The effect of consecutive COVID-19 waves on the mental wellbeing of ICU nursing staff

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Working on an ICU ward is considered a physical as well as mentally challenging profession which has already been objectified by multiple studies in the past. When the Covid-19 pandemic started, medical staff were suddenly exposed to even greater levels of stress not only at work but also due to social restrictions. Our primary aim of this cross-sectional study is to observe the evolution in time of the impact on mental health during as well as after the pandemic. Method(s) In this cross-sectional study the mental health of our ICU nursing staff (n = 18) was monitored over a period of 26 months by using validate questionnaires for anxiety, depression, insomnia and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) such as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) score, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Insomnia severity index (ISI) and the revised version of the Impact of Event Severity scale (IES-r). In total it entailed 4 surveys during the pandemic and one follow up survey 6 months after. Result(s) Regarding GAD7 and ISI, ICU nurses did not score significantly at the beginning nor the end of this study. IES scores started off at 18 which is just below significant but 35% had a score associated with developing PTSD. These scores remained relatively high throughout the pandemic but saw a mean downward trend at the end (p = 0.338). Mean PHQ-9 scores were initially at the level of minimal depression and rose to be classified as mild depression at the end of the pandemic. In the follow-up survey scores dropped back to minimal depression. In time, the PHQ-9 test was not withheld as significant (p = 0.298). Conclusion(s) It is evident that the results presented in our study show that ICU nurses are prone to developing mental health problems during times of increased workload and stress and in particular the development of PTSD remained high in some subjects. Although there was a slight decrease in our follow-up survey, we believe mental health should be closely followed upon in the future.