ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
COVID-19 pandemic has affected the psychological well being of not only the general population but also of the doctors (physicians and trainees) working in the tertiary care centres (referral centres). They are vulnerable to myriad of psychological problems as they strive to balance the duty of caring for patients with concerns about their own well-being and that of their family and friends. Attending to their psychological well-being while caring for patients is as important as managing the physical health. Since there is dearth of researches on this issue, we decided to conduct an online survey to assess the psychological well-being of doctors working amidst COVID19 crisis in a tertiary care centres.
METHODOLOGY
An online survey was conducted from 1st September to 5th September 2020 through participation invite links being sent through text messages to doctors of all departments throughout the tertiary care centre. The survey collected data on socio-demographic and clinical parameters related to work setting along with measuring psychological well being with the help of Mental Health Continuum- Short Form (MHC-SF) scale.
RESULTS
There were a total of 202 responses received during the survey period. The mean age of the respondents was around 27 ± 3 years with a male female ratio of almost 1:1 out of which 48.6 % respondents were residents, 25.2% consultants and 26.2% faculty. Majority of them belonged to medicine department of a private tertiary care centre and having regular working hours (6-12 hours). 7.4 % respondents reported of having past psychiatric illness and around 5 % reported to be currently on anxiolytics/sedative-hypnotics.
Overall, the respondents had higher scores on all domains of MHC-SF scale namely emotional (hedonic) , social and psychological (eudemonic) well being which denotes flourishing and positive mental health of the doctors working in a tertiary care set up in this COVID pandemic situation. Positive correlates found during the survey includes young age, being married, working in a private tertiary care set up, having regular working hours (6-12 hours) despite working in multiple work settings along with a negative history of past psychiatric illness (p values significant).
CONCLUSION
We had aimed to assess the impact of COVID19 pandemic on psychological well being of doctors working in tertiary care settings and found that they are maintaining a flourishing and positive mental health even during this stressful event of global crisis. This would further encourage more comprehensible research on psychological well being of all frontline health care workers amidst COVID19 pandemic.
KEYWORDS
COVID-19 pandemic, psychological well-being, doctors, tertiary care centres, online, MHC-SF scale
Introduction
Started as a meagre local infection in the Wuhan city of China, COVID-19 pandemic has put considerable physical and emotional strain on frontline healthcare workers[1]. Even amidst the lockdown situation, the tertiary care centres have continuously received hundreds of critically ill COVID-19 patients and were forced to implement their emergency protocols. With this milieu, the front-line healthcare workers became vulnerable to the psychological, social and emotional impact of COVID-19 infection. Among them, physicians and trainees represent a unique group—functioning simultaneously as both caregivers and learners and experiencing considerable challenges during the pandemic.[2] However, we have a limited understanding regarding the psychological well being of these doctors working amidst the pandemic.Thus, this survey aimed to assess the psychological, social and emotional impact of the COVID-19 on the mental health in the doctors (residents, consultants and faculty) working in tertiary care centres amidst the global crisis.
It has been learned from the past experiences, whenever situations like these arise, health-care workers come to play a major role and push their limits every day. Doctors, being in the frontline of the system, take the brunt the most. Situation is further complicated due to complete uncertainty; lack of proper guidelines; unprepared health infrastructure; and fear, anxiety, stigma, prejudice, and marginalisation toward the disease.[1] The recent pandemic of COVID-19 has thrown serious challenges to health-care professionals. This situation exposed them to higher stress level, anxiety, and apprehension. The ever-increasing number of confirmed and suspected cases, overwhelming workload, depletion of personal protection equipment, widespread media coverage, lack of specific drugs, and feelings of being inadequately supported may all contribute to the mental burden of these doctors in a tertiary care set-up. [3] They fear contagion and infection of their family, friends, and colleagues, felt uncertainty and stigmatised, reported reluctance to work or contemplating resignation, and reported experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms, which could have long-term psychological implications [4].
Thus, the aim of current survey is to evaluate emotional, psychological and social well being of doctors working in a tertiary care setup in the era of coronavirus.
Methodology
An online, cross-sectional survey design was conducted to assess the psychological well being of frontline health care providers particularly the doctors in the tertiary care centre during the COVID-19 crisis.We collected the data using an online (anonymous) survey form to minimise face-to-face interaction amidst crisis situation. Potential respondents were invited through a text message, which led them to a survey link, opening of which implied the consent to participate in the survey. Also, using the principles of snowballing, the link was circulated by the investigators through social media for capturing data from doctors working in the tertiary care centre during this COVID-19 pandemic. The period of data collection was between 1st and 5th September 2020.
Once the user clicked on the link, they were given brief introduction about the nature of the survey followed by series of questions in the first part including the socio-demographic information (age, gender, marital status), information regarding the workplace (instituition type, designation, department) and work setting along with working hours per day. Participants were also asked about having a known pre-existing psychiatric illness and were further required to specify the nature of illness and the treatment taken and whether they are on any psychotropic medications currently as well.