurses, and auxiliary staff, reported post-traumatic stress symptoms during outbreaks, with symptoms lasting after 1-3 years in 10-40%. Depressive symptoms are reported in 27.5-50.7%, insomnia symptoms in 34-36.1%, and severe anxiety symptoms in 45%. General psychiatric symptoms during outbreaks have a range comprised between 17.3 and 75.3%; high levels of stress related to working are reported in 18.1 to 80.1%. Several individual and work-related features can be considered risk or protective factors, such as personality characteristics, the level of exposure to affected patients, and organizational support. Summary Empirical evidence underlines the need to address the detrimental effects of epidemic/pandemic outbreaks on HCWs' mental health. Recommendations should include the assessment and promotion of coping strategies and resilience, special attention to frontline HCWs, provision of adequate protective supplies, and organization of online support services.

The Combined Effect of Perceived COVID-19 Infection Risk at Work and Identification with Work Community on Psychosocial Wellbeing among Finnish Social Sector and Health Care Workers

“…Although psychological symptoms have been found to be particularly high among those working on the frontline during the pandemic [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ], non-frontline heath care workers have also reported such symptoms [ 9 ]. Moreover, these symptoms have been more severe among females and younger workers [ 4 , 10 , 11 ], as well as for those with prior mental health problems [ 12 , 13 ]. In addition to these cases, social sector workers, who have seldom been acknowledged in the recent COVID-19 literature, have also faced risk of infection in their work [ 14 ].…”

“…Among health care and social sector workers, the perceived infection risk is dependent on the protective measures taken by organizational infrastructures and governments. Accordingly, confidence in protective measures has been found to be associated with reduced psychological symptoms [ 13 , 19 , 20 ].…”

“…Various protective strategies against COVID-19-related occupational stress and its negative effects have been considered, ranging from resilience enhancement to providing adequate organizational support systems [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Curiously, in the context of social sector and health care workers, the role of organizational group processes has rarely been discussed.…”

Post COVID-19 pandemic mental health challenges

“…Post-traumatic stress symptoms were reported by 11%–73% of HCP during epidemic or pandemic outbreaks that lasted in up to 10–40% after 1–3 years ( Preti et al;, 2020 ).…”

Self-blame regret, fear of COVID-19 and mental health during post-peak pandemic

“…As such, previous research concerning the current pandemic revealed heightened stress among individuals due to fear of infection, transmitting the virus to the loved ones, lack of information and boredom, and loss of social communication (Zandifar & Badrfam, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020). In support, several studies documented that perceived stress is an important concept to investigate during the pandemic (Du et al, 2020;McAlonan et al, 2007;Mo et al, 2020;Preti et al, 2020) and might be impactful on developing depression symptoms (e.g., Gotlib et al, 2020;Montano & Acebes, 2020) .…”