- Title
- Concerns and psychological well-being of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary care hospital in New South Wales
- Creator
- Naqvi, Syeda Shaher Bano; Davis, Joshua; Pickles, Robert W.; Loewenthal, Mark R.
- Relation
- Internal Medicine Journal Vol. 51, Issue 9, p. 1407-1413
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imj.15465
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Background: In early 2020, the impending COVID-19 pandemic placed a once-in-a-generation professional and personal challenge on healthcare workers. Publications on direct physical disease abound. The authors wanted to focus on doctors' psychological well-being. Aims: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on doctors' well-being and evaluate their concerns as the pandemic progressed. Methods: A mixed-methods, hospital-based survey was sent to doctors at the 650-bed tertiary referral hospital in NSW at two different periods (late-March and early May 2020). A validated mental well-being tool (Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS)) was combined with COVID-19-specific questions. Results: Two hundred and thirty-five responses were obtained from 450 doctors, with a response rate of 32% in the first survey and 20% in the second. The majority (35%) of respondents were doctors-in-training, followed by staff-specialists (23%). The highest response was from frontline workers in both surveys, including the intensive care unit (27%), anaesthesia (21%) and emergency department (13%). ‘Extreme concern’ regarding personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage dropped from 22.6% to 2.2% and ‘extreme concern’ of contracting COVID-19 fell from 22.6% to 3.4% in the second survey. The proportion of respondents with a ‘low’ psychological well-being score improved from 38% to 27% between the two surveys. The resulting mean improvement in the SWEMWBS was 3.49 (95% confidence interval = 3.06–3.91, P < 0.001). Conclusion: Both COVID-19 specific concerns and psychological well-being improved greatly in the second survey. Possible explanations are the fall in COVID-19 cases in the district, improvements in PPE supply and supportive measures communicated to doctors during this period.
- Subject
- COVID-19 pandemic; mental health; healthcare worker; psychological well-being; personal protective equipment; SDG 8; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1459312
- Identifier
- uon:45640
- Identifier
- ISSN:1444-0903
- Language
- eng
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Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth