Objective: The study aimed to explore the psychological symptoms and the readiness to fight the pandemic of the new generation of healthcare professionals: medical and other healthcare degree students.Methods: We enrolled 509 medical and healthcare-related degree students during the second outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy. We have examined their psychological symptoms using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and their readiness to fight the pandemic together with their academic career status, their relationship with the university, and their emotional reactions to the pandemic with Visual Analog Scales.Results: We retrieved a GHQ mean of 21.65 (SD = 40.63) and readiness to fight the pandemic mean of 53.58 (SD = 31.49). Perceived control affects variables: a negative effect on psychological symptoms and a positive effect on the willingness to fight the pandemic. The other variables with an impact were stress, loneliness, and anger that had a significant and positive impact on psychological symptoms. Age and concern for patients had a significant positive impact on readiness to fight for the pandemic, while years of attendance had a significant but negative impact.Conclusion: Universities and Institutions should consider the impact of the pandemic on students, in particular, for its effect on their mental health.
This study aimed at exploring the emotional reaction that medical students (MS) and professionals have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigating the differences between the two groups. A total of 362 MS and 330 professionals filled in an online survey during the second outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. The outcome measures were psychological distress with the General Health Questionnaire, stress, fear for themselves, fear for family members and cohabitants, perceived control, anger, loneliness, and feeling abandoned by institutions with Visual Analog Scales (VAS) and two open-ended questions about their perceived difficulties and the perceived consequences of the pandemic. The results showed that the level of distress among the two groups was above the threshold (MS mean: 21.85; professionals mean: 21.25). The means of the VAS of MS and professionals showed different results for the two groups, and we analyzed them with independent samples t-tests and linear regressions. MS reported higher levels of perceived loneliness (t(673.177) = −1.970, p < 0.05), while physicians reported more fear for themselves (t(655.183) = 4.799, p < 0.001), anger (t(690) = 2.096, p < 0.05), and feeling abandoned by the institutions (t(690) = 7.296, p < 0.001). The open questions were analyzed considering the most frequent words used to describe their perceived difficulties and consequences; the specificity analysis emphasizes the differences in the words used by the two groups. In conclusion, MS and physicians reported similar levels of psychological symptoms. Physicians were mostly worried about themselves, they were afraid of getting infected, while MS suffered from loneliness and the missed possibilities concerning their education.
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