Long-term psychological effects of COVID-19 pandemic in hospital workers in a North Italian Hospital

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
Objectives. The aim of this study is to explore the long-term psychological impact of COVID-19 on health workers and other professional workers in the “SS Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo” Hospital located in Alessandria. Materials and Methods. A monocentric prospective observational study was conducted on 112 hospital workers by completing an on-line survey. Data were collected from 1st to 30th April 2021. The survey assessed self-reported socio-demographic, clinical, work and COVID-19 related information and risk perception. Moreover, it included an online version of validated questionnaires in Italian language: Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Coping Orientation to the Problems Experienced: New Italian Version (COPE-NVI-25), and Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOl-5). Results. Data analysis reveals that hospital workers show moderate percentages of post-traumatic stress (40,2%), depression (40,2%), anxiety (28,6%), stress (44.6%) and insomnia (16.1%) symptoms. Administrative staff shows higher anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Most common strategies used by responders are positive attitude, problem solving and social support. A subgroup of healthcare workers providing direct care to patients shows moderate levels of compassion-satisfaction and low levels of secondary traumatic stress and burn-out. Conclusions. Healthcare workers and other professionals working in hospital show psychological effect that last more than one year after the beginning of the pandemic.
How to Cite

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.