Flattening the anxiety curve: Obstetricians’ response to the COVID‐19 pandemic in Victoria

Khot, Nisha; Kumar, Arunaz

doi:10.1111/ajo.13209

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Physicians reported the importance of having social support from friends, family, colleagues, and professionals (e.g., counsellors) in 29 studies [28,30,39,43,44,48,56,58,67,72,78,83,91,99,102,106,115,119,131,150,155,163,172,192,[202][203][204][205]. Several studies (n = 29) described positive personal coping strategies such as maintaining a positive attitude and resilience [37,46,83,100,106,108,136,202,205,206], practicing self-care (e.g., physical activity, eating well, resting, engaging in activities they enjoy) [30,35,56,65,70,91,102,103,117,119,…”

Section: Management Of Physician Psychological Symptoms During Infectious Disease Outbreaksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experiences and management of physician psychological symptoms during infectious disease outbreaks: a rapid review

et al. 2021

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Background Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians experienced unprecedented levels of burnout. The uncertainty of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic along with increased workload and difficult medical triage decisions may lead to a further decline in physician psychological health. Methods We searched Medline, EMBASE, and PsycINFO for primary research from database inception (Medline [1946], EMBASE [1974], PsycINFO [1806]) to November 17, 2020. Titles and abstracts were screened by one of three reviewers and full-text article screening and data abstraction were conducted independently, and in duplicate, by three reviewers. Results From 6223 unique citations, 480 articles were reviewed in full-text, with 193 studies (of 90,499 physicians) included in the final review. Studies reported on physician psychological symptoms and management during seven infectious disease outbreaks (severe acute respiratory syndrome [SARS], three strains of Influenza A virus [H1N1, H5N1, H7N9], Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS], and COVID-19) in 57 countries. Psychological symptoms of anxiety (14.3–92.3%), stress (11.9–93.7%), depression (17–80.5%), post-traumatic stress disorder (13.2–75.2%) and burnout (14.7–76%) were commonly reported among physicians, regardless of infectious disease outbreak or country. Younger, female (vs. male), single (vs. married), early career physicians, and those providing direct care to infected patients were associated with worse psychological symptoms. Interpretation Physicians should be aware that psychological symptoms of anxiety, depression, fear and distress are common, manifest differently and self-management strategies to improve psychological well-being exist. Health systems should implement short and long-term psychological supports for physicians caring for patients with COVID-19.

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Section: Management Of Physician Psychological Symptoms During Infectious Disease Outbreaksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only one described the ascertainment of exposure [55]. The six included qualitative studies [56,72,74,115,204,209] were considered to be of sufficient methodological quality. One study had a pre-test, post-test study design and was considered to be of sufficient methodological quality [112].…”

Section: Study Quality Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences and management of physician psychological symptoms during infectious disease outbreaks: a rapid review

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Fewer visitors on hospital wards fostered closer relationships between women giving birth and the person who accompanied them, and women had fewer problems breastfeeding [64]. A Letter to the Editor [65] about a small Australian pilot study that conducted semistructured interviews with 12 physicians captured a strong sense of unit cohesiveness and reliance on collegial relationships to deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic. Staff in New York felt similarly [5,19,36].…”

Section: Main Topic: Subjective Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Maternity Staff in 2020 – A Scoping Review

Schmitt

Mattern

Cignacco

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In the spring of 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing with it drastic changes and challenges for health systems and medical staff. Among the affected were obstetricians and midwives, whose close physical contact with pregnant women, women who recently gave birth, and their children was indispensable. In the obstetric setting, births cannot be postponed, and maternity staff had to adapt to assure obstetric safety while balancing evidence-based standards with the new challenges posed by the pandemic. This scoping review gives a comprehensive overview of the effecs the Covid-19 pandemic had on maternity staff. We followed the evidence-based approach described by Arksey & O’Malley: we searched several databases for English and German articles published between January 2020 and January 2021 that discussed or touched upon the effects the pandemic had on maternity staff in OECD countries and China.We found that structural challenges caused by the crisis and its subjective effects on maternity staff fell into two main topic areas. Structural challenges (the first main topic) were divided into five subtopics: staff shortages and restructuring; personal protective equipment and tests; switching to virtual communication; handling women with a positive SARS-CoV-2 infection; and excluding accompanying persons. The pandemic also strongly affected the staff’s mental health (the second main topic.) Attempting to meet challenges posed by the pandemic while afraid of contamination, suffering overwork and exhaustion, and struggling to resolve ethical-moral dilemmas had severe negative subjective effects. Several studies indicated increased depression, anxiety, stress levels, and risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms, although the crisis also generated strong occupational solidarity.Care for pregnant, birthing, and breast-feeding women cannot be interrupted, even during a pandemic crisis that requires social distancing. Maternity staff sometimes had to abandon normal standards of obstetric care and were confronted with enormous challenges and structural adjustments that did not leave them unscathed: their mental health suffered considerably. Researchers should study maternity staff’s experiences during the pandemic to prepare recommendations that will protect staff during future epidemics.

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“…Fewer visitors on hospital wards fostered closer relationships between women giving birth and the person who accompanied them, and women had fewer problems breastfeeding [64]. A Letter to the Editor [65] about a small Australian pilot study that conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 physicians captured a strong sense of unit cohesiveness and reliance on collegial relationships to deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic. Staff in New York felt similarly [5,19,36].…”

Section: Main Topic: Subjective Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternity staff in 2020 – a scoping review

Schmitt

Mattern

Cignacco

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the spring of 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing with it drastic changes and challenges for health systems and medical staff. Among the affected were obstetricians and midwives, whose close physical contact with pregnant women, women who recently gave birth, and their children was indispensable. In the obstetric setting, births cannot be postponed, and maternity staff had to adapt to assure obstetric safety while balancing evidence-based standards with the new challenges posed by the pandemic. This scoping review gives a comprehensive overview of the effecs the Covid-19 pandemic had on maternity staff. We followed the evidence-based approach described by Arksey & O’Malley: we searched several databases for English and German articles published between January 2020 and January 2021 that discussed or touched upon the effects the pandemic had on maternity staff in OECD countries and China. We found that structural challenges caused by the crisis and its subjective effects on maternity staff fell into two main topic areas. Structural challenges (the first main topic) were divided into five subtopics: staff shortages and restructuring; personal protective equipment and tests; switching to virtual communication; handling women with a positive SARS-CoV-2 infection; and excluding accompanying persons. The pandemic also strongly affected the staff’s mental health (the second main topic.) Attempting to meet challenges posed by the pandemic while afraid of contamination, suffering overwork and exhaustion, and struggling to resolve ethical-moral dilemmas had severe negative subjective effects. Several studies indicated increased depression, anxiety, stress levels, and risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms, although the crisis also generated strong occupational solidarity. Care for pregnant, birthing, and breast-feeding women cannot be interrupted, even during a pandemic crisis that requires social distancing. Maternity staff sometimes had to abandon normal standards of obstetric care and were confronted with enormous challenges and structural adjustments that did not leave them unscathed: their mental health suffered considerably. Researchers should study maternity staff’s experiences during the pandemic to prepare recommendations that will protect staff during future epidemics.

show abstract

Flattening the anxiety curve: Obstetricians’ response to the COVID‐19 pandemic in Victoria

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Experiences and management of physician psychological symptoms during infectious disease outbreaks: a rapid review

Experiences and management of physician psychological symptoms during infectious disease outbreaks: a rapid review

Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Maternity Staff in 2020 – A Scoping Review

Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternity staff in 2020 – a scoping review

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