ABSTRACT
Chinese emergency department (ED) staff encountered significant mental stress while fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We sought to investigate the prevalence and associated factors for depressive symptoms among ED staff (including physicians, nurses, allied health, and auxiliary ED staff). A cross-sectional national survey of ED staff who were on duty and participated in combating the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted March 1-15, 2020. A total of 6,588 emergency medical personnel from 1,060 hospitals responded to this survey. A majority of respondents scored above 10 points on the PHQ-9 standardized test, which is associated with depressive symptoms. Those aged 31-45, those working in the COVID-19 isolation unit, and those with relatives ≤ 16 or ≥70 years old at home all had statistically significant associations with scoring >10 points. Depressive symptoms among Chinese emergency medical staff were likely quite common during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforce the importance of targeted ED staff support during future outbreaks.
ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has spread around the world and poses a challenge to clinical frontline nursing staff. In the early stage of the epidemic, our hospital responded promptly and added pertinent prevention measures on the basis of the existing fever clinic (FC) to ensure zero infection of medical staff and patients. The experience of the fever screening site establishment, epidemiologic investigation procedure amelioration, and integrated fever management will be introduced in the communication.