The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental wellbeing and coping strategies of health care providers in Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital

Abstract

Objective The pandemic of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) in Egypt has represented a distinctive threat in terms of psychological distress for health care providers. The first studies on the effect of the COVID pandemic on health care professionals were developed in China, but with the spread of the pandemic, other countries started to conduct studies analyzing the psychological response of health care workers to the pandemic. This study aims to investigate the mental well-being in terms of depression and anxiety, coping strategies, along with quality of life (QoL) among health care providers working in Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak.Patients and methods Self-administered questionnaires were distributed online through Google forms to health care providers (N=108) working in Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital from beginning of June to end of August 2020. The questionnaires measured depression, anxiety, coping strategies, QoL, and COVID-19 exposure among Egyptian health care providers.Results Overall, ∼40% of health care providers in our study were directly involved in the management of patients infected with COVID-19. They showed higher mean Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Inventories total scores. Participants perceived their current mental health to be worse during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared with before the outbreak.Conclusions Both immediate-term and long-term psychiatric services for health care workers in Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital should be implemented to re-establish psychological well-being and enhance QoL and resilience for them during times of severe distress.