Frontline medical professionals in distress - Doctor heal thyself

Title

Frontline medical professionals in distress - Doctor heal thyself

Creator

Aranha R.; Saldanha A.; Aranha S.

Description

Covid has changed our lives in many ways. People are scared to even step out of their houses, but health care workers have no option but to continue to work and care for the sick. Health care workers play a vital role in providing care to the infected persons, working beyond their capacities and risking their own lives. There is a lot of stress involved in the medical profession, and the pandemic made it worse. Each frontline health worker is at risk of getting infected with Covid during work and carrying it to their families, causing a lot of anxiety and mental health issues among the health care workers. According to a recent by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than half of public health workers have reported symptoms of at least one mental health condition like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the recent past. A recent study among 422 doctors revealed 63.5% symptoms of depression, and 45% symptoms of stress, among frontline COVID-19 doctors. Physicians who perceived organizational problems related to procedural and informational justice were exposed to high levels of occupational stress. Every physician should have a personal doctor, and he or she has to seek suitable help as needed. The health care workers' stress is mainly associated with work stress as they are expected to work on a war footing and get very little time to spend with their families. There is a need to set up good psychiatric care for the medical professionals in the hospitals. The administrators of the hospitals should frequently check on the health and well-being of their employees. This article attempts to provide strategies to hospital administrators to help medical professionals reduce their stress levels. 2022

Source

Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, Vol-10

Date

2022-01-01

Publisher

Elsevier B.V.

Subject

Anxiety; Health care professionals; Pandemic; Strategies etc; Stress

Coverage

Aranha R., Asst. Professor, School of Business & Management, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India; Saldanha A., Asst. Professor, St. Joseph's Institute of Management, Bangalore, India; Aranha S., Sr. Resident, Department of Anaesthesiology, Fr. Muller Charitable Hospital, Thumbay, Mangalore

Rights

All Open Access; Gold Open Access

Relation

ISSN: 26669153

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Letter

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2022.100444

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85142674699&doi=10.1016%2fj.jadr.2022.100444&partnerID=40&md5=00859192f7e839d7452a7fe0d2eba2b1