ICU Nursing Team Mental Health in The Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals were at an increased risk of developing psychological conditions, especially in Intensive Care Units. A gap is verified in the knowledge about ICU Nursing teams’ mental health in the care provided to patients affected by COVID-19. Objective: To review the literature to identify the mental health conditions of ICU Nursing professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and method: This is an integrative literature review with data collection from January to April 2022 in the Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PubMed, Scopus Content Overview and Web of Science databases. The following descriptors were listed: “Intensive Care Units,” “COVID-19,” “Mental Health,” and “Nurse.” The materials included were studies produced since 2020, available in full in the Spanish, English and Portuguese languages, and which answered the research question. Search and selection of the articles were the duty of two duly trained researchers, who worked independently through peer discussion. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations were followed. Results: From a sample of 16 articles, it was observed that the critical care of COVID-19 patients affected Nursing professionals’ mental health with an emphasis on depression, anxiety, stress and fear. This was associated with a lack of evidence-based training, scarcity of human and physical resources, work overload and insufficient work experience. Conclusions: ICU Nursing professionals are mentally shaken; therefore, it is imperative to implement policies, strategies and methods to improve the psychological conditions of these professionals, to ensure the quality of services.