Department of Community Psychology, FernUniversitat in Hagen, Hagen, Germany.
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Wien, Austria
BMJ Open. 2023 Mar 22;13(3):e067244. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067244.
Healthcare staff have been facing particular mental health challenges during the COVID-19-pandemic. Building on a first study at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, we aimed to investigate among healthcare professionals in Germany and Austria (1) how mental health may have changed in professionals over the course of the ongoing pandemic, (2) whether there are differences between different professional groups regarding mental health, (3) which stress factors may explain these mental health outcomes and (4) whether help-seeking behaviour is related to caretaker self-image or team climate. Between March and June 2021, N=639 healthcare professionals completed an online survey including the ICD-10 Symptom Rating checklist, event-sampling questions on pandemic-related stressors and self-formulated questions on help-seeking behaviour and team climate. Findings were analysed using t-tests, regressions and comparisons to a sample of healthcare professionals assessed in 2020 as well as to norm samples. Results show that mental health symptoms, particularly for depression and anxiety, persist among healthcare staff in the second pandemic year, that symptom prevalence rates are higher among nursing staff compared with physicians and paramedics and that team climate is associated with mental health outcomes. Implications of these findings in relation to the persisting pandemic and its aftermath are discussed.
医护人员在 COVID-19 大流行期间一直面临着特殊的心理健康挑战。在 2020 年 3 月大流行初期的第一项研究的基础上，我们旨在调查德国和奥地利的医护人员：(1) 随着大流行的持续，专业人员的心理健康状况可能发生了怎样的变化；(2) 不同专业群体之间的心理健康状况是否存在差异；(3) 哪些压力因素可以解释这些心理健康结果；(4) 是否寻求帮助的行为与照顾者自我形象或团队氛围有关。在 2021 年 3 月至 6 月期间，有 639 名医护人员完成了一项在线调查，其中包括 ICD-10 症状评定检查表、与大流行相关压力源的事件抽样问题以及自我制定的有关寻求帮助行为和团队氛围的问题。使用 t 检验、回归分析以及与 2020 年评估的医护人员样本和常模样本进行比较来分析结果。研究结果表明，在大流行的第二年，医护人员的心理健康症状（尤其是抑郁和焦虑）持续存在，护理人员的症状患病率高于医生和辅助医务人员，并且团队氛围与心理健康结果相关。讨论了这些发现与持续大流行及其后果的关系。
