Study of mental health of medical staff in a specialized hospital for COVID-19 in Novi Sad

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The highly infectious novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and soon became a global pandemic. COVID-19 is escalating medical staff psychological. In Novi Sad Clinical Centre of Vojvodina (CCV) for the past 2 years there has been a continuous struggle against the COVID-19 crisis. Both senior specialist doctors and newly hired young doctors, some without work experience, were hired immediately after completing their studies. Aim: To investigate the mental health of clinical first-line medical staff in COVID-19 epidemic. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving CCV staff who worked in the first line of patient treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were given a self- administered questionnaire which included information on demographic and socio- economic characteristics and the validated DASS-21 and IES-R scale instrument. A total of 200 medical workers were involved. Results: Twenty-eight (14%) participants screened positive for depression, 49 (24,5%) for anxiety, 66 (33%) for stress, and 22 (11%) for clinical concern of PTSD. The most endangered are young nurses and doctors with less than 6 months of previous work experience. Conclusion: In conclusion, our results suggest frontline medical staff involved in treatment of COVID-19 patients should be closely monitored as a high-risk group for depression and anxiety, and given proper training before deployment.