COVID-19 related work challenges, psychological well-being need of help among health care workers and pharmacy specialists

Abstract

Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more pressure for health care workers and pharmacy specialists. These specialists have experienced significantly increased workload, higher risk of infection, and rapidly changing working environment. [1-2] World Health Organization and other international agencies emphasize the urgent need of providing psychological support for these front-line specialists. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate the COVID-19 outbreak related work challenges, psychological well-being need of help among health care workers and pharmacy specialists. Materials and methods. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches have been used. On-line questionnaire were distributed to health care workers and pharmacy specialists. Intermediate results suggest, that questionnaire was filled-in by 228 pharmacists (27.2%), 216 nursing specialists (25.8%), 198 physicians (23.6%), 62 administration staff of health institutions (12.9%), 108 other health specialists (7.4%) and 26 non-identified (3.1%). Age of respondents ranged from 21 to 79 years (mean 43 years). Results. Findings of our study have revealed that almost a quarter of respondents (24%) had to work with COVID-19 infected people. A larger proportion (68%) of interviewed specialists had worked on–site during the lockdown. 66% of respondents agreed, that period of lockdown was a most difficult. The most common reasons for anxiety were fear to transmit infection to relatives (62%) and to be infected (40%). The most common symptoms of psychological distress were: tension (36%), pain (25%), and depressive mood (23%). Our study has identified, that some risk factors for burnout were not controlled or managed. Also we noticed, that organizational factors were significantly associated with psychological well-being. Conclusions: The COVID-19 caused lockdown raised many challenges for health care workers and pharmacy specialists, [...].