Journal Article

Personal, professional, and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital workers: A cross-sectional survey

Maunder, Robert, Young-Ritchie, Carol, Yarnell, Christopher J., Bell, Chaim M., Chen, Jennifer, Basmaji, John, Kayitesi, Jessica, Abdalla, Mohamed, LeBlanc, Danielle, Eta-Ndu, Catherine, Honarmand, Kimia, Mehta, Sangeeta, Jeffs, Lianne, Ball, Ian M., Shah, Sumesh, Priestap, Fran

2022

Overview

We aimed to evaluate the personal, professional, and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital workers and their perceptions about mitigating strategies. Cross-sectional web-based survey consisting of (1) a survey of the personal and professional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and potential mitigation strategies, and (2) two validated psychological instruments (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale [K10] and Impact of Events Scale Revised [IES-R]). Regression analyses were conducted to identify the predictors of workplace stress, psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress. Hospital workers employed at 4 teaching and 8 non-teaching hospitals in Ontario, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among 1875 respondents (84% female, 49% frontline workers), 72% feared falling ill, 64% felt their job placed them at great risk of COVID-19 exposure, and 48% felt little control over the risk of infection. Respondents perceived that others avoided them (61%), reported increased workplace stress (80%), workload (66%) and responsibilities (59%), and 44% considered leaving their job. The psychological questionnaires revealed that 25% had at least some psychological distress on the K10, 50% had IES-R scores suggesting clinical concern for post-traumatic stress, and 38% fulfilled criteria for at least one psychological diagnosis. Female gender and feeling at increased risk due to PPE predicted all adverse psychological outcomes. Respondents favoured clear hospital communication (59%), knowing their voice is heard (55%), expressions of appreciation from leadership (55%), having COVID-19 protocols (52%), and food and beverages provided by the hospital (50%). Hospital work during the COVID-19 pandemic has had important personal, professional, and psychological impacts. Respondents identified opportunities to better address information, training, and support needs.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adaptation, Psychological / Adult / Anxiety / Beverages / Biology and Life Sciences / Canada / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - epidemiology / COVID-19 - virology / Critical care / Cross-Sectional Studies / Engineering and Technology / Epidemics / Female / Forecasts and trends / Health care policy / Health Personnel - psychology / Health risks / Health sciences / Humans / Leadership / Male / Medical personnel / Medical research / Medicine / Medicine and Health Sciences / Mental depression / Middle Aged / Mitigation / Nursing / Occupational health / Occupational Stress / Ontario - epidemiology / Pandemics / Personal protective equipment / Physicians / Polls & surveys / Post traumatic stress disorder / Posttraumatic stress disorder / Professionals / Psychological aspects / Psychological Distress / Psychological stress / Psychology / Public health / Regression analysis / Risk / Risk management / SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification / Social aspects / Social Sciences / Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - etiology / Surveys and Questionnaires / Teaching hospitals / Training / Voice communication / Workers / Workload