Use of virtual meeting and survey technology to assess Covid-19 related mental wellbeing of healthcare workers.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: - Healthcare workers (HCW) throughout the world have been exposed to economic and existential stress during the Covid-19 pandemic. The American Medical Association (AMA) has documented that increased healthcare burden correlates with increased HCW stress, burnout, and psychological burden. However, limits on personnel, time, and in person interactions make it challenging to assess mental health outcomes during a pandemic. This pilot test case study used virtual technology to efficiently assess these outcomes. SETTING: - Data were collected based on voluntary participation in the Coping with Covid-19 for Caregiver's survey created by AMA. The survey was sent out to approximately 300 participants who included local physicians, medical residents, medical students, and allied health professionals and students who attended a virtual Mental Health Summit. METHODS: - The survey was developed by the AMA, and it included questions about demographics, overall stress, fear of infection and transmission of the virus, perceived anxiety or depression due to Covid, work overload, childcare issues, and sense of meaning and purpose. The AMA allows for up to five additional questions to be added to their survey, therefore five questions regarding support service utilization, perseverance, and resilience during Covid-19, and two items to further understand students' areas of medical interest. The survey was administered using an online platform through the AMA. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: - There were 81 survey respondents. Based on the results of the survey, "high stress" was found in 52 (64%) participants. 66 (81%) were afraid (moderately or to a great extent) of exposure or transmission, 61 (75%) described high levels of anxiety or depression, and 67 (84%) noted work overload. Despite this increase in stress, most respondents (77%) said they were not likely to reduce their devoted hours in clinical care or research in the next 12 months, and 81% answered that they would not leave their practice or research within two years. CONCLUSION: - Covid-19 has negatively affected the wellbeing of HCW. This is a similar trend seen during other times of healthcare strain. Mental health support, work modulation, and various provisions should be explored as means to reduce Covid-related negative impacts. The use of online an online summit and online data collection methods were appropriate for collecting data on the impact of Covid on mental health. This pilot study supports the larger scale implementation of this technology for health informatics research.