Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Healthcare Workers Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.

Gabriele D’Ettorre,Giancarlo Ceccarelli,Alessandro Russo,Giuseppe Pietro Innocenti,Paolo Vassalini,Alexia E Koukopoulos,Lorenzo Tarsitani,Letizia Santinelli,Francesco Alessandri,Gabriella D’Ettorre

doi:10.3390/ijerph18020601

Abstract

Prevention of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in healthcare workers (HCWs) facing the current COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge worldwide as HCWs are likely to experience acute and chronic, often unpredictable, occupational stressors leading to PTSS. This review aims to analyze the literature to discover which topics have been focused on and what the latest developments are in managing the occupational risk of PTSS in HCWs during the current pandemic. For the purpose of this review, we searched for publications in MEDLINE/Pubmed using selected keywords. The articles were reviewed and categorized into one or more of the following categories based on their subject matter: risk assessment, risk management, occurrence rates. A total of 16 publications matched our inclusion criteria. The topics discussed were: “Risk Assessment”, “Occurrence Rates”, and “Risk Management”. Young age, low work experience, female gender, heavy workload, working in unsafe settings, and lack of training and social support were found to be predictors of PTSS. This review’s findings showed the need for urgent interventions aimed at protecting HCWs from the psychological impact of traumatic events related to the pandemic and leading to PTSS; healthcare policies need to consider preventive and management strategies toward PTSS, and the related psychic sequelae, in HCWs.

Highlights

Introduction nal affiliationsMinimizing the psychological impact of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) represents a special challenge for healthcare systems through the world
This critical situation increases HCWs’ risk of suffering from symptoms ranging from psychological distress to psychiatric disorders, as a result of the effort to continuously fight with several COVID-related unfavorable conditions [4]
Most of the selected articles showed female gender at a higher risk than male, consistent with existing studies on post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in the general population and in HCWs before the COVID-19 outbreak [30,31]; given this gender susceptibility to PTSS, Gonzalez-Sanguino et al [26] hypothesized that during the current pandemic, women tend to take on a caregiving role at home and, because of the need to balance this with healthcare work, are at increased risk and more vulnerable in this situation of overload

Summary

Introduction

Introduction nal affiliationsMinimizing the psychological impact of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) represents a special challenge for healthcare systems through the world. HCWs represent the first-line fighters treating patients with COVID-19, and every day, they face a high risk of being infected and, of spreading the virus to other people [1,2,3]. HCWs are facing critical situations that increase their risk of suffering from the psychological impact of dealing with several unfavorable conditions, with consequences that might extend from psychological distress to mental health symptoms [4]. A body of evidence highlights that past infectious disease outbreaks, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and the 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1), were associated with mental health issues among HCWs [5,6], mostly post-traumatic stress symptoms.

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