ABSTRACT
Background: The emotional experiences of healthcare workers during the first wave of COVID-19 warrant further investigation especially regarding gender differences. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between gender role, job role and risk and protective factors for the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Methods: A total of 521 healthcare workers completed the survey during the first pandemic wave. Psychosocial Index (PSI) was used to assess stress, well-being, distress, illness behaviour, and quality of life;the distress caused by stressful events was evaluated with the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) and resilience was measured with the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD RISC). Results: Associations were found between female gender and distress with and without sleep disturbance (p<0.0001). Assessment of PTSD symptoms showed significance on symptoms of avoidance (p=0.0006), intrusiveness of thought (p=0.0016), and hyperarousal (p=0.003) to the disadvantage of female compared to male. Nurses emerged as the most vulnerable professional role about distress (p<0.0001), sleep disturbance (p<0.0001), and abnormal illness behaviors (p<0.0001). Finally, the study of post-traumatic symptomatology showed significance for avoidance (p=0.0072), intrusive thinking (p=0.0071), and hyperarousal (p=0.0019) to the disadvantage of the medical and nursing role in the female gender compared to the medical and nursing role in the male gender and other professional role in the female gender. Conclusions: Such findings suggest, there are differences in gender, rather than professional role and resilience factor, in emotional management in a particularly stressful condition, such as that of the first pandemic wave © 2022. by the Author(s);licensee Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, Messina, Italy. This article is an open access article, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 disease is one of the biggest public health challenges in Italy and global healthcare facilities, including radiotherapy departments, faced an unprecedented emergency. Cancer patients are at higher risk of COVID-19 infection because of their immunosuppressive state caused by both tumor itself and anticancer therapy adopted. In this setting, the radiation therapy clinical decision-making process has been partly reconsidered; thus, to reduce treatment duration and minimize infection risk during a pandemic, hypofractionated regimens have been revised. Moreover, telemedicine shows its helpfulness in the radiotherapy field, and patients get the supportive care they need minimizing their access to hospitals. This review aims to point out the importance of hypofractionated RT and telemedicine in cancer patient management in the COVID-19 era.