Emotional Impact of COVID-19 on Palliative Care Healthcare Professionals

ABSTRACT

Background/aims: Palliative care professionals (PCP) work in an environment of great emotional impact where patients and caregivers present high levels of emotional distress and suffering. Working in these units frequently involves high levels of emotional distress. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified this emotional distress. The aim of this work was to analyze the levels of emotional distress of palliative care health professionals during the second wave of the pandemic in Spain. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of palliative care health professionals who responded to an online survey during the second COVID-19 pandemic in Spain (July 2020). 95 palliative care professionals (58 women and 37 men) with a mean age of 45.72 ± 11.71 years responded to an online survey voluntarily, after giving informed consent. In addition to sociodemographic variables, anxiety, depression, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress, and questions related to the COVID-19 situation and the institution were analyzed. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Results: 53.7% of the health professionals reported anxiety, 46.7% depression, 54.5% emotional distress, and 28% post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A 26.5% of the professionals think that they require psychological help. 32.8% believe that they feel recognized by their institution, and 28.7% feel cared for by their institution. We observe that the professionals who feel recognized by their institutions experience less emotional distress (p<0.01) and believe they need less psychological support (p<0.05) than those who do not perceive it. Conclusions: A high emotional impact generated by the COVID-19 pandemic is observed in PC professionals. It would be necessary to provide psychological resources related to emotional regulation and coping strategies to deal with this situation of high emotional impact generated by the pandemic and promote their well-being and facilitate coping of future pandemics.