Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of the health care workers

Abstract

The attack of COVID-19 has been a threat to the public health rendering it a global war by the humans against a deadly virus and the soldiers of this battle are the frontline healthcare workers. They are most vulnerable to infection and other adverse effects which have profound emotional impact on them. These factors can result in different types of psychological pressure that trigger feelings of loneliness, helplessness, stress, irritability, fatigue, despair, sleep disturbance, anxiety and fear of contagion. The current study is to find the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the healthcare workers. Relevant scientific articles were procured from Google scholar database through purposive sampling technique. Total size of the participants was 6868, belonging to the age group 18 to 60 years. It was observed that 50%, 46%, 37%, 30%, 21%, 19%, 6%, 2%, 1%, 1%, 1% and 1% of the total sample had symptoms of insomnia/poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression, somatisation, stress/distress, social dysfunction, low professional identity, burnout effect, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, phobic symptoms, fear of COVID-19 and worry, respectively. The healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients especially are at high risk of developing various psycho-pathological symptoms that may adversely affect their mental well-being and productivity. Hence, psycho-education, psychosocial support, adequate counselling facilities, social interactions and reasonable resting facilities for the medical professional maybe adapted for the mental well-being of the healthcare workers.