Publication: Prevalence of Psychological Effect of COVID-19 on Medical Professionals in a Tertiary Care Center
Date
2020
Authors
Article Type
Original Article
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
JNMA Print ISSN: 0028-2715; Online ISSN: 1815-672X
Volume Title
Pages
Pages: 550 - 553
Publisher
Institute of Medicine
Abstract
Abstract
Introduction: COVID-19 is a pandemic disease first detected in Wuhan, China on last December 2019. Many doctors and nurses, were infected and lost their life by COVID-19 around the world. Therefore COVID-19 brought unbearable psychological pressure on doctors, and nurses. The objective of this study is to find the prevalence of anxiety among medical doctors and nurses.
Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of 101 doctors and nurses carried out in a tertiary care center. Convenience sampling was done with the study period from April to May 2020. Ethical approval was taken from the institutional review board of NAMS (IRB reference no. 1076). The collected data stored and analyzed with statistical software (SPSS version 26.0). Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data.
Results: Out of 101 participants prevalence of anxiety was found to be 74 (73.3%) (64.68-81.33 at 95% Confidence Interval). Among them, 9 (8.9%) of participants experienced sever types of generalized anxiety disorder, 23 (22.8%) moderate, and 42 (41.6%) mild type. Similarly, 18 (17.8%) and 10 (9.9%) of participants felt very difficult and extreme difficulty at the workplace and home respectively.
Conclusions: The mental health of medical doctors and nurses is significantly affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospital administration should conduct psychological preparedness training to the medical profession before posting on duty to provide quality health services to the patients.
Keywords: COVID-19; doctor; generalized anxiety disorder; nurses.
Description
Surendra Lal Shrestha
Department of Medicine, National Academy of Medical Science (NAMS), Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
Keywords
COVID-19, doctor, generalized anxiety disorder, nurses
Identifier
https://doi.org/10.31729/jnma.5087