COVID-19-related perceived stress in healthcare workers

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: It is uniformly accepted that the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented strain on all facets of life around the world. This is especially true for both healthcare workers and patients who have been significantly affected. Our aim was to objectively quantify how this pandemic particularly affected the stress levels of healthcare workers (HCW). METHODS: The Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS) is a psychological instrument used to measure the degree to which situations in one's life are appraised as stressful. The CPSS has been used in studies exploring perceived self-helplessness and self-efficacy. Over the course of 2 weeks, ICU HCW medical doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, patient care assistants, and pharmacists;were asked to complete the CPSS survey that was sent via email. The department leaders, via email, reminded HCW to complete the survey once. A total of 144 HCW responded. A comparison of the results was conducted based on profession, gender, and years of work experience. RESULTS: The results range between 11.9-14.7 indicating significant levels of stress in HCW during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the data collected using analysis of variance to determine the P-Value. When the scores were organized by the three categories of profession, gender, and years of work experience, we found no significant difference (P<0.05) in the quantitative level of stress reported. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the survey confirm significant levels of stress reported by all participants. There is no significant difference in stress levels between professions, gender, or years of work experience. We propose that stress reduction management should be implemented for all HCW. Furthermore, the survey should be repeated once stress mitigation techniques are used to objectify reduction in stress levels. Finally, we intend to repeat the survey once the pandemic has ended to evaluate baseline stress levels in non-pandemic situations. This study is limited by respondent bias in a pandemic situation. There was no baseline assessment of stress levels for comparison. Conducting this type of survey at the end of the pandemic, in non-pandemic situation, and on a yearly basis would better quantify the levels of stress in ICU HCW.