Department of Nursing, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 William T. Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA, 02125-3393, USA.
Westfield State University, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA, 01086, USA.
Hum Resour Health. 2021 Sep 26;19(1):118. doi: 10.1186/s12960-021-00661-5.
The existing studies showed that frontline healthcare workers during an epidemic experienced unusual stressors and mental distress which even lasted for years after the crisis. It is important to learn about their concerns early to mitigate the negative impact as well as to evaluate disease control from experiences on the front lines for improving responses to the outbreak. The study aimed to provide insights on how to strengthen public health responses to protect healthcare workers both physically and mentally, and effectively control the disease in light of hierarchy of controls.
A cross-sectional survey was distributed online via Qualtrics to frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 through a university's nursing program and received 267 valid responses from 103 certificated nursing assistants, 125 nurses, and 39 other health professionals. A descriptive data analysis with a Chi-square test at a two-sided 0.05 level of significance was performed on factors that potentially affected mental health of healthcare workers and effectiveness of disease control at workplace in five domains. The themes were summarized on open-ended questions.
About 30% of the respondents showed the symptom of depression and needed a further investigation. The influencing factors in five domains were examined. Engineering and administrative controls, as well as PPE were widely used in response to COVID-19. The respondents assessed the state and workplace responses to COVID-19 better than the federal government responses. The workplace responses were considered most effective. Multiple factors with a statistically significant correlation with effectiveness of the disease control at workplace were identified.
The study suggested that timely responses at policy level will be more effective than other measures in early prevention and control of the pandemic, mental distress should be addressed in addition to PPE, and nursing programs should consider providing a situation-specific career coaching or counseling for students. A longitudinal study at a larger scale is warranted to capture the variation of time change with the disease control evolvement and across geographic regions.
现有研究表明，疫情期间的一线医护人员经历了异常的压力源和精神困扰，甚至在危机结束多年后仍持续存在。尽早了解他们的关注点对于减轻负面影响以及从一线经验评估疾病控制以改进应对疫情的措施非常重要。本研究旨在提供如何加强公共卫生应对措施以保护医护人员身心健康并有效控制疾病的见解，以控制层次为指导。
通过大学护理项目，在线使用 Qualtrics 向 COVID-19 期间的一线医护人员进行横断面调查，共收到 103 名认证助理护士、125 名护士和 39 名其他卫生专业人员的 267 份有效回复。在五个领域中，对可能影响医护人员心理健康和工作场所疾病控制效果的因素进行了描述性数据分析，并进行了双侧 0.05 水平的卡方检验。对开放式问题进行了主题总结。
约 30%的受访者出现抑郁症状，需要进一步调查。在五个领域中检验了影响因素。工程和行政控制以及个人防护设备广泛应用于应对 COVID-19。受访者对 COVID-19 的国家和工作场所应对措施的评估优于联邦政府的应对措施。工作场所的应对措施被认为最有效。确定了与工作场所疾病控制效果具有统计学显著相关性的多个因素。
研究表明，在大流行的早期预防和控制中，政策层面的及时应对措施将比其他措施更有效，除了提供个人防护设备外，还应解决精神困扰问题，护理项目应考虑为学生提供特定情况的职业指导或咨询。需要进行更大规模的纵向研究，以捕捉疾病控制演变和跨地理区域的时间变化的变化。
